Today in Supreme Court History: January 12

United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 (decided January 12, 2005): invalidating part of Federal Sentencing Act that empowers judge to find aggravating factors; making increased sentencing dependent on finding of fact means jury must find those facts, and beyond reasonable doubt (here, sentencing judge found facts of greater amount of cocaine than was presented to convicting jury)

Sipuel v. Board of Regents of University of Oklahoma, 332 U.S. 631 (decided January 12, 1948):  It’s a denial of Equal Protection for state-run law school to refuse admission to qualified applicant on account of race.  A short per curiam opinion, but in my view this case marks the beginning of the civil rights era.

United States v. Windom, 137 U.S. 636 (decided January 12, 1891): federal government can’t stiff contractor to whom it had certified payment by bringing up past claims against him

Illinois v. Wardlow, 528 U.S. 119 (decided January 12, 2000): police could stop and search man who had run upon seeing them in area known for heavy narcotics trafficking (This reminded me of a case that arose near where I was living at the time, United States v. Bayless, 913 F. Supp. 232, 1996, where the judge invalidated the stop: “Residents in this neighborhood tended to regard police officers as corrupt, abusive and violent.  Had the men not run when the cops began to stare at them, it would have been unusual.”  The judge also pointed out that three supposedly suspicious facts — out-of-state plates, double parking, and being about late at night — are actually quite commonplace in that part of Manhattan.)

El Al Israel Airlines, Ltd. v. Tsui Yuan Tseng, 525 U.S. 155 (decided January 12, 1999): person improperly searched prior to boarding foreign airline has no claim against the foreign airline, either under local law or Warsaw Convention