Today in Supreme Court History: May 12

Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291 (decided May 12, 1980): Armed robbery defendant, after being given Miranda warnings and riding in police car, should have been given additional Miranda warning before officer’s comment that missing shotgun might be picked up by children in nearby school for the handicapped which prompted defendant to ask the police to take him back to the scene to find the shotgun, evidence of which should have been suppressed. (I’ve been to the neighborhood involved in that case, Mount Pleasant in Providence. It’s working class, semi-attached triple-decker houses. My in-laws live there. Providence in general is a unique and interesting place. There is indeed a school for disabled children there, part of the high school, called Harold A. Birch School. Perhaps Mr. Innis was aware of the school and knew the policeman’s concern as to disabled children picking up his gun was a legitimate one.)

Reno v. Bossier Parish School Board, 520 U.S. 471 (decided May 12, 1997): preclearance of proposed redistricting (§5 of the Voting Rights Act) is not necessarily denied if there is intentional vote dilution (§2) because purpose of §5 is to prevent retrogression to earlier discrimination (§5 is a dead letter now that §4(b) was invalidated in Shelby County v. Holder, 2013)

Hill v. Stone, 421 U.S. 289 (decided May 12, 1975): denial of Equal Protection to restrict voting on city bond issue to those who would directly bear the resulting tax increase (i.e., property owners); this is not a “special interest” election (where the franchise can be restricted appropriately) because all citizens would bear cost in some way (this was to build a new library)

Johnson v. United States, 520 U.S. 461 (decided May 12, 1997): materiality of defendant’s false statement to grand jury (i.e., source of box of cash which she knew was really the result of drug trafficking) should have been question for the jury in perjury trial but harmless error because evidence of materiality was “overwhelming”

Bugajewitz v. Adams, 228 U.S. 585 (decided May 12, 1913): determination that petitioner had entered country to practice prostitution and therefore would be deported did not require evidence of conviction of prostitution in home country

Johnson v. Mississippi, 421 U.S. 213 (decided May 12, 1975): defendants arrested under state anti-boycott law (they were boycotting whites-only businesses) did not allege sufficient civil rights violations so as to justify removal under 28 U.S.C. §1443(1)

Gonzalez v. United States, 553 U.S. 242 (decided May 12, 2008): consent of counsel, and not of his client, sufficed to allow magistrate (and not judge) to preside over voir dire in felony case

Cuyler v. Sullivan, 446 U.S. 335 (decided May 12, 1980): murder defendant sharing counsel with other defendants was entitled to Fourteenth Amendment protections in state criminal trial, but under Sixth Amendment Right to Assistance of Counsel trial court must inquire only into any actual (not potential) conflicts of interest between defendants