Category: Supreme Court Decisions

In Cooley v Board of Wardens, 53 U.S. 299 (1852), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the state may regulate interstate commerce under the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, provided that the subject of the regulation is local in nature.   The F...

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court returned to the bench for its November sitting. The justices heard oral arguments in five very diverse cases. The issues before the Court ranged from cheerleading uniform designs to government fraud.    F...

In Strader v. Graham, 51 U.S. 82 (1851), the U.S. Supreme Court held that it had no jurisdiction to determine whether slaves whose master allowed them to occasionally travel from Kentucky into Ohio acquired a right to freedom. Nonetheless, the justic...

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider its first case involving transgender rights. Gloucester County School Board v. G.G. involves whether a transgender Virginia teen who was born a girl, but identifies as a boy, should be able to use the boy...

Weighty constitutional questions are not the only issues that frustrate the U.S. Supreme Court. In Samsung v Apple, the justices appeared equally exacerbated when tasked with establishing a standard for determining damages in a design patent infringe...

Jones v Van Zandt, 46 U.S. 215 (1847) is one of the U.S. Supreme Court cases that considers slavery issues before the Civil War. The justices ultimately ruled against abolitionists, holding that the Fugitive Slave Law was a valid exercise of the auth...

On October 11, 2016, the Supreme Court added several high profile cases to its docket. One of the most-anticipated cases is Hernandez v Mesa, which involves the fatal shooting of a Mexican teenager by United States Border Patrol from across the U.S. ...

In Swift v Tyson, 41 U.S. 1 (1842), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the federal courts were authorized to create their own body of common law when hearing cases based on diversity jurisdiction and were not bound by the decisions of the state courts ...

Racism is a hot button issue in the United States right now, and the U.S. Supreme Court is right in the middle of it. The justices recently heard oral arguments in Pena-Rodriguez v Colorado (no.15-606, 2016); in which the Court will be forced to weig...

On September 29, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court added nine cases to its docket. Lee v Tam, which challenges the federal ban on disparaging trademarks, has the potential to be a blockbuster. The Court’s decision could also have serious implications fo...