Volume 446 — United States Reports

This is a list of all the United States Supreme Court cases from volume 446 of the United States Reports:

Held: so far as the same is not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States.” Section 1988 does not in terms apply to Bivens actions, and there are cogent reasons not to apply it to such actions even by analogy. Bivens defendants are federal officials brought into federal court for violating the Federal Constitution. No state interests are implicated by applying purely federal law to them.

Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U.S. 55 (1980), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that disproportionate effects alone, absent purposeful discrimination, are insufficient to establish a claim of racial discrimination affecting voting.

Held : The provision of the Missouri workers' compensation laws denying a widower benefits on his wife's work-related death unless he either is mentally or physically incapacitated or proves dependence on his wife's earnings, but granting a widow death benefits without her having to prove dependence on her husband's earnings, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Pp. 147-152.

City of Rome v. United States, 446 U.S. 156 (1980), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the majority upheld Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 against a challenge to its constitutionality. Justice Thurgood Marshall authored the majority opinion, which held that Section 5 "does not exceed Congress' power to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment" and "does not violate principles of federalism". The Court's decision also rejected a request by Rome, Georgia to "bail out" of coverage under the Voting Rights Act, asserting that such a request would have to be made by the entire state of Georgia, rather than by an individual city.

Under § 16(e) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (Act), sums collected as civil penalties for the unlawful employment of child labor are returned to the Employment Standards Administration (ESA) of the Department of Labor in reimbursement for the costs of determining violations and assessing penalties.

Held: among other things, that the Submerged Lands Act granted Louisiana ownership “to a distance no greater than three geographical miles from its coastlines, wherever those lines may ultimately be shown to be.” 363 U. S. 1, 79 (1960). A “Final Decree” was entered accordingly. 364 U. S. 502 (1960).

After filing suit in a New York state court against petitioner shipowner to recover damages, on grounds of negligence and unseaworthiness, for personal injuries sustained while working aboard petitioner's vessel in New York waters, respondent husband sought leave to amend his complaint to add his spouse as a plaintiff for loss of society.

Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291 (1980), is a decision by the United States Supreme Court that clarifies what constitutes "interrogation" for the purposes of Miranda warnings. Under Miranda v. Arizona, police are forbidden from interrogating a suspect once he has asserted his right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment. In Innis, the court held that interrogation is not just direct questioning but also its "functional equivalent"; namely, "any words or actions on the part of the police ... that the police should know are reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response."

* Section 706(a) of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 empowers the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) "to prevent any person from engaging in any unlawful practice" as set forth in Title VII. Section 706(f)(1) authorizes the EEOC, after unlawful employment practice charges against a private employer are filed with it and it is unable to secure a conciliation agreement, to bring a civil action against the employer.

Cuyler v. Sullivan, 446 U.S. 335 (1980) was a Supreme Court case that established the standard for reviewing a defendant's claim that they were denied their Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel due to their lawyer's representation of multiple defendants with conflicting interests (a "multiple representation" or "conflict of interest" case).

* As one of the means of protecting the interests of beneficiaries under private pension plans for employees, Title IV of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) created a plan termination insurance program that became effective in four successive stages.

* Upon their joint trial in Federal District Court, petitioners were convicted of, inter alia , armed assault on federal officers petitioner LaRocca as the actual triggerman and petitioner Busic as an aider and abettor and thus derivatively a principal under 18 U.S.C. § 2—in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 111, which makes it unlawful to assault a federal officer and which provides for enhanced punishment when the assaulter "uses" a deadly weapon.

Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U.S. 420 (1980), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that a death sentence could not be granted for a murder when the only aggravating factor was that the murder was found to be "outrageously or wantonly vile."

* Held : Respondents, as individual trustees of a business trust organized under Massachusetts law, may invoke the diversity jurisdiction of the federal courts on the basis of their own citizenship without regard to the citizenship of the trust beneficiaries.

* Pursuant to New York statutes requiring that chiropractic practitioners obtain a state license either by passing an examination or obtaining a waiver of the examination requirement from petitioner Board of Regents (Board), respondent practitioner applied to the Board for a waiver of the examination requirement.

Held: however, that equitable title to properly selected land vested in the State when the selection was filed. If the selection satisfied the requirement of the general school grant statutes, the Secretary had no power to annul the State's title. Id., at 370-371 . Three weeks later, the Court made the same point even more emphatically in Wyoming v. United States, 255 U. S. 489 (1921).

United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544 (1980), was a United States Supreme Court case that determined "seizure" occurs when an officer uses displays of authority to detain a person.

As authorized by the Clean Air Act (Act), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decided, on the basis of correspondence with respondents,… Held: The phrase "any other final action" in § 307(b)(1) is to be construed in accordance with its literal meaning so as to reach any action of the Administrator that is final, not just final actions of the Administrator similar to actions under the specifically enumerated provisions that precede the catch all phrase in the statute.

Held : The Buy Indian Act, which permits the Secretary of the Interior to purchase "the products of Indian industry . . . in open market," does not authorize the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to enter into road construction contracts with Indian-owned companies without first advertising for bids pursuant to Title III of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (FPASA).

After respondent and another man (McLeroth) arrived at the Miami Airport on a flight from Peru, a customs officer searched McLeroth and found cocaine sewed into makeshift pockets in a T-shirt he was wearing. When McLeroth implicated respondent, respondent was arrested and his luggage was searched without a warrant. A T-shirt from which pieces had been cut that matched the pieces sewn to McLeroth's T-shirt was found in the luggage and seized.

Held: required dismissal of *638 the complaint. The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed. 602 F. 2d 1018 (1979). 4 We granted certiorari to resolve a conflict among the Courts of Appeals. 5 444 U. S. 1031 (1980). We now reverse.

The general mining law of 1872 permits citizens to explore the public domain and search for minerals and, if they discover "valuable mineral deposits," to obtain title to the land on which such deposits are located.

Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 (1933 Act) makes it unlawful for any person in the offer or sale of any security "(1) to employ any device, scheme, or artifice to defraud, or (2) to obtain money or property by means of any untrue statement of a material fact or any omission to state a material fact . . ., or (3) to engage in any transaction, practice, or course of business which operates or would operate as a fraud or deceit upon the purchaser." Section 10(b) of…

Appellant Virginia Supreme Court, which claims inherent authority to regulate and discipline attorneys, also has statutory authority to do so. Pursuant to these powers, the court promulgated the Virginia Code of Professional Responsibility (Code) and organized the Virginia State Bar to act as an administrative agency of the court to report and investigate violations of the Code.

Walker v. Armco Steel Corp., 446 U.S. 740 (1980), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court further refined the test for determining whether federal courts sitting in diversity must apply state law as opposed to federal law. The question in Walker is whether in a diversity action the federal court should follow state law or, alternatively, Rule 3 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in determining when an action is commenced for the purpose of tolling the state statute of limitations (SOL). The Court found no such conflict because a court’s refusal to apply the federal rule at issue would not in fact thwart some purpose the federal rule was intended to achieve.