Today in Supreme Court History: June 30

Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, 573 U.S. 682 (decided June 30, 2014): for-profit corporation is a “person” and if closely held can refuse under Religious Freedom Restoration Act to obey regulation (Affordable Care Act’s requirement to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives)

New York Times v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (decided June 30, 1971): First Amendment allowed printing of “The Pentagon Papers” (McNamara’s secret history of the Vietnam War) despite Espionage Act banning disclosure of national defense material “to injury of the United States” (it then came out in paperback and I read it -- an eye opener!)

Biden v. Nebraska, 600 U.S. 477 (decided June 30, 2023): Secretary of Education did not have power to cancel (instead of suspend) student debts due to Covid; Missouri had standing to sue because it created an independent loan program which would lose payments

NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U.S. 449 (decided June 30, 1958): Due Process violated by Alabama court’s order for NAACP to produce membership list

Cox v. Larios, 542 U.S. 947 (decided June 30, 2004): one-person, one-vote rule can be violated even when differential between districts is less than 10% (here, Georgia’s plan favored urban, Democratic districts at expense of rural, Republican)

Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186 (decided June 30, 1986): upheld Georgia law criminalizing sodomy (defined as putting genitals of one into mouth or anus of another) (of course, it was a gay man who was prosecuted, as if women never gave blow jobs) (overruled by Lawrence v. Texas, 2003)

Biden v. Texas, 597 U.S. 785 (decided June 30, 2022): In 2019 the lame-duck Republican Congress authorized the Trump administration to return to Mexico non-Mexicans who had tried illegally to enter through that country.  Biden suspended this policy his first day.  Court holds that Biden had the authority to do that, given discretionary language in the statute and claimed foreign affairs implications.

West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, 597 U.S. 697 (decided June 30, 2022): In 2015 Obama’s EPA started requiring coal-fired plants to in essence phase out; the Court stayed the rule and Trump repealed it.  Biden tried to re-implement it.  The Court holds that the rule exceeds the EPA’s authority under the Clean Air Act.

United States v. Ortiz, 422 U.S. 891 (decided June 30, 1975): can’t search cars at fixed border checkpoints unless “probable cause” (Ortiz’s car here turned out to have three illegal aliens in the trunk; evidence suppressed and conviction for transporting illegals vacated)

United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873 (decided June 30, 1975): roving border patrol can’t stop car just because occupants “look Mexican” (this was in southern California, which at that point had been part of Mexico longer than it was part of the United States)

Madsen v. Women’s Health Center, Inc., 512 U.S. 753 (decided June 30, 1994): First Amendment not violated by noise restriction and 30-foot buffer zone between abortion protesters and clinic, but 36-foot buffer on private property side and forbidding “images visible” from the clinic was overbroad

Goldey v. Fields, 606 U.S. 942 (decided June 30, 2025): the Court continues its restrictive view of Bivens claims (see June 21) by holding that one can’t sue federal agents for Eighth Amendment excessive force violations (here, physical abuse in prison); unanimous opinion