Tag: Supreme Court Decisions

In Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296 (1940), the U.S. Supreme Court first applied the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause to the states. A unanimous Court specifically held that arresting Jehovah’s Witnesses who were proselytizing door-to...

In United States v. Carolene Products Company, 304 U.S. 144 (1938), the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the validity of an economic regulation passed by Congress pursuant to the Commerce Clause. However, the case is more famous for “Footnote Four,” ...

By a vote of 5-4 in Obergefell v. Hodges, the United States Supreme Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment requires a State to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when...

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 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...

In a brief per curium opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court recently held that lifetime monitoring of a convicted sex-offender could run afoul of the constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. The decision in Torrey Dale Grad...

Privacy rights are not expressly addressed under the U.S. Constitution. However, the Supreme Court has nonetheless found that they protected under the Bill of Rights. Most notably, the Court has held that the notion of “liberty” under the Fourtee...