Category: Supreme Court Decisions

In March of 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of the Missouri Compromise - a federal statute that regulated slavery in several western territories of the country - in the infamous Dred Scott Decision, 60 U.S. 393 (1857). ...

In Zivotofsky v. Kerry, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the power to recognize foreign states and governments is exclusive to the President. The 6-3 decision, which rested almost exclusively on the Constitution’s separation of powers, highlights t...

In Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1 (1824), the U.S. Supreme Court first held that Congress has the authority to regulate any form of commerce that crosses state lines. The opinion, authored by Chief Justice John Marshall, is considered the most influenti...

In McCulloch v. Maryland, the U.S. Supreme Court held that Congress has broad discretionary authority to implement the powers enumerated in the Constitution under the Necessary and Proper Clause. McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316 (1819) is reg...

While many were hoping that the U.S. Supreme Court would address whether existing precedent that excludes threatening speech from First Amendment protection applies to online speech, the justices elected to resolve Elonis v. United States on purely s...

Amidst growing distrust of police officers, the U.S. Supreme Court recently addressed the use of force when attempting to subdue a mentally disabled person in San Francisco v. Sheehan The Court’s narrow decision held that two San Francisco police ...

In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court recently held that the state of Maryland’s tax scheme is unconstitutional. Since it fails to recognize taxes paid in other states, the Court found that the state’s personal income tax system violates the...

In United States v. Guest, 383 U.S. 745 (1966), the U.S. Supreme Court held that violations of the Fourteenth Amendment can serve as grounds for criminal charges under a federal conspiracy law that makes it a crime to "injure, oppress, threaten, or i...

There are acceptable limits to free speech in some campaign finance laws for the Roberts Court, at least when it comes to judges elected by popular vote. In a case regarding campaign finance laws, Williams-Yulee v. The Florida Bar, the majority of t...