Supreme Court of the United States, 1944

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Black, affirmed Korematsu's conviction for violating the military order excluding persons of Japanese ancestry from a West Coast military area.

Justice Jackson delivered the Court's unanimous opinion holding that time spent waiting on call may constitute working time under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Whether particular waiting time is compensable requires factual findings concerning the parties' agreement, their conduct, the nature of the service, and…

Chief Justice Stone’s opinion for the Court upheld the Special Act authorizing recovery for Pope’s work benefiting the Government and reversed the Court of Claims’ dismissal. Congress created a new legal obligation rather than reopening or overturning the earlier final judgment rejecting Pope’s contract claims.

The Court held that the Fair Labor Standards Act’s exemption for workers "within the area of production (as defined by the Administrator)" limits the Administrator to geographic definitions only and invalidates any employee‑number limitation; consequently the regulation must be struck in its entirety and the case…

Justice Black's four-Justice opinion concluded that insurance transactions conducted across state lines constitute interstate commerce subject to congressional regulation and that the Sherman Act reaches restraints and monopolization of that business. The Court reversed the dismissal of the indictment.

The Court held that the Wage and Hour Administrator exceeded statutory authority by limiting the exemption under §13(a)(10) of the Fair Labor Standards Act to plants with no more than seven employees; consequently the employee‑number limitation is ultra vires and the entire definition of "area of production" is…

Justice Douglas's opinion held that the First Amendment prohibited submitting the truth or falsity of respondents' religious doctrines or beliefs to a jury in their mail-fraud prosecution.

The Court affirmed enforcement of the Board's order, holding that an employer violates the National Labor Relations Act by negotiating directly with employees while their designated union remains their exclusive bargaining representative, granting wage increases to induce abandonment of that union, and then relying on…

The Supreme Court affirmed the National Labor Relations Board’s order that Medo Photo Supply Corp. violated §§8(1) and (5) of the NLRA by bargaining directly with employees and inducing them to abandon their union, emphasizing the employer’s exclusive duty to bargain with the designated representative.

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Reed, held that Texas's statutory primary-election system made the Democratic Party an agency of the State when determining eligibility to participate in its primary. Excluding Black voters therefore constituted state action violating the Fifteenth Amendment.

The Court, in an opinion by Chief Justice Stone announced by Justice Roberts, affirmed the convictions for willful violations of wholesale beef price ceilings. It held that the Emergency Price Control Act supplied adequate standards for the Administrator, made its special review procedure exclusive, and afforded…

Denying Henry Hawk's renewed application for leave to file a petition for writ of habeas corpus, the per curiam opinion holds that he has not exhausted his state remedies: his contentions — a capital trial so expedited as to deprive him of effective assistance of counsel under Fourteenth Amendment due process, and the…

The Court affirmed Prince’s convictions, holding that Massachusetts could apply its child labor laws to prohibit a nine-year-old child from offering religious literature on public streets, even with her guardian’s supervision.

The Court unanimously affirmed the disallowance of Dixie Pine Products Company's deduction for an unpaid Mississippi gasoline tax that the company was actively contesting in state court.

Justice Reed dissents, arguing that the Natural Gas Act’s “just and reasonable” standard requires the Federal Power Commission to consider all legitimate capital investments, including those previously recovered in the unregulated period, and that the rate‑making method must be tied to fair value rather than merely…

Justice Frankfurter, dissenting, argues that the Natural Gas Act requires the Commission to consider the full public interest and to set rates based on economic realities rather than rigid rate‑base formulas, and he urges remand for the Commission to articulate explicit criteria for "just and reasonable" rates.

The Court held that under the Full Faith and Credit Clause a final workmen’s compensation award issued by Texas is res judicata and bars any subsequent compensation claim for the same injury in Louisiana.

The Court held that the final Texas workers' compensation award barred Hunt from obtaining a second or additional award under Louisiana law for the same injury. Because the Texas award was res judicata in Texas, the Full Faith and Credit Clause required Louisiana to give it the same binding effect, notwithstanding…