Today in Supreme Court History: June 28

McDonald v. City of Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (decided June 28, 2010): Second Amendment right identified as to federally administrated areas in District of Columbia v. Heller, 2008, also applied to states (i.e., incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment)

National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, 567 U.S. 519 (decided June 28, 2012): upheld the Affordable Care Act’s mandate for everyone to buy insurance as exercise of Congress’s taxing power (which can be used to provide for country’s “general welfare”)

United States v. Alvarez, 567 U.S. 709 (decided June 28, 2012): Stolen Valor Act (criminalizing false statements about one’s military decorations) struck down on First Amendment grounds (though shame still has an effect: remember Admiral Boorda who committed suicide after he was caught in a lie about just one medal on his “fruit salad”?)

United States ex rel. Brown v. Lane, 232 U.S. 598 (decided June 28, 1914): upheld Secretary of the Interior’s right to remove “for good cause” all the members of a tribal council elected by tribe members without notice or hearing or right of appeal (IOW it could be “for bad cause” or “for no cause at all”)

Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (decided June 28, 1971): First Amendment not violated by statute allowing public funding of religious schools of secular subject textbooks and materials; established the “Lemon test”, where the statute has to 1) have a secular purpose 2) not have the effect of advancing or inhibiting religion and 3) not result in excessive entanglement with religion

North v. Russell, 427 U.S. 328 (decided June 28, 1976): Equal Protection not violated when lower criminal courts in small towns (Kentucky) could have nonlawyer judges when in city courts judges had to be lawyers; first level of appeal in small towns was to courts with lawyer judges

Nixon v. Administrator of General Services, 433 U.S. 425 (decided June 28, 1977): Nixon could not deny request for records created while he was President (he couldn’t argue risk of self-incrimination because he had been pardoned by Ford)

Regents of University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (decided June 28, 1978): race can be used as factor in admission to public university (here, the University of California, Davis Medical School) but quotas are impermissible

Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (decided June 28, 1993): expert opinions in federal court (even as to state law claims) have to be based on reliable principles reliably applied; this holding was later encoded as amendment to Fed. R. Evid. 702

Mitchell v. Helms, 530 U.S. 793 (decided June 28, 2000): First Amendment not violated by government loans to religious schools for secular programs

Stenberg v. Carhart, 530 U.S. 914 (decided June 28, 2000): struck down Nebraska statute making “partial birth abortion” (properly called late term abortion) illegal even if mother’s life endangered; this was held inconsistent with Roe (but is the Nebraska statute really revived under Dobbs?)

Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 542 U.S. 507 (decided June 28, 2004): U.S. citizen can be detained as an “enemy combatant” but has the right to habeas corpus with due process; effectively superseded by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 which stripped federal courts of jurisdiction

City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, 603 U.S. 520 (decided June 28, 2024): “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges.” No, I’m not quoting the Court, which upholds against Eighth Amendment attack ordinance levying fine and then jail time on the homeless sleeping on public land; rejects idea that being homeless is like being an addict, a condition that cannot be criminalized (Robinson v. California, see June 17 and June 25).

Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, 603 U.S. 369 (decided June 28, 2024): in case involving regulations as to monitoring fishery catches, the Court repudiates its longstanding “Chevron deference” doctrine which said that courts must defer to agency’s reasonable interpretation of statute (see Chevron, 1984, June 25) and holds that interpretation is for the courts, not specialized agency personnel (the day before this, in interpreting a regulation as to “nitrogen oxide”, a component of smog, the Court confused it with “nitrous oxide”, laughing gas; opinion was corrected after actual scientists pointed out mistake, Ohio v. EPA, 603 U.S. 279)

Fischer v. United States, 603 U.S. 480 (decided June 28, 2024): assaulting a federal officer during the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol was not "altering, destroying . . . record, document, or other object" (18 U.S.C. §1512(c)(1)) or "impairing an official proceeding" ((c)(2)). Dissent (6 - 3 decision) argues that these subsections can’t be read together, and assault fell within (c)(2).