Today in Supreme Court History: January 19

Patsone v. Pennsylvania, 232 U.S. 138 (decided January 19, 1914): upholds statute prohibiting foreign born non-citizens from killing wild game except in defense of person or property (this case has never been overruled)

NASA v. Nelson, 562 U.S. 134 (decided January 19, 2011): upholding NASA regulation requiring even long-term employees to submit to background checks and answer questions about illegal drug use (“if there is a right to private information, it is not violated here”)

United States v. Mueller, 113 U.S. 153 (decided January 19, 1885): builder of new customs house in Chicago entitled to delay costs incurred due to government dithering as to building design

Oyama v. California, 332 U.S. 633 (decided January 19, 1948): leaves in place California statute which in effect prohibited those of Japanese ancestry from owning land, with the result that a father’s gift to his son was invalidated and the land went to the state (majority opinion relies on father’s failure to make some formal filings, but c’mon . . .) (statute was later struck down by the California Supreme Court, Sei Fujii v. State, 1952)

Presley v. Georgia, 558 U.S. 209 (decided January 19, 2010): Sixth Amendment right to public trial includes access to voir dire of prospective jurors