Supreme Court of the United States, 1987

Justice Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court, affirming the dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction over Wolff and Gourlay. The Court held that constitutionally sufficient contacts and notice do not alone establish personal jurisdiction: absent consent, service of summons must be authorized.

The Court, in an opinion by Justice White, reversed the judgment refusing to enforce an arbitration award reinstating a discharged employee. Courts may not substitute their factual findings, contract interpretations, or remedial judgments for those of an arbitrator acting within the authority conferred by a…

Justice White delivered the Court's opinion affirming the judgment. The Court held that the Wall Street Journal's confidential prepublication information was property protected by the mail and wire fraud statutes; that an employee's deceptive appropriation of that information for personal profit constituted fraud; and…

Justice Marshall's opinion held that discharging McPherson for her private remark hoping a future attempt on the President's life would succeed violated the First Amendment. In context, the remark concerned public affairs, and the employer failed to demonstrate an operational interest outweighing her speech rights…

Chief Justice Rehnquist's opinion affirmed the judgment, holding that the preliminary facts necessary to admit a coconspirator's statement under Rule 801(d)(2)(E) must be proved by a preponderance of the evidence, that the judge may consider the statement itself together with corroborating evidence, and that the…

The Court, through Chief Justice Rehnquist, upheld Congress's conditioning of certain federal highway funds on States' adoption of a minimum drinking age of 21 and affirmed the Eighth Circuit. The condition served the general welfare, was unambiguous, and directly related to safe interstate travel.

The Court, through Justice Blackmun, held that a criminal defendant has a constitutional right to testify and that Arkansas impermissibly infringed that right by categorically excluding hypnotically refreshed testimony.

Justice Stevens's opinion held that the Hague Evidence Convention supplies optional procedures rather than exclusive or mandatory methods for obtaining evidence abroad. Those procedures remain available when evidence is held by a foreign litigant subject to an American court's jurisdiction.

Justice Brennan delivered the unanimous opinion affirming that the employees’ state-law claims were improperly removed to federal court. Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act did not completely preempt claims based on individual employment contracts independent of the collective-bargaining agreement.

Chief Justice Rehnquist's majority opinion held that prison work-assignment and no-return policies preventing certain Muslim inmates from attending Jumu'ah did not violate the Free Exercise Clause.

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Powell, upheld the facial validity of the Secretary's step-two severity regulation. The Social Security Act permits requiring claimants to demonstrate a medically severe impairment before considering age, education, and work experience, and this threshold does not improperly shift…

The Court held that traditional civil-stay factors govern whether a successful state habeas petitioner should remain in custody pending the State's appeal. Rule 23(c) creates a rebuttable presumption of release, and Rule 23(d) creates a rebuttable presumption that the initial custody determination is correct.

Chief Justice Rehnquist's opinion held that the Bail Reform Act's preventive-detention provisions survive a facial challenge under the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause and the Eighth Amendment's Excessive Bail Clause.

Chief Justice Rehnquist's majority opinion held that prisoners have no federal constitutional right to appointed counsel in state postconviction proceedings and that a State's voluntary provision of counsel does not require compliance with Anders withdrawal procedures.

The Court held that the Federal Tort Claims Act does not permit a suit on behalf of a service member killed while performing an activity incident to service, even when the alleged negligence was committed by civilian federal employees.

The Court held that the Federal Tort Claims Act does not permit a suit on behalf of a service member for injuries or death arising out of activity incident to service, even when the alleged negligence was committed by civilian federal employees.

The Court reversed the Arizona Supreme Court, holding that allowing Mauro to speak with his wife in the presence of a police officer did not constitute interrogation under Miranda and Innis, so the taped conversation was admissible.

Justice Powell's majority opinion held that police did not interrogate Mauro by permitting his wife, at her insistence, to speak with him while an officer openly recorded their conversation, despite Mauro's earlier invocation of counsel.

Justice Powell's opinion for the Court affirmed the rejection of McCleskey's federal habeas challenge to his death sentence. Assuming the statistical validity of the Baldus study, the Court held that it did not establish purposeful discrimination by decisionmakers in his case, discriminatory legislative intent, or a…

Justice Scalia's majority opinion held that admitting a nontestifying codefendant's confession with a proper limiting instruction does not violate the Confrontation Clause when the confession eliminates the defendant's name and any reference to the defendant's existence, even if other trial evidence makes the…

The Court, through Justice O'Connor, held that major participation in a felony combined with reckless indifference to human life satisfies the culpability requirement for capital punishment under Enmund, even when the defendant neither killed nor intended to kill.

Justice O’Connor delivered the unanimous opinion of the Court, holding that ERISA preempts Dedeaux’s state common-law tort and contract claims alleging improper processing of disability benefits under an insured employee benefit plan.

Justice O'Connor's unanimous opinion held that Taylor's state-law claims for benefits under an ERISA plan were preempted and displaced by ERISA's exclusive civil enforcement remedy.

The Court reversed and remanded because the disputed and incomplete record did not support summary judgment finding the workplace search unconstitutional. Justice O'Connor's plurality, joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices White and Powell, concluded that public employees may have reasonable expectations of…

Justice White's opinion held that ANILCA § 810 does not displace traditional equitable principles governing injunctive relief and that courts may not presume irreparable injury merely from an agency's failure to evaluate environmental effects.

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Powell, held that an order granting conditional permissive intervention while denying intervention as of right was not immediately appealable.

Justice Stevens delivered the Court's opinion holding that eligibility for discretionary asylum under § 208(a) does not require the more-likely-than-not showing required for withholding of deportation under § 243(h).

The Court held that a district court order granting permissive intervention while denying intervention as of right is not immediately appealable because it is not a collateral order, does not fall within the 1292(a)(1) injunction exception, and does not constitute a complete denial of the right to intervene.

The Court reversed and remanded, holding in Part II-B, joined by eight Justices, that California's exercise of personal jurisdiction over Asahi was unreasonable and unfair. The severe burden on the Japanese defendant, the slight California and plaintiff interests in the remaining indemnification dispute between…

The Court held that it had jurisdiction despite further proceedings remaining in state court and that due process entitled Ritchie to judicial review of confidential child-abuse records for material favorable evidence, but not to inspection of the entire file by defense counsel.

Justice Stevens's majority opinion held that the warrant and its execution did not violate the Fourth Amendment despite the officers' mistaken belief that the third floor contained only one apartment.

Justice Marshall delivered the unanimous opinion holding that Alabama’s mandatory 10% affirmance penalty does not apply in federal diversity actions. Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 38 gives appellate courts discretion to award damages for frivolous appeals, directly conflicting with the state statute’s mandatory…

The Court, through Chief Justice Rehnquist, held that the Fourth Amendment permitted police to open closed containers during a good-faith inventory of an impounded vehicle conducted under standardized procedures.

The Court affirmed the judgment rejecting a facial preemption challenge to California's requirement that employers provide pregnancy disability leave and qualified reinstatement rights.

Justice Blackmun's majority opinion held that new constitutional rules governing criminal prosecutions apply to all state and federal cases pending on direct review or not yet final, even when the rule constitutes a clear break with precedent.