Today in Supreme Court History: July 6

South Dakota v. Opperman, 428 U.S. 364 (decided July 6, 1976): no warrant needed to search car impounded because illegally parked; cars are not “houses” (Fourth Amendment) and diminished expectation of privacy; marijuana found during permissible “inventory”

Chiafalo v. Washington, 591 U.S. 578 (decided July 6, 2020): a state can fine “faithless elector” who does not vote according to instructions laid down by state legislature (State of Washington went for Hillary Clinton in 2016, but three of its electors voted for Colin Powell, hoping to sway Trump electors to do likewise and deny Trump a majority in the Electoral College; seven electors were “faithless” that year)

Barr v. American Ass’n of Political Consultants, 591 U.S. 610 (decided July 6, 2020): debt collection exception to “do not call” law (ha!! what the hell happened to that??) violated First Amendment as favoring debt collection speech over still-prohibited political (robocall) speech

Arizona Governing Comm’n for Tax Deferred Annuity Plans v. Norris, 463 U.S. 1073 (decided July 6, 1983): deferred compensation pension plan to state employees did not violate Title VII even though it helped men more (outnumbered female employees early on due to admitted discrimination) but would have to be even handed going forward

Michigan v. Long, 463 U.S. 1032 (decided July 6, 1983): “protective search” of car for weapons during investigative stop was reasonable under Fourth Amendment without warrant (driver, “under the influence”, wandering outside car when police arrived, who saw “large hunting knife” on floor, something sticking out from under armrest, entered vehicle and found marijuana under it)

Cantor v. Detroit Edison Co., 428 U.S. 579 (decided July 6, 1976): antitrust immunity of State (Parker v. Brown, 1943) extends to private action directed by State (druggist selling light bulbs could not sue utility which provided free light bulbs as part of its approved rate structure)

Barefoot v. Estelle, 463 U.S. 880 (decided July 6, 1983): OK to admit psychiatric testimony as to possible future danger to society when evaluating habeas corpus (American Psychiatric Association opposed such testimony and I can understand why; I used to work in a mental health department and we would hate having to fill out that part of the form -- as the psych on our unit would say, “They think we have a crystal ball!” -- because we’d get blamed if something went wrong -- and the guy who ran the group home some of our clients lived in was the father of one of those murdered by a Black Panther whom Leonard Bernstein had held a party for -- look it up) (holding was superseded by Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996)

California v. Ramos, 463 U.S. 993 (decided July 6, 1983): jury determining possible life sentence without possibility of parole can be given the “Briggs instruction” (mention that the governor can commute sentence to possibility of parole) even though it more likely results in without-parole sentence

Buffalo Forge Co. v. United Steelworkers, 428 U.S. 397 (decided July 6, 1976): federal court must defer to arbitrator on whether to enjoin a “sympathy strike” (steelworkers supporting clerical workers in same plant) (arbitrator was deciding whether the no-strike clause in steelworker contract had been violated) (in those days along Route 5 west of Buffalo one could see the fires of mile upon mile of steel plants; within 20 years they were all gone)