Volume 503 — United States Reports

Hudson v. McMillian, 503 U.S. 1 (1992), is a United States Supreme Court decision where the Court on a 7–2 vote held that the use of excessive physical force against a prisoner may constitute cruel and unusual punishment even though the inmate does not suffer serious injury.

After respondent Nordic Village, Inc., filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code, one of its officers withdrew funds from the company's corporate account. Held: Section 106(c) of the Code does not waive the United States' sovereign immunity from an action seeking monetary recovery in bankruptcy. Pp. 32-37.

Petitioner debtors, four affiliated corporate entities and an individual, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy petitions after one of them defaulted on a real estate loan. Held: Smith is required by the Code to file income tax returns and pay taxes on the income attributable to the property of both the corporate debtors and Gould. Pp. 52-59.

Franklin v. Gwinnett County Public Schools, 503 U.S. 60 (1992), is a United States Supreme Court Case in which the Court decided, in a unanimous vote, that monetary relief is available under Title IX of the Federal Education Amendments of 1972.

INDOPCO, Inc. v. Commissioner, 503 U.S. 79 (1992), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that expenditures incurred by a target corporation in the course of a friendly takeover are nondeductible capital expenditures.

The Clean Water Act provides for two sets of water quality measures: effluent limitations, which are promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency), and water quality standards,… Held: The EPA's action was authorized by the Clean Water Act. Pp. 98-114.

Larry Collins, an employee in respondent city's sanitation department, died of asphyxia after entering a manhole to unstop a sewer line. Held: Because a city's customary failure to train or warn its employees about known hazards in the workplace does not violate the Due Process Clause, § 1983 does not provide a remedy for a municipal employee who is fatally injured in the course of his employment as a result of the city's failure. Pp. 119-130.

After petitioner Willy sued respondent Coastal Corporation in Texas state court, alleging that Coastal fired him in violation of, inter alia, federal and state environmental law "whistleblower"… Held: A court may impose Rule 11 sanctions in a case in which the district court is later determined to be without subject-matter jurisdiction. Pp. 134-139.

While a federal prisoner, petitioner McCarthy filed a damages action under Bivens v. Six Unknown Fed. Held: Exhaustion of the Bureau of Prisons' administrative procedure is not required before a federal prisoner can initiate a Bivens action solely for money damages. Pp. 144-156. (a) Exhaustion serves the twin purposes of protecting administrative agency authority and promoting judicial efficiency.

Dawson v. Delaware, 503 U.S. 159 (1992), was a United States Supreme Court decision that ruled that a person's rights of association and due process, as granted under the First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, cannot be infringed upon if such an association has no bearing on the case at hand.

In 1980, the Michigan Legislature raised maximum weekly workers' compensation benefits and provided an annual supplemental adjustment to workers injured before 1980. Held: The 1987 statute did not substantially impair the obligations of petitioners' contracts with their employees in violation of the Contract Clause, because there was no contractual agreement regarding the specific terms allegedly at issue.

Under the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, the United States Sentencing Commission has promulgated Guidelines establishing sentencing ranges for different categories of federal offenses and defendants. Held: A reviewing court may, in appropriate circumstances, affirm a sentence in which a district court's departure from a guideline range is based on both valid and invalid factors. Pp. 197-202.

After finding petitioner Stringer guilty of capital murder, a Mississippi jury, in the sentencing phase of the case, found that there were three statutory aggravating factors. Held: In a federal habeas corpus proceeding, a petitioner whose death sentence became final before Maynard and Clemons were decided is not foreclosed by Teague from relying on those cases. Pp. 227-237.

Connecticut National Bank v. Germain, 503 U.S. 249 (1992), was a United States Supreme Court case holding that a court of appeals may review an interlocutory order issued by a district court acting in its appellate capacity in a bankruptcy matter, when such review is authorized under 28 U.S.C. § 1292. The Court unanimously agreed on the statutory interpretation outcome but split over whether it was proper to consult legislative history in reaching that conclusion.

Pursuant to its authority under the Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA), respondent Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) sought, and received, judicial decrees to protect the… Held: SIPC has demonstrated no right to sue Holmes under § 1964(c).

Because certain conduct of respondent R.L.C. at age 16 would have constituted the crime of involuntary manslaughter under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1112(a) and 1153 if committed by an adult, the District Court… Held: The judgment is affirmed. 915 F.2d 320 (CA8 1990), affirmed.

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. v. Darden, 503 U.S. 318 (1992), is a US labor law case, concerning the scope of protection for employees, under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). The Court held that principles of agency were relevant to interpreting the concept of "employee".

In sentencing respondent Wilson to prison for violating the Hobbs Act, the District Court denied his request for credit under 18 U.S.C. § 3585(b) for the time he had spent in presentence detention by… Held: It is the Attorney General who computes the amount of the § 3585(b) credit after the defendant has begun to serve his sentence. Pp. 331-337.

Suter v. Artist M., 503 U.S. 347 (1992), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the court held that the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act does not confer upon parents a private right to sue a state for not making "reasonable efforts" towards family reunification under that act, and they cannot sue for that under Section 1983. Suter is among a pattern of cases limiting the reach of federal and state laws intended to govern parental abuse and neglect. Another is DeShaney v. Winnebago County.

United States v. Felix, 503 U.S. 378 (1992), was a decision by the United States Supreme Court, which held that "a[n]…offense and a conspiracy to commit that offense are not the same offense for double jeopardy purposes." The Supreme Court rejected the Tenth Circuit's reversal of Felix's conviction, finding that the Court of Appeals read the holding in Grady v. Corbin (1990) too broadly.

The debtor's check in payment of a bona fide debt was delivered to petitioner Barnhill in New Mexico on November 18 and honored by the drawee bank on November 20, the 90th day… Held: For the purposes of § 547(b), a transfer made by check is deemed to occur on the date the check is honored. Pp. 396-402. (a) "What constitutes a transfer and when it is complete" is a matter of federal law. McKenzie v. Irving Trust Co., 323 U.S. 365, 369-370, 65 S.Ct. 405, 407-408, 89 L.Ed. 305.

National Railroad Passenger Corporation v. Boston & Maine Corp., 503 U.S. 407 (1992), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (better known as Amtrak), could condemn railroad property from Boston and Maine Railroad and convey it to another railroad in order to continue passenger rail service over that route.

Respondent environmental groups filed separate lawsuits challenging proposed timber harvesting in certain forests managed by the United States Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Held: Subsection (b)(6)(A) does not violate Article III. Pp. 437-441. (a) The provision compelled changes in law, not results under old law, by replacing the legal standards underlying the two original cases with those set forth in subsections (b)(3) and (b)(5).

Article I, § 2, of the Constitution requires apportionment of Representatives among the States "according to their respective Numbers." A 1941 federal statute provides that after each decennial… Held: Congress exercised its apportionment authority within the limits dictated by the Constitution. Pp. 447-466.

In a class action filed by respondents, black school children and their parents, the District Court in 1969 entered a consent order… Held: In the course of supervising a desegregation plan, a district court has the authority to relinquish supervision and control of a school district in incremental stages, before full compliance has been achieved in every area of school operations, and may, while retaining jurisdiction over the case, determine that it will not order…

The Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause generally requires just compensation where the government authorizes a physical occupation of property. Held: The rent control ordinance does not authorize an unwanted physical occupation of petitioners' property and thus does not amount to a per se taking.

Jacobson v. United States, 503 U.S. 540 (1992), is a case decided by the United States Supreme Court regarding the criminal procedure topic of entrapment. A narrowly divided court overturned the conviction of a Nebraska man for receiving child sexual abuse material through the mail, ruling that postal inspectors had implanted a desire to do so through repeated written entreaties.

Pursuant to, inter alia, § 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1899 (RHA), the Secretary of the Army, through the Army Corps of Engineers, granted Nome, Alaska, a federal permit to… Held: The Secretary of the Army acted within his discretion in conditioning approval of the Nome port facilities on a disclaimer by Alaska of a change in the federal-state boundary that the project might cause. Pp. 575-593.

Title 4 U.S.C. § 111 authorizes the States to tax federal employees' compensation if the taxation does not discriminate against the employees because of the compensation's source. Held: The Kansas tax on military retirees is inconsistent with § 111. The State Supreme Court's conclusion that, for purposes of state taxation, military retirement benefits may be characterized as current compensation for reduced current services does not survive analysis on several bases.

The Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA) prohibit the discharge or disposal of pollutants without a… Held: Congress has not waived the National Government's sovereign immunity from liability for civil fines imposed by a State for past violations of the CWA or RCRA. Pp. 615-629. (a) This Court presumes congressional familiarity with the common rule that any waiver of the Government's sovereign immunity must be unequivocal.

On the schedule she filed pursuant to § 522( l ) of the Bankruptcy Code, debtor Davis listed as exempt property the expected proceeds from her pending employment discrimination suit. Held: A trustee may not contest the validity of a claimed exemption after the Rule 4003(b) 30-day period has expired, even though the debtor had no colorable basis for claiming the exemption. Pp. 3-8.