United States Reports
606 volumes · 104,521 opinions
4,420 opinions in United States Reports with a Wikipedia-sourced synopsis — the cases notable enough that someone wrote an encyclopedia article about them.
- Groh v. Ramirez (2004)540 U.S. 551
Groh v. Ramirez, 540 U.S. 551 (2004), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the court held that a search warrant that does not state the items to be seized is unreasonable by default, and the officer is not entitled to qualified immunity for executing such a warrant.
- Doe v. Chao Secretary of Labor (2004)540 U.S. 614
Doe v. Chao, 540 U.S. 614 (2004), is a decision by the United States Supreme Court that interpreted the statutory damages provision of the Privacy Act of 1974.
- Olympic Airways v. Husain (2004)540 U.S. 644
Olympic Airways v. Husain, 540 U.S. 644 (2004), was a United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) case related to Olympic Airways Flight 417. The case arose from the death on January 4, 1998, of Dr. Abid Hanson, a passenger on Olympic Airways Flight 417 from Cairo, Egypt, via Athens, Greece, to New York City in the United States. Hanson died following exposure to secondhand smoke.
- Locke Governor of Washington et al. v. Davey (2004)540 U.S. 712
Locke v. Davey, 540 U.S. 712 (2004), is a United States Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of a Washington publicly funded scholarship program which excluded students pursuing a "degree in devotional theology". This case examined the "room ... between the two Religion Clauses", the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause.
- Yarborough v. Gentry (2003)540 U.S. 1
This is a list of all the United States Supreme Court cases from volume 540 of the United States Reports:
- Virginia v. Maryland (2003)540 U.S. 56
Virginia v. Maryland, 540 U.S. 56 (2003), was a 2003 decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that settled a centuries long dispute between the Commonwealth of Virginia and the State of Maryland regarding Virginia's riparian rights to the Potomac River. The Court held in a 7–2 decision that Maryland did not have legal authority to regulate or prohibit Virginia and its citizens from building or improving structures on the river or drawing water from it.
- McConnell United States Senator et al. v. Federal Election Commission et al. (2003)Overruled (2010)540 U.S. 93
McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, 540 U.S. 93 (2003), is a case in which the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of most of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), often referred to as the McCain–Feingold Act.
Overruled by Citizens United v. FEC (2010) - Maryland v. Pringle (2003)540 U.S. 366
Maryland v. Pringle, 540 U.S. 366 (2003), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court unanimously upheld the arrest of three passengers in an automobile where drugs were found. The case regards the reasonableness of the arrest of a passenger in an automobile.
- McSheffrey v. Lappin, Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons (2003)540 U.S. 804
M.K.B. are the initials of Mohamed Kamel Bellahouel, an immigrant Algerian waiter who was interviewed by federal officials. He has reportedly been freed on a $10,000 bond. The only information about the case was inadvertently released and reported by The Christian Science Monitor. In 2004, the United States Supreme Court notably sided with the government's request to grant the case total secrecy.
- Moore, Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Alabama v. Glassroth (2003)540 U.S. 1000
Glassroth v. Moore, 335 F.3d 1282 (11th Cir. 2003), and its companion case Maddox and Howard v. Moore, 229 F. Supp. 2d 1290 (M.D. Ala. 2002), is a decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit that held a 2+1⁄2 ton granite monument of the Ten Commandments placed in the rotunda of the Heflin-Torbert Judicial Building in Montgomery, Alabama by then-Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore was a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
- Charles Thomas Sell v. United States (2003)539 U.S. 1
This is a list of all the United States Supreme Court cases from volume 539 of the United States Reports:
- Dastar Corp. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. (2003)539 U.S. 23
Dastar Corp. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., 539 U.S. 23 (2003), was a copyright and trademark case of the Supreme Court of the United States involving the applicability of the Lanham Act to a work in the public domain.
- Entergy Louisiana, Inc. v. Louisiana Public Service Commission (2003)539 U.S. 39
Entergy Louisiana, Inc. v. Louisiana Public Service Commission, 539 U.S. 39 (2003), is a Supreme Court of the United States case holding that a federal administrative agency approved public utility tariff preempted a state public utilities commission rate order under the filed rate doctrine.
- Sell v. United States (2003)539 U.S. 166
Sell v. United States, 539 U.S. 166 (2003), is a decision in which the United States Supreme Court imposed stringent limits on the right of a lower court to order the forcible administration of antipsychotic medication to a criminal defendant who had been determined to be incompetent to stand trial for the sole purpose of making them competent and able to be tried. Specifically, the court held that lower courts could do so only under limited circumstances in which specified criteria had been met. In the case of Charles Sell, since the lower court had failed to determine that all the appropriate criteria for court-ordered forcible treatment had been met, the order to forcibly medicate the defendant was reversed. Previously, in Washington v.
- United States v. American Library Assn., Inc. (2003)539 U.S. 194
United States v. American Library Association, 539 U.S. 194 (2003), was a decision in which the United States Supreme Court ruled that the United States Congress has the authority to require public schools and libraries receiving E-Rate discounts to install web filtering software as a condition of receiving federal funding, as required in the Children's Internet Protection Act of 2000. In a plurality opinion, the Supreme Court ruled that public school and library usage of Internet filtering software does not violate their patrons' First Amendment free speech rights and that the Children's Internet Protection Act is not unconstitutional.
- Gratz v. Bollinger (2003)539 U.S. 244
Gratz v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 244 (2003), was a United States Supreme Court case regarding the University of Michigan undergraduate affirmative action admissions policy. In a 6–3 decision announced on June 23, 2003, Chief Justice Rehnquist, writing for the Court, ruled the University's point system's "predetermined point allocations" that awarded 20 points towards admission to underrepresented minorities "ensures that the diversity contributions of applicants cannot be individually assessed" and was therefore unconstitutional. It was the companion case to Grutter v. Bollinger.
- Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)539 U.S. 306
Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003), was a landmark case of the Supreme Court of the United States concerning affirmative action in student admissions. The Court held that a student admissions process that favors "underrepresented minority groups" did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause so long as it took into account other factors evaluated on an individual basis for every applicant. The decision largely upheld the Court's decision in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), which allowed race to be a consideration in admissions policy but held racial quotas to be unconstitutional. In its companion case, Gratz v.
- American Insurance Association et al. v. Garamendi Insurance Commissioner State of California (2003)539 U.S. 396
American Insurance Association v. Garamendi, 539 U.S. 396 (2003), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States invalidated a California law that required any insurance company wishing to do business in the state to publish information regarding insurance policies held by persons in Europe from 1920 through 1945.
- Georgia v. Ashcroft, Attorney General (2003)539 U.S. 461
Georgia v. Ashcroft, 539 U.S. 461 (2003), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court found that a three-judge federal district court panel did not consider all of the requisite relevant factors when it examined whether the 2001 Georgia State Senate redistricting plan resulted in retrogression of black voters’ effective exercise of the electoral franchise in contravention of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
- Wiggins v. Smith, Warden (2003)539 U.S. 510
Wiggins v. Smith, 539 U.S. 510 (2003), is a case in which the United States Supreme Court spelled out standards for "effectiveness" in the constitutional right to legal counsel guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. Previously the court had determined that the Sixth Amendment included the right to "effective assistance" of legal counsel, but it did not specify what constitutes "effective", thus leaving the standards for effectiveness vague. In Wiggins v. Smith, the court set forth the American Bar Association Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases Guideline 11.8.6.(1989), as a specific guideline by which to measure effectiveness and competence of legal counsel. In Strickland v.
- Lawrence v. Texas (2003)Held state or territorial law unconstitutional539 U.S. 558
Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003), is a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that U.S. state laws criminalizing sodomy between consenting adults are unconstitutional. The Court reaffirmed the concept of a "right to privacy" that earlier cases had found the United States Constitution provides, even though it is not explicitly enumerated. It based its ruling on the notions of personal autonomy to define one's own relationships and of American traditions of non-interference with any or all forms of private sexual activities between consenting adults. In 1998, John Geddes Lawrence Jr. was arrested along with Tyron Garner at Lawrence's apartment in Harris County, Texas.
Overruled Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) - Stogner v. California (2003)Held state or territorial law unconstitutional539 U.S. 607
Stogner v. California, 539 U.S. 607 (2003), is a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States, which held that California's retroactive extension of the statute of limitations for sexual offenses committed against minors was an unconstitutional ex post facto law.
- Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America v. Walsh, Acting Commissioner, Maine Department of Human Services (2003)538 U.S. 1
This is a list of all United States Supreme Court cases from volume 538 of the United States Reports:
- Ewing v. California (2003)538 U.S. 11
Ewing v. California, 538 U.S. 11 (2003), is one of two cases upholding a sentence imposed under California's three strikes law against a challenge that it constituted cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. As in its prior decision in Harmelin v. Michigan, the United States Supreme Court could not agree on the precise reasoning to uphold the sentence. But, with the decision in Ewing and the companion case Lockyer v. Andrade, the Court effectively foreclosed criminal defendants from arguing that their non-capital sentences were disproportional to the crime they had committed. Ewing was represented in the Court by Quin Denvir. The Attorney General of California argued for the State of California.
- Lockyer Attorney General of California v. Andrade (2003)538 U.S. 63
Lockyer v. Andrade, 538 U.S. 63 (2003), decided the same day as Ewing v. California (a case with a similar subject matter), held that there would be no relief by means of a petition for a writ of habeas corpus for a claim that a sentence imposed under California's three strikes law was an unconstitutionally disproportionate punishment prohibited by the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments. The decision weakened proportionality review for prison sentences.
- Smith v. Doe (2003)538 U.S. 84
Smith v. Doe, 538 U.S. 84 (2003), was a court case in the United States which questioned the constitutionality of the Alaska Sex Offender Registration Act's retroactive requirements. Under the Act, any sex offender must register with the Department of Corrections or local law enforcement within one business day of entering the state. This information is forwarded to the Department of Public Safety, which maintains a public database. Fingerprints, social security number, anticipated change of address, and medical treatment after the offense are kept confidential.
- Virginia v. Black (2003)Held state or territorial law unconstitutional538 U.S. 343
Virginia v. Black, 538 U.S. 343 (2003), is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court held, 5–4, that any state statute banning cross burning on the basis that it constitutes prima facie evidence of intent to intimidate is a violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution. Such a provision, the Court argued, blurs the distinction between proscribable "threats of intimidation" and the Ku Klux Klan's protected "messages of shared ideology". In the case, three defendants were convicted in two separate cases of violating a Virginia statute against cross burning. However, cross-burning can be a criminal offense if the intent to intimidate is proven. It was argued by former Solicitor General of Virginia, William Hurd and Rodney A. Smolla.
- State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance v. Campbell (2003)538 U.S. 408
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Campbell, 538 U.S. 408 (2003), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court held that the Due Process Clause usually limits punitive damage awards to less than ten times the size of the compensatory damages awarded and that punitive damage awards of four times the compensatory damage award is "close to the line of constitutional impropriety".
- Clackamas Gastroenterology Associates, P. C. v. Wells (2003)538 U.S. 440
Clackamas Gastroenterology Associates, P.C. v. Wells, 538 U.S. 440 (2003), was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States on April 22, 2003. The court held that in deciding whether the physician-shareholders should be considered employees for purposes of coverage under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), the common law element of control is the main guidepost.
- Franchise Tax Board of California v. Hyatt et al. (2003)538 U.S. 488
Franchise Tax Board of California v. Hyatt (short: Hyatt I), 538 U.S. 488 (2003), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court unanimously held that the Full Faith and Credit Clause does not require Nevada state courts to give full faith and credit to California statutes that immunize its tax agencies from suit. It was followed by Hyatt II in 2016 and Hyatt III in 2019, ultimately overturning precedent set by the 1979 Supreme Court case, Nevada v. Hall.
- Inyo County, California v. Paiute-Shoshone Indians of the Bishop Community of the Bishop Colony (2003)538 U.S. 701
Inyo County v. Paiute-Shoshone Indians of the Bishop Community, 538 U.S. 701 (2003), was a United States Supreme Court case.
- Nevada Department of Human Resources v. Hibbs (2003)538 U.S. 721
Chittister v. Department of Community & Economic Development, 226 F.3d 223 (3rd Cir. 2000) was a U.S. legal case about whether states may be subjected to money damages for failing to comply with the family care provision in the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). A decision by the lower circuit court of appeals in favor of the state was overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States.
- Chavez v. Martinez (2003)538 U.S. 760
Chavez v. Martinez, 538 U.S. 760 (2003), was a decision of the United States Supreme Court, which held that a police officer does not deprive a suspect of constitutional rights by failing to issue a Miranda warning. However, the court held open the possibility that the right to substantive due process could be violated in certain egregious circumstances and remanded the case to the lower court to decide this issue on the case's facts.
- Barnhart Commissioner of Social Security v. Peabody Coal Co et al. (2003)537 U.S. 149
Barnhart v. Peabody Coal Co., 537 U.S. 149 (2003), was a Supreme Court of the United States case. The case was to determine if a law instructing a government agent "shall" perform an action by a given date was intended as a 'spur to action' or a limit on whether the agent could act after the date. In this case the court held the agent could still act even after the date.
- Eldred v. Ashcroft (2003)537 U.S. 186
Eldred v. Ashcroft, 537 U.S. 186 (2003), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States upholding the constitutionality of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA). Plaintiffs, led by Internet publisher Eric Eldred, argued that the statute was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court disagreed and allowed the statute to remain in effect.
- Meyer v. Holley (2003)537 U.S. 280
Meyer v. Holley, 537 U.S. 280 (2003), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Fair Housing Act imposes strict liability on residential real estate corporations for racial discrimination, but the officers and owners of the corporation generally will not be held vicariously liable for offenses committed by the corporation's employees of agents. In a unanimous opinion written by Justice Stephen Breyer, the Court held that the Fair Housing Act "imposes liability without fault upon the employer in accordance with traditional agency principles, i. e., it normally imposes vicarious liability upon the corporation but not upon its officers or owners."
- Scheidler v. National Organization for Women, Inc. (2003)537 U.S. 393
Scheidler v. National Organization for Women, 537 U.S. 393 (2003), is a United States Supreme Court case involving whether abortion providers could receive damages from protesters under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. National Organization for Women (NOW) obtained class status for women seeking the use of women's health clinics and began its court battle against Joseph Scheidler and PLAN et al. in 1986. In this particular case, the court's opinion was that extortion did not apply to the defendants' actions because they did not obtain any property from the respondents (NOW and the class of women).
- Moseley v. v. Secret Catalogue, Inc. (2003)537 U.S. 418
Moseley v. V Secret Catalogue, Inc., 537 U.S. 418 (2003), is a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States holding that, under the Federal Trademark Dilution Act, a claim of trademark dilution requires proof of actual dilution, not merely a likelihood of dilution. This decision was later superseded by the Trademark Dilution Revision Act of 2006 (TDRA).
- United States v. White Mountain Apache Tribe (2003)537 U.S. 465
United States v. White Mountain Apache Tribe, 537 U.S. 465 (2003), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held in a 5–4 decision that when the federal government used land or property held in trust for an Indian tribe, it had the duty to maintain that land or property and was liable for any damages for a breach of that duty. In the 1870s, the White Mountain Apache Tribe was placed on a reservation in Arizona. The case involved Fort Apache, a collection of buildings on the reservation which were transferred to the tribe by the United States Congress in 1960. Although the tribe owned the Fort Apache buildings, they were held in trust and used exclusively by the federal government for an Indian school.
- Building and Construction Trades Department, Afl-Cio v. Allbaugh, Director, Federal Emergency Management Agency (2003)537 U.S. 1171
Mattel v. MCA Records, 296 F.3d 894 (9th Cir. 2002), was a series of lawsuits between Mattel and MCA Records that resulted from the 1997 hit single "Barbie Girl" by Danish-Norwegian group Aqua. The case was ultimately dismissed.
- Ford Motor Co. v. McCauley (2002)537 U.S. 1
This is a list of all the United States Supreme Court cases from volume 537 of the United States Reports:
- Early v. Packer (2002)537 U.S. 3
The Supreme Court of the United States handed down twelve per curiam opinions during its 2002 term, which began October 7, 2002 and concluded October 5, 2003.
- Devlin v. Scardelletti (2002)536 U.S. 1
This is a list of all United States Supreme Court cases from volume 536 of the United States Reports:
- McKune Warden et al. v. Lile (2002)536 U.S. 24
McKune v. Lile, 536 U.S. 24 (2002), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court determined that Kansas' Sexual Abuse Treatment Program (SATP) served a vital penological purpose and determined that allowing minimal incentives to take part in the SATP does not equal compelled self-incrimination as prohibited by the Fifth Amendment. There were three main points to the case that were used to determine the SATPs were constitutional as summarized by the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA).
- JPMorgan Chase Bank v. Traffic Stream (BVI) Infrastructure Ltd. (2002)536 U.S. 88
JPMorgan Chase Bank v. Traffic Stream (BVI) Infrastructure Ltd., 536 U.S. 88 (2002), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that a corporation organized under the laws of a British overseas territory is considered a "citizen or subject of a foreign state" for purposes of federal court jurisdiction.
- Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York, Inc. v. Village of Stratton (2002)Held municipal or local ordinance unconstitutional536 U.S. 150
Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York, Inc. v. Village of Stratton, 536 U.S. 150 (2002), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that a town ordinance's provisions making it a misdemeanor to engage in door-to-door advocacy without first registering with town officials and receiving a permit violates the First Amendment as it applies to religious proselytizing, anonymous political speech, and the distribution of handbills.
- Barnes in Her Official Capacity As Member of the Board of Police Commissioners of Kansas City Missouri et al. v. Gorman (2002)536 U.S. 181
Barnes v. Gorman, 536 U.S. 181 (2002), was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States on June 17, 2002. The court decided that punitive damages may not be awarded in private lawsuits brought under § 202 of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
- United States v. Drayton (2002)536 U.S. 194
United States v. Drayton, 536 U.S. 194 (2002), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court clarified the applicability of Fourth Amendment protections to searches and seizures that occur on buses, as well as the function of consent during searches by law enforcement. During a scheduled stop in Tallahassee, Florida, police officers boarded a Greyhound bus as part of a drug interdiction effort and interviewed passengers. After talking to two of the passengers and asking if they could "check [their] person", officers discovered the two passengers had taped several packages of cocaine to their legs.
- Gonzaga University v. Doe (2002)536 U.S. 273
Gonzaga University v. Doe, 536 U.S. 273 (2002), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, which prohibits the federal government from funding educational institutions that release education records to unauthorized persons, does not create a right which is enforceable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
- Atkins v. Virginia (2002)Held state or territorial law unconstitutional536 U.S. 304
Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 6–3 that executing people with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments, but that states can define who has an intellectual disability. At the time Atkins was decided, 18 of the 38 death penalty states exempted mentally disabled offenders from the death penalty.
Overruled Penry v. Lynaugh (1989)