Supreme Court of the United States, 1984

The Supreme Court reaffirmed the Dunn rule that a criminal defendant convicted on one count may not attack that conviction merely because it is inconsistent with the jury's verdict of acquittal on another count. Rejecting the Ninth Circuit's exception for convictions under 21 U.S.C.

The Supreme Court reversed a divided Ninth Circuit panel that had overturned John Abel's bank-robbery conviction because the trial court admitted rebuttal testimony impeaching defense witness Robert Mills with evidence that Mills and Abel belonged to the Aryan Brotherhood, a secret prison gang whose tenets required…

The Court affirmed the Sixth Circuit, holding that a defendant who does not testify cannot appeal a district court’s in limine ruling denying a motion to exclude prior‑conviction impeachment evidence under Rule 609(a); the claim is not preserved for review without testimony.

The Court held that evidence obtained by police officers in objectively reasonable, good‑faith reliance on a search warrant that is later found to be defective is admissible in the prosecution’s case‑in‑chief, thereby creating a good‑faith exception to the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule.

The Court held that the parents of Black public-school children lacked Article III standing to challenge the IRS's tax-exemption practices for racially discriminatory private schools.

The Court held that a prisoner has no legitimate expectation of privacy in a prison cell, so the Fourth Amendment does not apply to searches or seizures conducted there. It also held that an unauthorized intentional deprivation of property by a state employee does not violate procedural due process when the State…

The Court held that Miranda safeguards apply to custodial interrogation of a person suspected of any offense, including a misdemeanor traffic offense. It further held that ordinary roadside questioning during a temporary traffic stop is not custodial interrogation, so the respondent's prearrest statements were…

The Supreme Court reversed the Eleventh Circuit's affirmance of a damages award against Florida Highway Patrol officials, holding that a state official does not lose qualified immunity from a § 1983 damages suit for constitutional violations merely because his conduct also violated the clear command of a state statute…

The Supreme Court held that the discretionary function exception to the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2680(a), bars tort actions against the United States premised on the FAA's alleged negligence in certificating aircraft — both the FAA's adoption of a 'spot-check' system of compliance review and its employees'…

The Supreme Court reversed the Sixth Circuit's affirmance of an injunction barring Memphis from applying its 'last hired, first fired' seniority system in 1981 layoffs that would have reduced the percentage of black firefighters, holding the cases were not moot because the injunction and the underlying modification of…

The Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment does not require law-enforcement agencies to preserve breath samples before admitting breath-analysis results in a drunken-driving prosecution.

The Supreme Court held that a deportable alien seeking withholding of deportation under § 243(h) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended by § 203(e) of the Refugee Act of 1980, must establish a clear probability of persecution — evidence that it is more likely than not that the alien would be persecuted on…

The Court held that Colorado failed to meet the clear‑and‑convincing‑evidence burden required to justify a diversion of Vermejo River water and therefore sustained New Mexico’s exceptions, dismissing the action.

The Supreme Court reversed the Eleventh Circuit, holding that a law‑firm partnership is an "employer" under Title VII and that the prospect of partnership is a term, condition, or privilege of employment, so the plaintiff’s discrimination claim could proceed; the district court’s dismissal was improper.

The Supreme Court held that the Sixth Amendment right to a public trial extends to pretrial suppression hearings, and that closing the entire seven-day suppression hearing in these Georgia gambling prosecutions over the defendants' objection violated that right because the State's proffer was nonspecific, the trial…

The Court held that a warrantless nighttime entry into a home to arrest a person for a nonjailable traffic offense violates the Fourth Amendment because no exigent circumstances existed, vacated the Wisconsin Supreme Court's judgment and remanded for further proceedings.

The Court held that inadequate preparation time, counsel's inexperience, the seriousness or complexity of the charges, and witness accessibility do not alone justify presuming ineffective assistance of counsel.

The Supreme Court held that the Sixth Amendment right to counsel is the right to effective assistance and announced a two-part test for claims of actual ineffectiveness: the defendant must show that counsel's performance fell below an objective standard of reasonableness under prevailing professional norms, and that…

The Court held that appellate courts must independently review whether clear and convincing evidence establishes actual malice in a defamation or product-disparagement case implicating the First Amendment, rather than applying Rule 52(a)'s clearly erroneous standard to that constitutional determination.

The Supreme Court held that Texas courts lacked general personal jurisdiction over the Colombian corporation Helicol because its contacts with Texas were not continuous and systematic, and therefore reversed the Texas Supreme Court's judgment.

The Court, in an opinion authored by Chief Justice Burger, held that a state court may not deny custody to a mother because the child would be raised in a racially mixed household; such a racial classification violates the Equal Protection Clause. The Court reversed the judgment of the District Court of Appeal.

The Court reversed the judgment granting habeas relief to Lydon, holding that he was in custody and had exhausted his state remedies, but that the Double Jeopardy Clause did not require a judicial determination of evidentiary sufficiency before he proceeded to a voluntarily requested second-tier trial.

The Court held that defense counsel's request for an admonition adequately invoked the defendant's constitutional right to have the jury instructed not to draw an adverse inference from his failure to testify.

The Court held that warrantless government intrusion into open fields is not a search prohibited by the Fourth Amendment because individuals have no legitimate expectation of privacy in such areas, even when they post signs, erect fences, or otherwise attempt to exclude the public.

The Court held that attorney-fee awards under 42 U.S.C. § 1988 must ordinarily be calculated using prevailing market rates in the relevant community, even when the prevailing party is represented by a nonprofit legal-services organization.

The Supreme Court reversed the First Circuit and held that Hustler Magazine's regular circulation of thousands of copies in New Hampshire satisfies the minimum‑contacts requirement for personal jurisdiction over a libel action, even though the plaintiff lacks contacts with the forum and the “single publication rule”…

The Supreme Court held that California may exercise personal jurisdiction over a Florida-based National Enquirer reporter and editor who wrote and edited an allegedly libelous article about a California entertainer, because their intentional conduct was expressly aimed at and calculated to cause injury in California…

Justice O'Connor, dissenting, argues that §2 of the Federal Arbitration Act is a procedural provision intended only for federal courts and that the majority erred in extending its application to state courts and prescribing federal procedures for state enforcement.

The Supreme Court held that it had jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1257(2) to review the California Supreme Court's holding that the California Franchise Investment Law does not conflict with the Federal Arbitration Act, but lacked jurisdiction over whether the FAA precludes class-action arbitration because Southland…

The Court held that a state-court judgment has the same claim-preclusive effect in a subsequent federal action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 as it would have in the courts of the State that rendered the judgment. Because federal law did not modify the ordinary operation of 28 U.S.C.

The Court held that the Eleventh Amendment bars a federal court from enjoining state officials to conform their conduct to state law when the relief operates directly against the State.

The Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit's judgment granting habeas relief conditioned on comparative proportionality review, holding that the Eighth Amendment, applicable to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment, does not require a state appellate court to compare a death sentence with penalties imposed in…

Justice Stevens delivered the Court's opinion holding that Sony's sale of Betamax recorders did not constitute contributory copyright infringement because the equipment was capable of substantial noninfringing uses.

The Supreme Court held that a three‑month unexplained absence interrupts the statutory “continuous physical presence” requirement of §244(a)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, disqualifying the alien from suspension of deportation.