Category: Supreme Court Decisions

In Pollock v. Farmers Loan & Trust Co., 157 U.S. 429 (1895), the U.S. Supreme Court held that federal taxes on interest, dividends and rents violated Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution. In 1913, the adoption of the Sixteenth Amendment nullifi...

In Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez, 577 U. S. ____ (2016), the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether a case becomes moot, and thus beyond the judicial power of Article III, when the plaintiff receives and rejects an offer of complete relief on his claim....

In United States v. E.C. Knight, 156 U.S. 1 (1895), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Sherman Anti-Trust Act was a valid exercise of Congress’ power under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. However, it also held that the statute could...

On January 12, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida’s capital-sentencing scheme in Hurst v. Florida, 577 U. S. (2016). By a vote of 8-1, the justices held that allowing the trial judge to have the final say on a death sentence violated ...

In Kingsley v. Hendrickson, 576 US _ (2015), the U.S. Supreme Court addressed the legal standard for finding unconstitutionally excessive force during pre-trial detention. By a vote of 5-4, the justices held that a pretrial detainee pursuing an ex...

In Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, 431 U.S. 209 (1977), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not prohibit governments from requiring non-union public employees to pay their “fair share” of dues f...

In Johnson v. the United States, 576 US _ (2015), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the residual clause of the Armed Career Criminal Act was unconstitutionally vague and violated the due process rights of the petitioner. The statute imposes increased ...

In Alabama Dept. of Revenue v. CSX Transportation, 135 S.Ct. 1136 (2015), the U.S. Supreme Court addressed what constitutes tax discrimination under the Railroad Revitalization and Regulation Reform Act of 1976, otherwise known as the “4-R Act.” ...

In Jennings v. Stephens, 135 S.Ct. 793 (2015), the U.S. Supreme Court addressed how to apply the Court’s decision in United States v. American Railway Express Co., 265 U. S. 42 (1924) to habeas relief. In that case, the Court held that an appellee ...

In Davis v. Ayala, 135 S. Ct. 2187 (2015), the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether it was a harmless error to exclude defense counsel from the Batson hearing. A deeply divided court ultimately answered yes, highlighting that habeas petitioners are ...