Supreme Court of the United States, 1976

The Supreme Court held that Oklahoma's scheme barring the sale of 3.2% 'nonintoxicating' beer to males under 21 while permitting sales to females under 18 denies males aged 18-20 the equal protection of the laws, applying Reed v.

The Supreme Court held that Section 202(b)(1)(B) of the Social Security Act, which denies wife’s insurance benefits to divorced wives under age 62, does not violate the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

The Court held that a state labor-relations order violated the First Amendment by barring public-school employees from speaking at an open school-board meeting about pending collective-bargaining matters merely because they were not union representatives.

The Court held that a school board conducting an open public meeting could not exclude a teacher from speaking about pending collective-bargaining issues merely because he was not the union's representative.

The Court held that deliberate indifference to a prisoner's serious medical needs violates the Eighth Amendment, but negligent diagnosis or treatment and disagreements over medical judgment do not by themselves state a constitutional claim.

The Court holds that where a State has provided an opportunity for full and fair litigation of a Fourth Amendment claim, the Constitution does not require that a state prisoner be granted federal habeas corpus relief on the ground that evidence obtained in an unconstitutional search or seizure was introduced at his…

The Supreme Court affirmed the Second Circuit, holding that a federal district court may not enjoin a sympathy strike that is not over a grievance subject to the contract’s arbitration procedure, even though the strike may violate an express no‑strike clause.

The Supreme Court held that routine stops of vehicles for brief questioning at permanent Border Patrol checkpoints are consistent with the Fourth Amendment even though made without any individualized suspicion, and that fixed checkpoint operations need not be authorized in advance by a judicial warrant.

The Supreme Court affirmed the Second Circuit, holding that a federal district court may not issue a preliminary injunction against a sympathy strike when the strike is not over an arbitrable grievance, even though the collective‑bargaining agreement contains a no‑strike clause.

The Supreme Court of the United States affirmed the Supreme Court of Florida's judgment upholding Charles William Proffitt's death sentence for first-degree murder, holding that Florida's post-Furman capital-sentencing statute satisfies the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.

The Court held that capital punishment for murder is not categorically unconstitutional under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. It also held that Georgia's revised capital-sentencing system, which requires proof of an aggravating circumstance, guides sentencing discretion, and provides comparative appellate…

The Court rejected the claim that the death penalty is unconstitutional in every circumstance, but held that Louisiana’s mandatory death-sentencing scheme violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments because it does not allow individualized consideration of the offense and offender and leaves juries’ effective…

The Supreme Court held that North Carolina's mandatory death penalty statute for first-degree murder violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Rejecting the petitioners' broader claim that capital punishment is per se unconstitutional (a claim resolved in Gregg v.

The Court held that physicians who perform nonmedically indicated abortions have Article III standing because Missouri's Medicaid limitation causes them concrete financial injury, and they may generally assert the constitutional rights of their patients because of the close physician-patient relationship and obstacles…

The Court, per curiam, held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in dismissing the antitrust action for failure to comply with Rule 37, and therefore reversed the Third Circuit's judgment.

The Supreme Court affirmed the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, holding that the warrant-based search of a sole practitioner's offices, the seizure of his business records, and their admission at trial do not violate the Fifth Amendment because he was never compelled to say or do anything — the records were…

The Supreme Court, vacating the Ninth Circuit's affirmance and remanding, held that the suit remained a live controversy despite the named student plaintiffs' graduation and the absence of Rule 23 class certification, because the United States' intervention under 42 U.S.C. sec. 2000h-2 sustains the case.

The Court, in an opinion authored by Justice Rehnquist, held that Congress may, under §5 of the Fourteenth Amendment, authorize private suits for money damages against a state to enforce Title VII, and that such awards are not barred by the Eleventh Amendment.

The Court, per curiam, held that the New Orleans ordinance's grandfather provision is a constitutionally permissible classification under the rational basis test and does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause, and that the Court has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §1254(2) to review the case.

The Court, issuing a per curiam opinion, held that Massachusetts' mandatory retirement provision for uniformed state police officers at age 50 does not violate the Equal Protection Clause because the classification is rationally related to a legitimate state interest in maintaining a physically capable police force.

The Supreme Court held that the 1974 amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act, which extended minimum wage and maximum hour requirements to nearly all employees of state and local governments, exceed Congress' authority under the Commerce Clause insofar as they operate to directly displace the States' freedom to…

The United States Supreme Court reversed the Illinois Supreme Court's judgment that had voided the Serbian Orthodox Church's suspension, removal, and defrockment of Bishop Dionisije as 'arbitrary' and had invalidated the Mother Church's reorganization of the American-Canadian Diocese into three dioceses.

The Court affirmed the district court, holding that Maryland’s non‑categorical grant program for private colleges, including religiously affiliated institutions, does not violate the Establishment Clause because it has a secular purpose, its primary effect is not to advance religion, and it does not create excessive…

The Court affirmed the district court, holding that Maryland's amended grant program for private colleges, including religiously affiliated ones, satisfies the Lemon three‑part test and does not create excessive entanglement; the denial of a refund award was also upheld.

The Supreme Court held that the Wild Free‑roaming Horses and Burros Act is a constitutional exercise of Congress’s power under the Property Clause, reversed the district court’s injunction and remanded for further proceedings.

The Court held that § 4 of Pub. L. 280 (28 U.S.C. § 1360), which extends state civil jurisdiction over causes of action involving Indians in Indian country, does not authorize States to tax reservation Indians or their property; the section merely permits state courts to adjudicate private civil disputes, applying…

The Supreme Court affirmed the Ninth Circuit's denial of two petitions for writs of mandamus seeking to vacate discovery orders compelling production of California Adult Authority files and a sample of inmates' correctional files in a prisoners' class action.

The Supreme Court reversed the Seventh Circuit's grant of partial summary judgment to a TSC shareholder challenging the joint proxy statement for National Industries' acquisition of TSC, holding that none of the alleged omissions was material as a matter of law.

The Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justice Stevens, affirmed summary judgment for the City of Marion and its officials, holding that a discharged police officer classified as a 'permanent employee' had no property interest in continued employment because the sufficiency of his entitlement claim was governed by state…

The Supreme Court reversed the D.C. Circuit's direction that partial summary judgment be granted to black applicants who challenged the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department's use of 'Test 21,' a verbal-ability qualifying examination that disqualified black applicants at four times the rate of whites.

The Supreme Court reversed the Tenth Circuit, holding that source, byproduct, and special nuclear materials are not "pollutants" under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and that the EPA Administrator acted within statutory authority by declining to regulate their discharge.

The Court held that indigent individuals and organizations lacked Article III standing to challenge the IRS's favorable tax treatment of nonprofit hospitals because their alleged denial of hospital services was not fairly traceable to the challenged revenue ruling and favorable relief would not necessarily redress the…

The Supreme Court reversed a three-judge District Court judgment that had invalidated the alien-eligibility conditions of Medicare Part B, 42 U.S.C. § 1395o(2)(B). Holding first that the District Court had jurisdiction over all three plaintiffs' claims despite imperfect exhaustion—because the Secretary's stipulations…

The Supreme Court held that § 717 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as added by § 11 of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, provides the exclusive judicial remedy for claims of discrimination in federal employment, pre-empting suits under other federal statutes such as 42 U.S.C.

The Supreme Court reversed a Fourth Circuit en banc judgment affirming dismissal on the pleadings of a Sherman Act §§ 1 and 2 suit in which a proprietary Raleigh hospital alleged that Rex Hospital's trustees and allied officials conspired to block its relocation and expansion in order to monopolize compensated…

Justice Blackmun's opinion for the Court held that consumers may assert a First Amendment right to receive advertising from willing speakers and that Virginia could not completely prohibit truthful advertising of lawful prescription-drug prices.

The Supreme Court affirmed the Second Circuit's judgment that sanitized case summaries of Air Force Academy honor and ethics hearings are not exempt from Freedom of Information Act disclosure.

The Supreme Court held that IRS summonses directing attorneys to produce documents their clients had transferred to them for legal advice are enforceable: compelling production from the lawyers exerts no personal compulsion on the taxpayers and therefore does not implicate their Fifth Amendment privileges, and…

The Supreme Court reversed decisions of the First and Ninth Circuits that had expanded inmates' procedural rights in prison disciplinary proceedings. It held that inmates have no right to retained or appointed counsel at such hearings even where the charged conduct is also criminally punishable, that the Fifth…

The Court held that a private damages action under § 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 requires scienter—intent to deceive, manipulate, or defraud—and cannot rest on negligence alone. Because the respondents expressly proceeded only on a negligent-audit theory, the Court reversed without remanding for further proceedings.