Chief Justice Warren delivered the unanimous opinion holding that Georgia violated Julian Bond’s First Amendment rights by excluding him from its House of Representatives because of his criticism of the Vietnam War and the draft.
Supreme Court of the United States, 1966
Published opinions from 1966. The case name opens the case page.
1966 opinions
Justice Black's opinion for the Court affirmed the demonstrators' trespass convictions. The Court held that Florida's trespass statute was sufficiently definite, that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not abate these prosecutions, and that ample evidence supported the convictions.
The Court held that an order denying summary judgment because genuine factual disputes remained is not an interlocutory order refusing an injunction appealable under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1).
The Court affirmed Schmerber's conviction, holding that compelled extraction and analysis of his blood did not violate due process or the privilege against self-incrimination because the procedure was medically acceptable and produced physical rather than testimonial evidence.
The Court, through Chief Justice Warren, held that Escobedo applies only to trials begun after June 22, 1964, and Miranda only to trials not begun as of June 13, 1966, including cases still pending on direct appeal.
Chief Justice Warren's opinion held that the prosecution may not use statements obtained through custodial interrogation without safeguards protecting the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.
The Court upheld the defendants' monopolization liability under § 2 of the Sherman Act but remanded for further hearings on relief. It held that accredited central station protective services constituted a national relevant market, that the defendants' 87% share established monopoly power, and that exclusionary…
Justice Clark delivered the Court’s opinion holding that Sheppard was denied due process because the trial judge failed to protect him from inherently prejudicial publicity and disruptive courtroom conditions. Under the totality of the circumstances, proof of identifiable juror prejudice was unnecessary.
The Court vacated the District Court's orders and remanded with instructions to adopt Hawaii's interim legislative apportionment plan for the 1966 election and retain jurisdiction over permanent reapportionment.
The Supreme Court reversed a district court's pretrial dismissal of a six-defendant 18 U.S.C. § 241 conspiracy indictment alleging violence and intimidation against Negro citizens near Athens, Georgia.
The Court, through Justice Brennan, reversed the judgment sustaining Gibbs’s state-law damages award against the international union. Federal courts have power to hear state claims sharing a common nucleus of operative fact with substantial federal claims that ordinarily would be tried together, but exercising that…
The Court, in an opinion by Justice Fortas, held that private persons who willfully participate with state officers in prohibited conduct act under color of law for purposes of 18 U.S.C. § 242, and that § 241 reaches conspiracies involving state action to deprive citizens of Fourteenth Amendment rights.
The Court, in an opinion by Justice Douglas, held that conditioning voting in state elections on wealth or payment of a fee violates the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. Voting is fundamental, and wealth or tax payment bears no relation to voter qualifications.
The Court, in an opinion by Justice White, reversed the Court of Appeals’ judgment setting aside the Federal Maritime Commission’s reparation award. A shipper may seek direct review of an allegedly inadequate award, and, once the shipper invokes appellate jurisdiction, the carrier may challenge the award in the same…
The Court affirmed the convictions under New York's obscenity statute, holding that the statute was not impermissibly vague, that material intended for a specifically defined deviant sexual group may satisfy the prurient-appeal requirement based on that group's sexual interests, and that the evidence established the…
The Supreme Court affirmed the obscenity convictions of Ralph Ginzburg and three corporations under 18 U.S.C. § 1461 for mailing Eros, Liaison, and The Housewife's Handbook on Selective Promiscuity.
Justice Fortas's majority opinion held that the District of Columbia Juvenile Court's waiver of jurisdiction over Kent was invalid because it afforded no hearing, denied counsel access to relevant social records, and supplied no statement of reasons.
The Supreme Court reversed the district court and Court of Appeals, holding that the dismissal of Mrs. Surowitz’s derivative suit was improper because Rule 23(b)’s verification requirement does not demand the plaintiff’s personal knowledge of the allegations; the case was remanded for trial on the merits.
Chief Justice Warren's opinion upheld the provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 properly before the Court as appropriate exercises of Congress's enforcement power under the Fifteenth Amendment and dismissed South Carolina's original bill of complaint.
The Court held that the Speech or Debate Clause bars a criminal prosecution under a general conspiracy statute when the charge depends on the content or motive of a congressional speech, and therefore affirmed the Fourth Circuit’s order remanding the conspiracy count for a new trial purged of such evidence.
The Court, in an opinion by Justice Harlan, held that the Speech or Debate Clause bars a prosecution under a general criminal statute that depends on inquiry into a Congressman’s legislative speech and his motives for delivering it.
The Court reversed the breach-of-peace convictions of five Black men who quietly protested segregation in a public library. Justice Fortas, joined by Chief Justice Warren and Justice Douglas, concluded that no evidence established the statutory elements and that punishing this peaceful, brief, nondisruptive protest…
Justice Clark's opinion held that § 103 of the Patent Act of 1952 codified the Hotchkiss nonobviousness principle without changing the general level of innovation required for patentability.
The Supreme Court affirmed the Fifth Circuit, holding that Texas’s coverture law governs the enforceability of the SBA disaster loan against Mrs. Yazell’s separate property, and that no overriding federal interest justifies disregarding that state rule.
The Court reversed Shuttlesworth’s convictions under two Birmingham ordinances. It held that the conviction under the sidewalk-obstruction ordinance could not stand because the trial court may have applied the ordinance’s unconstitutional literal terms rather than the later limiting construction, and that the…
The Supreme Court reversed Shuttlesworth’s convictions under Birmingham ordinances §§1142 and 1231, holding each unconstitutional as applied because the statutes were overbroad and unsupported by evidence, and remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
The Supreme Court held that the Subversive Activities Control Board’s orders requiring individual members of the Communist Party to register and file detailed registration statements violate the Fifth Amendment privilege against self‑incrimination, and therefore reversed the Court of Appeals and set aside the orders.