Supreme Court of the United States, 1942

Chief Justice Stone delivered the Court’s opinion reversing the judgment that upheld dismissal of the patent licensee’s counterclaim. The Court held that a licensee may challenge a license agreement’s price-fixing provision by proving that the patent claims asserted to protect it are invalid.

The Supreme Court held that New York’s §124 of the Decedent Estate Law, which apportionates the federal estate tax among beneficiaries, does not conflict with the federal estate tax statutes and therefore is not unconstitutional under the Supremacy Clause or the Uniformity Clause.

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Jackson, reversed the judgment enjoining enforcement of wheat marketing penalties against Filburn. Congress could regulate wheat grown for consumption on the farm because that production, considered together with similar production by others, substantially affected interstate wheat…

The Court affirmed the district court’s denial of habeas petitions, holding that the President may order trial by military commission of enemy belligerents for offenses against the law of war, that the commission was lawfully constituted, and that the petitioners’ detention was lawful.

Justice Roberts delivered the Court's opinion affirming the denial of habeas relief. The Court held that Judge Bond acted as a court for purposes of Supreme Court review and that his unreviewable habeas judgment was final despite the availability of successive state habeas petitions.

The Court held that exercising jurisdiction under the Federal Declaratory Judgments Act is discretionary and that a district court considering dismissal in favor of pending state litigation should examine whether that proceeding can adequately resolve the controversy.

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Douglas, reversed the judgment ordering Skinner's sterilization. Because procreation is a fundamental right, classifications in sterilization laws require strict scrutiny.

The Supreme Court held that a New York City ordinance prohibiting the distribution of commercial advertising handbills on public streets is a permissible regulation and does not violate the First Amendment.

The Supreme Court affirmed the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s judgment, holding that the Wisconsin Employment Relations Board’s order prohibiting mass picketing and related conduct was not preempted by the National Labor Relations Act and did not impair any rights protected by the federal statute.

Justice Murphy delivered the Court's unanimous opinion holding that § 48 of the Judicial Code exclusively governs venue in patent infringement suits and cannot be supplemented by § 52's provision for defendants residing in different districts within the same state.

Justice Murphy, writing for a unanimous Court, upheld Chaplinsky’s conviction for addressing insulting epithets to a city marshal. As authoritatively construed by the state court, the statute prohibited face-to-face fighting words likely to provoke an average addressee to an immediate breach of the peace and therefore…

The Court held that federal law barred the maker of a note from asserting lack of consideration and a secret agreement against enforcement when the maker had enabled a bank to present the note as a genuine asset.

The Court reversed Glasser’s conviction and remanded for a new trial because the trial court impaired his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance by appointing his retained lawyer to represent a codefendant despite notice of potentially conflicting interests.