Category: Supreme Court Decisions

Downes v. Bidwell: Does the Constitution Follow the Flag? In Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 244 (1901), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the rights and protections of the Constitution do not automatically apply to U.S. territories. The case is one of t...

Welch v. United States: Landmark Sentencing Decision Must Be Applied Retroactively On April 18, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court held that its landmark criminal sentencing decision in Johnson v. United States must be applied retroactively. The justices ...

Bank of the United States v Deveaux: The Citizenship of Corporations In Bank of the United States v. Deveaux, 5 Cranch 61 (1809), the U.S. Supreme Court first considered the citizenship of corporations for the purposes of diversity jurisdiction. The...

Franchise Tax Board of California v Hyatt: Applying the Full Faith and Credit Clause On April 19, 2016, the Supreme Court reached another 4-4 tie. In Franchise Tax Board of California v Hyatt, the justices could not decide whether to overrule Nevada...

Ware v Hylton: Supreme Court Power to Invalidate State Laws In Ware v. Hylton, 3 U.S. (3 Dall.) 199 (1796), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the federal courts are authorized to determine the constitutionality of state laws. The Court subsequently h...

Heffernan v City of Patterson In Heffernan v.City of Patterson, the U.S. Supreme Court held that when an employer demotes an employee out of a desire to prevent the worker from engaging in protected political activity, the employee is entitled to ch...

In Hylton v United States, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an annual tax on carriages was a valid exercise of Congress’ constitutional authority. It specifically ruled that the tax was not a direct tax that required compliance with Article 1’s ...

In Arver v. United States, 245 U.S. 366 (1918), the U.S. Supreme Court held that Congress was authorized under the Constitution to compel military service pursuant to the Selective Service Act of 1917. The consolidated cases are also known as the...

In Standard Oil Company of New Jersey v. United States, 221 U.S. 1 (1911), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Standard Oil Company was guilty of operating a monopoly in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. While the Court upheld the app...

In Luis v. United States, 136 U.S. 1083 (2016), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the pretrial freeze of a criminal defendant's legitimate, untainted assets violates the Sixth Amendment right to counsel of choice. While the significant constitutiona...