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Citation566 U.S. 189 (2012) Brief Fact Summary. Congress enacted a statute stating that Americans born in Jerusalem may elect to have “Israel” listed as the place of birth on their passports. The State Department refused to follow that law, referring to its longstanding policy of not taking a position on the political status of Jerusalem. An American sued, invoking the statute, the Secretary of State, who in response said that courts have no authority to decide the case because it presented a political question.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. In c ...

Citation521 U.S. 793 (1997) Brief Fact Summary. The petitioner challenged the New York statute that makes it a crime to aid another to commit or attempt suicide.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. Equal Protection Clause creates no substantive rights but it embodies a general rule that States must treat like cases alike but may treat unlike cases accordingly.     ...

Citation418 U.S. 683 (1974) Brief Fact Summary. President Nixon was requested to produce certain tape recordings and documents relating to his conversations with aides and advisers. He refused. The court rejected the President’s claims of absolute executive privilege and of lack of jurisdiction.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. The Court must weigh the importance of the general privilege of confidentiality of Presidential communications in performance of the President’s responsibilities against the inroads of such a privilege on the fair administrat ...

Citation514 U.S. 549 (1995) Brief Fact Summary. The respondent challenged his conviction based on his claim that the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 exceeded Congress’ power to legislate under the Commerce Clause.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. The Court has identified three broad categories of activity that Congress may regulate under its commerce power. First, Congress may regulate the use of the channels of interstate commerce. Second, Congress is empowered to regulate and protect the instrumentalities of interstate commerce, or persons or ...

Citation109 U.S. 3 (1883) Brief Fact Summary. The group of respondents complained that the refusal to provide accommodations by private individuals in their States to colored persons violate the Constitution.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. Civil rights that are guaranteed by the Constitution cannot be impaired by the wrongful acts of private individuals as well as the States.     ...

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 ...

Citation394 U.S. 618 (1969) Brief Fact Summary. Appellees challenged the District of Columbia’s statute that denies welfare assistance to residents of the State or District who have not resided within their jurisdictions for at least one year immediately preceding their applications for such assistance.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. The constitutional right to travel from one State to another occupies a position fundamental to the concept of our Federal Union and it is a right that has been firmly established and repeatedly recognized, though the ri ...

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.     ...

Citation413 U.S. 15 (1973) Brief Fact Summary. The petitioner challenges California’s application of its state criminal obscenity statute in which sexually explicit materials have been thrust by aggressive sales action upon unwilling recipients who had in no way indicated any desire to receive such materials.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. Obscene material is not protected by the First Amendment and such material can be regulated by the States, subject to the specific standards, without a showing that the material is utterly without redeeming socia ...

Citation202 U.S. 447 (1923) Brief Fact Summary. It is asserted that the appropriations constitute an effective means of inducing the States to yield a portion of their sovereign rights. In the Massachusetts case, the plaintiff asserted that his rights and powers as a sovereign State and the rights of its citizens have been invaded and usurped by the expenditures and acts. In the Frothingham case, plaintiff alleges that the effect of the statute will be to take her property, under the guise of taxation, without due process of law.     Synopsis of Rule of ...

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.   ...

Citation. 74 U.S. (7 Wall). 506 (1869) Brief Fact Summary. The petitioner, held in custody by military authority for trial upon charges founded upon the publication of articles alleged to be libelous, alleged unlawful restraint by military force and preferred a petition in the court below, for the writ of habeas corpus. The writ was issued but the military commander denied that the restraint was unlawful.   Synopsis of Rule of Law. When an act of Congress is repealed, it must be considered as if never existed.   ...

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 ...

Citation453 U.S. 654 (1981) Brief Fact Summary. The dispute involves various Executive Orders and regulations by which the President nullified attachments and liens on Iranian assets in the United States, directed that these assets be transferred to Iran, and suspended claims against Iran that may be presented to an International Claims Tribunal. This action was taken in an effort to comply with an executive agreement between the United States and Iran.   Synopsis of Rule of Law. Where Congress has implicitly or expressly authorized or approved the practice ...

Citation520 U.S. 681 (1997) Brief Fact Summary. Respondent, a private citizen, seeks to recover damages from the current occupant of that office based on actions allegedly taken before his term began. The President submits that in the most exceptional cases the Constitution requires federal courts to defer such litigation until his term ends and that in any event, respect for the office warrants such a stay.   Synopsis of Rule of Law. When the President takes official action, the Court has the authority to determine whether he has acted within the law. The Pr ...

Citation542 U.S. 507 (2004) Brief Fact Summary. The United States District Court for the District of Columbia required the Vice President and other senior officials in the Executive Branch to produce information about a task force established to give advice and make policy recommendations to the President.   Synopsis of Rule of Law. The President cannot, through the assertion of a broad and undifferentiated need for confidentiality and the invocation of an absolute, unqualified executive privilege, withhold information in the face of disclosure orders. &nb ...

Citation447 U.S. 557 (1980) Brief Fact Summary. The appellant challenges the regulation of the Public Service Commission of the State of New York that completely bans promotional advertising by an electrical utility.   Synopsis of Rule of Law. The First Amendment, as applied to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment, protects commercial speech from unwarranted governmental regulation.   ...

Citation347 U.S. 483 (1954) Brief Fact Summary. Plaintiffs in three different cases claim that they have been denied the equal protection after they were denied admission to the public schools attended by white children.   Synopsis of Rule of Law. Segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities.   ...

Citation501 U.S. 560 (1991) Brief Fact Summary. The respondent challenged the Indiana statutory requirement that the dancers in the establishments must wear pasties and G-string does not violate the First Amendment.   Synopsis of Rule of Law. Any incidental restriction on First Amendment freedom shall not be greater than is essential to the furtherance of the government interest. The statutory provision is not a means to some greater end, but an end in itself.   ...

Citation441 U.S. 68 (1979) Brief Fact Summary. The petitioner challenged the New York State’s refusal to employ as elementary and secondary school teachers aliens who are eligible for United States but who refuse to seek naturalization.     Synopsis of Rule of Law. The rule for governmental functions, which is an exception to the general standard applicable to classifications based on alienage, rests on important principles inherent in the Constitution. Because of the special significance of citizenship that governmental entities, when exercising ...