Walker v. Sons of Confederate Veterans, 576 U.S. 200 (decided June 18, 2015): Texas can refuse request to put Confederate flag on license plate; it’s “government speech” and government can determine content Allen Bradley Co. v. Local Union No. 3 Teamsters, 325 U.S. 797 (decided June 18, 1945): Sherman Act violated by union and employers working in concert to exclude competition (here, electrical workers and manufacturers excluding out of state manufacturers outside union’s ge

Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, 593 U.S. 522 (decided June 17, 2021): Free Exercise Clause prevents City from requiring placement agencies (including Catholic ones) to accept same sex couples for foster care program (for years I defended Catholic placement agencies and this is one of many places where people “on the ground” disagree with Church teaching; the open secret is that the Church’s official opposition to same-sex unions is by now practically a laughingstock to its ow

Bigelow v. Virginia, 421 U.S. 809 (decided June 16, 1975): with abortion legal with Roe v. Wade, State can’t criminalize advertising for abortion services (now that some States can outlaw abortion but others don’t, is this still true?) Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus, 573 U.S. 149 (decided June 16, 2014): pro-life group making pre-enforcement challenge to law prohibiting false statements during election campaigns alleged enough “imminent” (as opposed to “chimerical”) harm t

Bostock v. Clayton County, 590 U.S. 644 (decided June 15, 2020): Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) prohibits firing an employee for being gay or transgender (county didn’t know one plaintiff was gay until he joined gay softball league; other plaintiff happened to mention to his co-employee at a skydiving school that he was gay; third plaintiff was hired as male and “transitioned”); Title VII also applies to transgender because fired “for traits or actions it would not have

West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (decided June 14, 1943): explicitly overrules Minersville v. Gobitis, 1940, and holds that refusal to salute flag and recite pledge as part of regular school day was protected by First and Fourteenth Amendments (Court holds that this was impermissible “compelled speech”; plaintiffs were Jehovah’s Witnesses; school had softened earlier versions of the pledge which other parents had said sounded “too much like Hit

Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (decided June 13, 1966): asking questions of detained witness without advising of right to remain silent violates Fifth Amendment guarantee against self incrimination (Congress tried to abrogate this holding by statute in 1968, but statute was chipped away at and finally struck down, Dickerson v. United States, 2000) (Miranda was re-tried in Arizona court without the invalid confession and convicted of rape/kidnapping, 104 Ariz. 174) Romano v.

Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (decided June 12, 1967): striking down on Equal Protection and (substantive) Due Process grounds Virginia’s prohibition on interracial marriage (a good decision for me personally) (in the trial court the one-year sentence imposed on the Lovings, who had gone to D.C. to get married and were indicted when they moved back to Virginia, had been suspended on the condition that they move out of state and not return for 25 years, not so coincidentally

Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520 (decided June 11, 1993): ordinance prohibiting killing of animal in ceremony not for use as food (Santería) struck down as violating church’s First Amendment rights (ordinance was passed “in direct response to the opening of the church” -- but what if the church had been there for years?) Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute, 584 U.S. 756 (decided June 11, 2018): Ohio’s presumption that voters who don’t return

Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (decided June 10, 1968): allowed “stop and frisk” without warrant if suspicion of armed and involved in a crime (whence came the term “Terry stop”) Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806 (decided June 10, 1996): any traffic offense (here, speeding when approached by police) is pretext for stopping car (police then saw two bags of cocaine in front seat) Borden v. United States, 593 U.S. 420 (decided June 10, 2021): three previous armed felonies were not

Carey v. Population Services Int’l, 431 U.S. 678 (decided June 9, 1977): statute prohibiting sale of non-prescription contraceptives, and contraceptives to minors, violated Due Process right to privacy/liberty (you can see Brennan’s hard work here -- cobbling together a majority but with fractured opinions) Randon v. Toby, 52 U.S. 493 (decided June 9, 1851): fact that loan was used to buy slaves which had been illegally imported from Africa to Texas did not make it an “illega

Gitlow v. New York, 268 U.S. 652 (decided June 8, 1925): New York’s “criminal anarchy” statute (still on the books!) permissible despite First Amendment because penalizes advocating violent overthrow of government (here, a Communist tract) -- -- limited by Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (also decided June 8, but in 1969): First Amendment protected pro-Klan rally at which people dressed in white robes and lit crosses because no “imminent lawless action” urged (perhaps a dif

Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (decided June 7, 1965): statute outlawing sale of contraceptives violates Fourteenth Amendment; right to privacy makes enumerated rights more secure (Douglas famously says Bill of Rights guarantees “have penumbras, formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and substance”) Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (decided June 7, 1971): First Amendment protects immature jerkoff’s right to wear “Fuck the Draft” jacket in c

Gonzalez v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (decided June 6, 2005): Commerce Clause allows Congress to criminalize home grown cannabis even if state allows it for medicinal use; “might” be used in interstate commerce or be part of interstate market (Wickard v. Fillburn lives!) Monell v. Dep’t of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 (decided June 6, 1978): can sue municipalities under §1983 but only for policies (not acts) that discriminate (here, New York City policy forcing female teachers to ta

Coleman v. Miller, 307 U.S. 433 (decided June 5, 1939): there is no time limit on states ratifying proposed Constitutional Amendments (here, a Child Labor Amendment) unless Congress has set a deadline Henderson v. United States, 339 U.S. 816 (decided June 5, 1950): segregated dining cars in trains (different tables, with partition) violated Interstate Commerce Act (plaintiff had been told to take dinner in his cabin because “reserved for blacks” tables partly occupied by whit

Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, 584 U.S. 617 (decided June 4, 2018): First Amendment protected cakeshop owner’s refusal on religious grounds to create a same-sex wedding cake Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (decided June 4, 1923): struck down on Due Process grounds state law prohibiting teaching of foreign languages to children before eighth grade (10-year-old child was taught German at Lutheran religious school) (most Lutherans were German speakers;

Hammer v. Dagenhart, 247 U.S. 251 (decided June 3, 1918): Interstate Commerce Clause did not authorize Congress to prohibit child labor (specifically, to forbid interstate sale of goods produced by child labor) (overruled by United States v. Darby Lumber Co., 1941) Morgan v. Virginia, 328 U.S. 373 (decided June 3, 1946): (argued by Thurgood Marshall) Virginia law segregating interstate buses violated Dormant Commerce Clause; decision was routinely ignored for years Van Buren

Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579 (decided June 2, 1952): President cannot seize private property (steel mills which would cripple Korean War effort due to impending strike; steelworkers were willing to work for the war effort but mill owners sued) without Congressional authorization (Congress had refused to act) (this was just a motion for a preliminary injunction, i.e. the “shadow docket”, but Court decided entire case) Bond v. United States, 572 U.S. 844

Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (decided June 1, 1925): striking down Oregon statute requiring all children to go to public school as infringing liberty right of parents to decide how to educate their children, and property right of Catholic school plaintiff which would lose business Near v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697 (decided June 1, 1931): This important case struck down on First Amendment (Fourteenth) grounds statute allowing state to enjoin newspaper publishing of

Maul v. United States, 274 U.S. 501 (decided May 31, 1927): vessel without proper registration properly seized by Coast Guard 34 miles offshore because statute restricting jurisdiction to 4 leagues (about 14 miles) applied only to searches, not seizures (does this mean the Coast Guard can seize a ship off coast of Zanzibar as well as Connecticut?) United States v. Louisiana, 363 U.S. 1 (decided May 31, 1960): United States sued the Gulf states under Court’s original jurisdict

BNSF Ry. Co. v. Tyrrell, 581 U.S. 402 (decided May 30, 2017): railroad could be sued in state where it was neither based nor incorporated nor where accident happened (IOW, under general “doing business” jurisdiction as allowed by state statute) despite Daimler AG v. Bauman, 2014, Jan. 14, which held that “doing business” jurisdiction violated due process; 45 U.S.C. §56 allows suit against railroads in any “doing business” state which is only a venue and not a jurisdictional p