Supreme Court of the United States, 1971

The Supreme Court reversed the district court, holding that Illinois's statute and regulation excluding college‑going 18‑ to 20‑year‑old children from AFDC benefits conflict with §406(a)(2)(B) of the Social Security Act and are therefore invalid under the Supremacy Clause; the Court did not reach the equal‑protection…

The Court held that Connor had not exhausted state remedies because he never fairly presented the equal-protection claim later advanced in federal habeas proceedings. Presenting the facts and a related indictment or due-process challenge did not give the state courts a fair opportunity to consider the distinct claim…

The Court held that the Sixth Amendment speedy-trial guarantee does not apply to delay occurring before indictment, arrest, or another formal restraint initiating prosecution. Because the indictment was returned within the applicable limitations period and the defendants showed neither actual prejudice nor intentional…

The Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals, holding that federal maritime law does not govern a longshoreman's pier‑side injury caused by stevedore equipment; state law governs such accidents.

The Supreme Court held that under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act as construed in Rodrigue v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., Louisiana's one-year prescriptive statute of limitations for personal injury actions applies of its own force to injuries on fixed structures on the Outer Continental Shelf, and federal…

The Court held that Idaho's statutory provision giving a mandatory preference to males over females in appointing estate administrators violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

A divided Supreme Court reversed the Sixth Circuit and reinstated Harris's conviction for possession of nontaxpaid liquor, holding that an affidavit recounting an unidentified informant's recent personal purchases of illicit whiskey at the premises — coupled with the affiant's knowledge of Harris's reputation and a…

The Supreme Court held that both the Rhode Island Salary Supplement Act, which paid 15% salary supplements directly to teachers of secular subjects in nonpublic elementary schools, and the Pennsylvania Nonpublic Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which reimbursed nonpublic schools for teachers' salaries…

The Court held that the automobile warrant was invalid because it was issued by the State Attorney General, who was actively directing the investigation and would prosecute the case, rather than by a neutral and detached magistrate.

The Supreme Court affirmed two three-judge district courts, holding that Arizona's requirement that aliens reside in the United States fifteen years before receiving disability, old-age, or blind assistance, and Pennsylvania's limitation of state-funded general assistance to citizens, violate the Equal Protection…

The Supreme Court held that Lincoln Savings & Loan Association’s payment of the §404(d) “additional premium” in 1963 was a capital expenditure, not an ordinary and necessary business expense, and therefore nondeductible under §162(a).

The Supreme Court held that 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3) reaches conspiracies by wholly private persons, abandoning Collins v. Hardyman's state-action limitation, while confining the statute to conspiracies motivated by racial or otherwise class-based invidiously discriminatory animus rather than serving as a general federal…

The Supreme Court reversed the Georgia Court of Appeals, holding that Georgia's Motor Vehicle Safety Responsibility Act denied procedural due process by suspending the driver's license and vehicle registration of an uninsured motorist involved in an accident without any prior hearing on his fault or liability.

Justice Marshall delivered the opinion of the Court, holding that petitioner’s failure to exhaust the administrative remedies available under the Selective Service system bars judicial review of his classification defense, and therefore affirmed the conviction.

The Court vacated the California Supreme Court's judgment and held that California's requirement that a driver involved in a property-damage accident stop and provide a name and address does not violate the privilege against compulsory self-incrimination.

The Court affirmed McGee's conviction, holding that his deliberate failure to pursue the Selective Service Board's administrative remedies barred his defenses of erroneous classification as a conscientious objector and as a ministerial student.

The Supreme Court held that a Circuit Court of Cook County temporary injunction barring petitioners from distributing leaflets anywhere in Westchester, Illinois, was an impermissible prior restraint violating the First Amendment: peaceful pamphleteering remains protected even when aimed at influencing the target's…

The Court, in an opinion delivered by Justice White, overruled Triplett v. Lowell to the extent it barred a plea of estoppel in patent‑invalidation cases, vacated the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remanded the case for further proceedings. No separate concurring or dissenting opinions were filed.

The Court held that written reports of physicians who examined a claimant may constitute substantial evidence supporting an adverse finding when the claimant does not request subpoenas, even if the reports are hearsay and contradicted by live testimony. The majority opinion was authored by Justice Blackmun.

The Court, in an opinion delivered by Justice White, held that 18 U.S.C. §1461 is constitutional as applied to the commercial distribution of obscene material to willing adult recipients, reversing the district court. Justice Harlan filed a concurring opinion agreeing with the majority's conclusion.

The Supreme Court affirmed Perez's conviction under Title II of the Consumer Credit Protection Act, 18 U.S.C. § 891 et seq., holding that extortionate credit transactions are a 'class of activities' that Congress may regulate under the Commerce Clause even though individual transactions are purely intrastate, because…

The Court affirmed the Ninth Circuit, holding that the Selective Service regulation does not require local boards to reopen a registrant’s classification when conscientious objection crystallizes after the mailing of an induction notice, because such crystallization is not a circumstance beyond the registrant’s…

The Supreme Court affirmed the Ninth Circuit, holding that the Selective Service regulation bars a local board from reopening a registrant’s classification when a conscientious‑objector claim crystallizes after the mailing of an induction notice but before induction, because such crystallization does not constitute a…

The Court, in an opinion authored by Chief Justice Burger, affirmed the Court of Appeals and the District Court's desegregation order, holding that the district court's plan—including pairing and grouping of noncontiguous zones and the use of transportation—was permissible and that racial balance ratios are not…

Justice Harlan delivered the opinion of the Court, holding that the warrantless arrest and the incident-to-arrest search of Harold Whiteley violated the Fourth Amendment because the arrest warrant was not supported by sufficient probable‑cause information and the seized evidence must be excluded.

The Court, in an opinion authored by Chief Justice Burger and joined by all participating justices, held that Title VII bars employment practices that are facially neutral but have a disparate impact on a protected class unless the practice is job related.

The Court held that the Secretary of Transportation's approval of federal funding for a highway through Overton Park was judicially reviewable and was not committed to agency discretion because the governing statutes supplied clear standards.

The Supreme Court held that Time Magazine’s omission of the word “alleged” in reporting a government commission’s description of alleged police misconduct does not satisfy the “actual malice” requirement of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, and therefore reversed the Court of Appeals, remanding for further proceedings.

Chief Justice Burger, writing for a five‑justice majority, held that a statement obtained in violation of Miranda may be used to impeach a defendant who testifies, because the Fifth Amendment privilege does not bar its use for credibility purposes. The Court relied on Walder v.

The Supreme Court reversed the Seventh Circuit's remand decision in this protracted antitrust counterclaim litigation, holding that the District Court acted within its discretion in rejecting Hazeltine's statute-of-limitations and release defenses as untimely raised a year after the evidence closed, and that the…

The Court, in an opinion authored by Justice Black, reversed the district court's injunction and remanded the case, holding that federal courts may not enjoin pending state criminal prosecutions except in extraordinary circumstances and that only a party actually facing prosecution has standing.

The Supreme Court reversed the three‑judge district court’s injunction against the Illinois intimidation statute, holding that the plaintiffs lacked standing and that federal courts may not enjoin state criminal prosecutions absent a clear showing of irreparable injury and statutory authority.

In a plurality opinion by Justice Harlan announcing the judgment of the Court, the Supreme Court first held that the Government's direct appeal was proper under the motion-in-bar provision of 18 U.S.C.

The Supreme Court vacated the summary‑judgment ruling and remanded the case for further fact development, holding that the employer’s policy of refusing to hire women with preschool‑age children but hiring men with such children violated Title VII unless it fit the narrowly‑drawn bona fide occupational qualification…