Supreme Court of the United States, 1958

The Court held that denying a tax exemption because of speech penalizes that speech and that California violated procedural due process by requiring exemption claimants to prove that they had not engaged in proscribed advocacy.

Justice Harlan, writing for a unanimous Court, held that Alabama could not compel disclosure of the NAACP’s rank-and-file membership lists on this record. Disclosure threatened substantial interference with protected freedom of association, and Alabama had not demonstrated a sufficient justification for obtaining the…

Chief Justice Warren's majority opinion held that Florida lacked jurisdiction over both the Delaware trustee and the Delaware trust assets. Personal jurisdiction required purposeful activity by the trustee connecting it to Florida; the settlor's unilateral activities and Florida domicile were insufficient.

The Court held that a parolee who has not been admitted is not “within the United States” for purposes of § 243(h) and therefore is ineligible for a stay of deportation; the decision was affirmed. Justice Douglas dissented, arguing that the statute should be read to protect the parolee from persecution.

The Supreme Court held that Washington's refusal to provide a free trial transcript to an indigent defendant denied him both due‑process and equal‑protection rights under the Fourteenth Amendment, reversed the Washington Supreme Court’s judgment, and remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

The Court held that the passport statutes did not authorize the Secretary of State to deny passports to citizens based solely on Communist beliefs, associations, or refusal to provide an affidavit about Communist Party membership.

The Court held that federal labor law did not preempt an employee's Alabama tort action seeking compensatory and punitive damages from a union whose violent mass picketing prevented him from reaching work.

Justice Brennan's opinion of the Court held that the Court of Appeals improperly directed judgment for the defendant on its statutory-employer defense: the evidence presented factual questions, and the plaintiff had not waived his opportunity to offer rebuttal evidence under the correct interpretation of South…

The Court affirmed the district courts’ criminal contempt convictions and three‑year sentences for Green and Winston, holding that 18 U.S.C. § 401(3) authorizes contempt sanctions for failure to obey a surrender order, that the evidence proved knowledge beyond a reasonable doubt, that § 401 permits imprisonment…

The Court held that federal district courts may punish, as criminal contempt under 18 U.S.C. § 401 (3), a defendant's willful disobedience of a lawful surrender order, and that the evidence supported petitioners' convictions.

The Court reversed the judgment upholding Trop’s loss of citizenship for wartime desertion and remanded, but no rationale commanded five votes. Chief Justice Warren, joined by Black, Douglas, and Whittaker, concluded that citizenship could not be involuntarily forfeited for misconduct and that denationalization under…

Justice Black's opinion held that Northern Pacific's preferential-routing clauses were per se unlawful tying arrangements under § 1 of the Sherman Act and affirmed summary judgment enjoining their use.

The Supreme Court affirmed the district court's declaration that California's Public Utilities Code § 530, which required the state commission's approval for the United States to obtain reduced transportation rates, is unconstitutional under the Supremacy Clause because it impedes federal procurement authority.

The Supreme Court held that California's Public Utilities Code §530, which requires the United States to obtain state commission approval before negotiating reduced freight rates, is preempted by federal procurement authority and therefore unconstitutional under the Supremacy Clause.