Village of Belle Terre v. Boraas
Brief

Citation416 U.S. 1 (1974) Brief Fact Summary. Appllees, the owners of a house where six tenants were living, challenged the local ordinance that restricted land use to one-family dwellings, which meant not more than two unrelated individuals.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. Some of the dangers that might create nuisance to residential sections do not necessarily invalidate the ordinance. The inclusion of a reasonable margin to insure effective enforcement may be justified because the bad fades into the good by such insensible degrees that the two are no ...

United States v. O’Brien
Brief

Citation391 U.S. 367 (1968) Brief Fact Summary. Respondent O’Brien argued that the law at issue is unconstitutional as applied to him because his act of burning his registration certificate was protected “symbolic speech” within the First Amendment.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. When speech and non-speech elements are combined in the same course of conduct, a sufficiently important governmental interest in regulating the non-speech element can justify incidental limitations on the First Amendment freedoms.     ...

Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer
Brief

Citation137 S. Ct. 2012 (2017) Brief Fact Summary. The petitioner, church, claimed that the Department’s strict policy of categorically disqualifying churches and other religious organizations from receiving grants under its playground resurfacing program violates the Constitution.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. The Free Exercise Clause protects against indirect coercion or penalties on the free exercise of religion, not just outright prohibitions.     ...

Skinner v. Oklahoma ex rel. Williamson
Brief

Citation316 U.S. 535 (1942) Brief Fact Summary. Petitioner, convicted of the crime of stealing chickens and of robbery with firearms, challenged that Oklahoma statute that allows courts to make a judgment that renders certain criminals sexually sterile.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. A State is not constrained in the exercise of its police power to ignore experience which marks a class of offenders or a family of offenses for special treatment nor is it prevented by the equal protection clause from confining its restrictions to those classes of cases ...

Shelley v. Kraemer
Brief

Citation334 U.S. 1 (1948) Brief Fact Summary. Petitioners Shelley, blacks, received property from Fitzgerald a warranty deed to the property in question but the respondents, the owners of the property, sought to take the possession back pursuant to the terms of the restrictive covenant, which petitioners were not aware of its existence.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. The Fourteenth Amendment enacted in furtherance of its purpose operate to qualify and entitle a colored man to acquire property without state legislation discriminating against him solely ...

Schenck v. United States
Brief

Citation249 U.S. 47 (1919) Brief Fact Summary. Defendants were convicted of a conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act of 1917 by causing and attempting to cause insubordination in the military and naval forces of the United States.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. Prohibition of laws abridging the freedom of speech is not confined to previous restraints, although to prevent them may have been the main purpose.     ...

Roth v. United States
Brief

Citation354 U.S. 476 (1957) Brief Fact Summary. The petitioner challenged the constitutionality of a criminal obscenity statute alleging that it violates the First Amendment.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. All ideas having redeeming social importance have the full protection of the guaranties of the Constitution but obscenity is not within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press.     ...

Romer v. Evans
Brief

Citation517 U.S. 620 (1996) Brief Fact Summary. The petitioner challenged the amendment to the Constitution of the State of Colorado, referred to as Amendment 2 that prohibits all legislative, executive or judicial action at any level of state or local government designed to protect named class including homosexual persons or gays and lesbians.   Synopsis of Rule of Law. A law declaring that in general it shall be more difficult for one group of citizens than for all others to seek aid from the government is itself a denial of equal protection of the laws. ...

Roberts v. United States Jaycees
Brief

Citation468 U.S. 609 (1984) Brief Fact Summary. The issue is a conflict between a State’s efforts to eliminate gender-based discrimination against its citizens and the constitutional freedom of association asserted by members of a private organization.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. An association’s qualities such as small size or a high degree of selectivity in decisions to begin or maintain the affiliation are likely to reflect the considerations that have led to an understanding of freedom of association as an intrinsic element of personal liberty ...

Richmond Newspaper, Inc. v. Virginia
Brief

Citation448 U.S. 555 (1980) Brief Fact Summary. Defendant requested the court that his murder trial be closed to the public. The prosecutor did not object. The jury found the defendant not guilty.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. Although theSixth Amendment guarantees the accused a right to a public trial, it does not give a right to a private trial.     ...

Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union
Brief

Citation521 U.S. 844 (1997) Brief Fact Summary. The statutes at issue was enacted to prohibit knowing transmission or displaying of obscene, indecent and or offensive messages to any recipient under 19 years of age online. The respondent challenged the statutes on the ground that they violate the First Amendment.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. The Government may not reduce the adult population to only what is fit for children.     ...

New York Times Co. v. Sullivan
Brief

Citation376 U.S. 254 (1964) Brief Fact Summary. Respondent Sullivan, one of the three elected Commissioners of the City of Montgomery, Alabama, brought a civil libel action against the four individual petitioners, who are Negros and Alabama clergymen, and against petitioner the New York Times Company, a New York corporation which publishes daily newspaper.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. The Constitution delimits a State’s power to award damages for libel in actions brought by public officials against critics of their official conduct.   &n ...

National League of Cities v. Usery
Brief

Citation426 U.S. 833 (1976) Brief Fact Summary. Appellants contend that the 1974 amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act, while undoubtedly within the scope of the Commerce Clause, encounter a constitutional barrier because they are to be applied directly to the States and subdivisions of States as employers.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. There are limits upon the power of Congress to override state sovereignty, even when exercising its otherwise plenary powers to tax or to regulate commerce which are conferred by the Constitution.   ...

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson
Brief

Citation357 U.S. 449 (1958) Brief Fact Summary. The petitioner refused to comply fully with a court order requiring the production of the Association’s membership lists. Petitioner claims that the order violates rights assured to him and its members under the Constitution.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. If immunity from state scrutiny of membership lists which the Association claims on behalf of its members is so related to the right of the members to pursue their lawful private interests privately and to associate freely with others in so doing as to ...

Missouri v. Holland
Brief

Citation252 U.S. 416 (1920) Brief Fact Summary. The State of Missouri brought a suit to prevent a game warden of the United States from attempting to enforce the Migratory Bird Treaty Act 0f 1918 and the regulations made by the Secretary of Agriculture in pursuance of the same. Missouri alleged that the statute is unconstitutional interference with the rights reserved to the States and that the acts of the defendant done and threatened under that authority invade the sovereign right of the State and contravene its will manifested in statutes.     Synopsis ...

Meyer v. State of Nebraska
Brief

Citation262 U.S. 390 (1923) Brief Fact Summary. Plaintiff challenged the Nebraska statute that prohibits any person from teaching any subject to anyone in any language than other English.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. While the Court has not attempted to define with exactness the liberty guaranteed by the Constitution, it denotes the right of the individual to contract, to engage in any of the common occupations of life, to acquire useful knowledge, to establish a home and bring up children.     ...

Marsh v. Alabama
Brief

Citation326 U.S. 501 (1946) Brief Fact Summary. A religious person undertook to distribute religious literature on the premises of a company-owned town contrary to the wishes of the town’s management. After her refusal to leave the town when asked by the city officer, she was convicted for violating the state law.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. Any kind of town, including those owned by corporations, may not restrict the liberty of press and religion and the state statute may not criminally punish individuals who attempt to distribute religious liter ...

Lochner v. New York
Brief

Citation198 U.S. 45 (1905) Brief Fact Summary. The indictment charges that the plaintiff in error violated the labor law of the State of New York, in that he wrongfully and unlawfully required and permitted an employee working for him to work more than sixty hours in one week.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. If a law involves neither the safety, the morals nor the welfare of the public, and that the interest of the public is not in the slightest degree affected by such an act, the Court is likely to reject the act.     ...

Lawrence v. Texas
Brief

Citation539 U.s. 558 (2003) Brief Fact Summary. The petitioners, two adult males, were arrested and convicted when the police saw them engaging in a private, consensual sexual act.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. Freedom extends beyond spatial bounds. Liberty presumes an autonomy of self that includes freedom of thought, belief, expression and certain intimate contact.   ...

Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co.
Brief

Citation392 U.S. 409 (1968) Brief Fact Summary. The petitioners sued the respondents who refused to sell them a home solely because the petitioner was a Negro.   Synopsis of Rule of Law. The power vested in Congress to enforce the article by appropriate legislation includes the power to enact laws direct and primary, operating upon the acts of individuals, whether sanctioned by State legislation or not.     ...

Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections
Brief

Citation383 U.S. 663 (1966) Brief Fact Summary. Virginia residents challenged Virginia’s poll tax as unconstitutional.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. A State violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment whenever it makes the affluence of the voter or payment of any free an electoral standard.     ...

Griswold v. Connecticut
Brief

Citation381 U.S. 479 (1965) Brief Fact Summary. Appellants challenged the Connecticut statutes that make it a crime to use any drug or medicinal instrument for the purpose of preventing conception.   Synopsis of Rule of Law. The Court has protected the freedom to associate and privacy in one’s associations and that freedom of association is a peripheral First Amendment right.   ...

Employment Division, Department of Human Resources v. Smith
Brief

Citation494 U.S. 872 (1990) Brief Fact Summary. The respondents challenged the state practice of including religiously inspired peyote use within the reach of its general criminal prohibition on use of that drug on the ground that it violates the First Amendment.   Synopsis of Rule of Law. A State could not condition the availability of unemployment insurance on an individual’s willingness to forgo conduct required by his religion.   ...

DeFunis v. Odegaard
Brief

Citation416 U.S. 312 (1974) Brief Fact Summary. Petitioner Marco DeFunis applied for admission as a first-year student at the University of Washington Law School. His admission was denied and he commenced the suit arguing that the procedures and criteria employed by the law school admissions committee invidiously discriminated against him on account of his race in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.   Synopsis of Rule of Law. Federal courts are without power to decide questions that cannot affect the rights of litigants in the case before the,. &nb ...

Chas. C. Steward Machine Co. v. Davis
Brief

Citation301 U.S. 548 (1937) Brief Fact Summary. Petitioner, an Alabama corporation, paid a tax in accordance with the statute, filed a claim for refund with the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and sued to recover the payment, asserting a conflict between the statute and the Constitution of the United States.   Synopsis of Rule of Law. When tax imposed by act of Congress is laid upon the condition that a state may escape its operation through the adoption of a statute unrelated in subject matter to activities fairly within the scope of national policy and pow ...