Volume 477 — United States Reports

This is a list of all United States Supreme Court cases from volume 477 of the United States Reports:

Petitioners instituted diversity libel actions on May 9, 1983, by filing their respective complaints in the Federal District Court for the District of New Jersey. Held: The actions were properly dismissed. Pp. 27-32.

In 1950, Congress amended the Social Security Act to authorize voluntary participation by States in the Social Security System with respect to old age, disability, and death benefits. Held: Amended § 418(g) does not effect a taking of property within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment. Pp. 51-56.

Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57 (1986), is a US labor law case, where the United States Supreme Court, in a 9–0 decision, recognized sexual harassment as a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The case was the first of its kind to reach the Supreme Court and would redefine sexual harassment in the workplace.

Held: however, because each of the sentencing judges before whom petitioners appeared found the Act unconstitutional; each imposed a lesser sentence than that required by the Act. *83 The Commonwealth appealed all four cases to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. That court consolidated the appeals and unanimously concluded that the Act is consistent with due process.

Held: they had failed to establish that the value of ABE's insurance to them was less than the premiums paid. 4 Cl. Ct., at 415-417 . Respondent Sherwood demonstrated that there did exist a *118 group insurance program for which he was eligible and which offered lower premiums than ABE's insurance. However, Sherwood failed to establish that he was aware of that competing program during the years at issue.

Maine v. Taylor, 477 U.S. 131 (1986), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that there was an exception to the "virtually per se rule of invalidity" of the dormant commerce clause. The Supreme Court of the United States found that a Maine law prohibiting the importation of out-of-state bait fish was constitutional because Maine authorities could not be certain that imported fish would be free of "parasites and nonnative species" that might pose environmental harm to local ecology. Discriminatory laws may be upheld only if they serve "legitimate local purposes that could not adequately be served by available nondiscriminatory alternatives," wrote Justice Blackmun, author of the majority opinion. In City of Philadelphia v.

The Medicaid program of the Social Security Act (Act) provides medical assistance to persons whose income and resources are insufficient to meet the costs of… Held: Massachusetts' 6-month spenddown period for calculating the income of the medically needy does not violate the Act's "same methodology" requirement. Pp. 161-167. (a) The Secretary's regulation permitting States to employ a maximum spenddown period of six months plainly permits what Massachusetts has done.

After a jury trial in a Florida court, petitioner was found guilty of murder, robbery, and assault with intent to kill. Held: The record of the jury voir dire, viewed in its entirety, shows that the trial court's decision to exclude the juror involved here was proper.

Respondents' husbands were killed when petitioner Air Logistic's helicopter crashed in the high seas 35 miles off the Louisiana coast while transporting the decedents from the offshore drilling… Held: Neither OCSLA nor DOHSA requires or permits the application of the Louisiana wrongful death statute in this case so as to entitle respondents to recover nonpecuniary damages under that statute. Pp. 217-233.

Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242 (1986), is a United States Supreme Court case articulating the standard for a trial court to grant summary judgment. Summary judgment will lie when, taking all factual inferences in the non-movant's favor, there exists no genuine issue as to a material fact and the movant deserves judgment as a matter of law. Because courts almost always cite Liberty Lobby in their opinions for the standard regarding motions for summary judgment, Liberty Lobby is the most cited Supreme Court case.

To supplement state unemployment insurance benefits, the Trade Act of 1974 (Act) provides federally funded trade readjustment allowance (TRA) benefits to workers laid off because of competition from… Held: Petitioner union has standing to litigate this action. Pp. 281-290.

Respondent, a tenured teacher in the Memphis, Michigan, public schools, was suspended following parents' complaints about his teaching methods in a seventh-grade life science course that included the… Held: Damages based on the abstract "value" or "importance" of constitutional rights are not a permissible element of compensatory damages in § 1983 cases. Pp. 304-313.

Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317 (1986), was a case decided by the United States Supreme Court. Written by Associate Justice William Rehnquist, the decision of the Court held that a party moving for summary judgment need show only that the opposing party lacks evidence sufficient to support its case. A broader version of that doctrine was later formally added to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

Appellant submitted a proposal to the Yolo County Planning Commission to subdivide certain property into 159 single-family and multifamily… Held: Absent a final and authoritative determination by the County Planning Commission as to how it will apply the regulations at issue to the property in question, this Court cannot determine whether a "taking" has occurred or whether the county failed to provide "just compensation." Without knowing the nature and extent of permitted…

Kimmelman v. Morrison, 477 U.S. 365 (1986), was a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that clarified the relationship of the right to effective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment to other constitutional rights in criminal procedure. In this case, evidence against the defendant was probably seized illegally, violating the Fourth Amendment, but he lost the chance to argue that point due to his lawyer's ineffectiveness. The prosecution argued that the defendant's attempt to make a Sixth Amendment argument via a habeas corpus petition was really a way to sneak his procedurally defaulted Fourth Amendment claim in through the back door.

Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399 (1986), is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the common law rule that the insane cannot be executed; therefore the petitioner is entitled to a competency evaluation and to an evidentiary hearing in court on the question of their competency to be executed.

After his arraignment on charges arising from a 1970 robbery and murder in New York, respondent was confined in a cell with a prisoner, named Benny Lee, who had previously agreed to act as a police… Held: The judgment is reversed, and the case is remanded. 742 F.2d 741, reversed and remanded. 1

Murray v. Carrier, 477 U.S. 478 (1986), is a United States Supreme Court case decided in 1986. The Court held that the "cause and prejudice" rule applies to appeals, so a person ordinarily cannot file a habeas petition to review a constitutional problem that their lawyer did not complain about in their initial appeal. The lawyer must have deliberately declined to raise the constitutional issue rather than inadvertently failed to do so. More specifically, the Court held that "the existence of cause for a procedural default must ordinarily turn on whether the prisoner can show that some objective factor external to the defense impeded counsel's efforts to comply with the State's procedural rule." The majority opinion was authored by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Prior to petitioner's trial in a Virginia state court for murder of a woman, he was examined by a psychiatrist appointed by the court at the request of his counsel. Held: Petitioner defaulted his underlying constitutional claim as to the admission of the psychiatrist's testimony by failing to press it before the Supreme Court of Virginia on direct appeal. Murray v. Carrier, 477 U.S. 478, 106 S.Ct. p. 2639, 91 L.Ed.2d 397. Pp. 2665-2669.

Department of Treasury, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms v. Galioto, 477 U.S. 556 (1986), was a United States Supreme Court case.

Respondents, eight Chicano individuals, attended a party at the home of two of the respondents. Held: The judgment is affirmed. 763 F.2d 1580, affirmed. Justice BRENNAN, joined by Justice MARSHALL, Justice BLACKMUN, and Justice STEVENS, concluded that: 1 1. Under Hensley v.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination against handicapped persons in "any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." The… Held: Section 504 is not applicable to commercial airlines. Pp. 603-612. (a) Section 504's scope is limited to those who actually "receive" federal financial assistance. Congress sought to impose § 504 coverage as a condition or obligation tied to the recipient's agreement to accept the federal funds.

Ohio Civil Rights Commission v. Dayton Christian Schools, Inc., 477 U.S. 619 (1986), reversed a lower court's decision and stated that the lower court should not have heard the case until after the Ohio Civil Rights Commission had concluded their investigation. The commission argued that the non-renewal and firing constituted unlawful sex discrimination, while the school argued that this was an ecclesiastical matter not suitable for review by civil authorities.

Lyng v. Castillo, 477 U.S. 635 (1986), reversed a lower court's decision that the change in the statutory definition of a household violated the appellee's due process rights. The program rules for food stamps were changed in 1981 and 1982 which changed the definitions of households. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the District Court erred in using heightened scrutiny to analyze the validity of the household definition.