Supreme Court of the United States, 1989

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Brennan, held that a RICO pattern requires related predicate acts that amount to or threaten continued criminal activity, but does not require multiple criminal schemes or an organized crime nexus.

The Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment does not forbid the death penalty for individuals who were sixteen or seventeen years old when they committed murder. The Court based its decision on the absence of a national consensus against such executions, as shown by the majority of states that permit capital…

The Court held that Teague's restrictions on new rules apply to collateral challenges to capital sentences, but that requiring instructions enabling Penry's jury to give effect to his mitigating evidence was dictated by existing precedent.

The Court held that the Bankruptcy Code’s § 106(c) does not unmistakably abrogate the States’ Eleventh Amendment immunity from monetary recovery in bankruptcy proceedings. Because the States had not filed proofs of claim, the trustee could not use the turnover and preference provisions to obtain money judgments…

Justice Brennan's opinion held that a defendant who has not filed a claim against a bankruptcy estate has a Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial in a trustee's action to recover an allegedly fraudulent monetary transfer.

The Court held that § 106(c) of the Bankruptcy Code does not unmistakably abrogate the States’ Eleventh Amendment immunity from monetary recovery. Because the States had not filed proofs of claim, the trustee’s actions to recover Medicaid payments and avoid a preferential tax payment were barred, and the Court…

Justice Kennedy's opinion held that New York City's requirement that bandshell performers use city-provided sound equipment and a sound technician is a valid, content-neutral time, place, and manner restriction.

The Court held that § 1983 supplies the exclusive federal damages remedy for violations of § 1981 by state actors, and that municipal liability requires a policy or custom rather than respondeat superior. It also held that identifying final policymakers is a legal question for the trial judge under state law.

The Court affirmed by an equally divided vote the judgment permitting restrictions on IRS disclosure of summoned information. In an opinion by Justice Blackmun, the Court otherwise held that district courts may examine allegedly privileged attorney-client communications in camera to determine whether the crime-fraud…

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Scalia, held that neither Burford nor Younger justified abstention from NOPSI's federal pre-emption challenge to the Council's electricity rate order.

The Court, through Justice Brennan, affirmed the attorney’s fee award. It reaffirmed that the Eleventh Amendment does not bar fees ancillary to prospective relief and held that reasonable fees under § 1988 may include compensation for payment delay.

Justice Kennedy's opinion reaffirmed Runyon's holding that § 1981 prohibits racial discrimination in private contracting, finding no special justification for overruling that statutory precedent.

The Court affirmed the judgment rejecting challenges to California's conclusive marital-paternity presumption, but no rationale commanded five votes. Justice Scalia, joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and, except for footnote 6, Justices O'Connor and Kennedy, concluded that the biological father's asserted parental…

The Court, in an opinion by Justice White, held that States and state officials sued in their official capacities are not persons under § 1983, while preserving official-capacity actions for prospective injunctive relief.

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Marshall, held that courts of appeals may dismiss dispensable nondiverse parties to preserve diversity jurisdiction, although 28 U.S.C. § 1653 authorizes correction only of defective jurisdictional allegations, not defective jurisdictional facts.

Justice Marshall, writing for a unanimous Court, held that general common-law agency principles determine whether a creator is an employee under the Copyright Act’s work-made-for-hire provisions. Neither control over the commissioned product nor formal, salaried status alone supplies the governing test.

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Scalia, held that the Federal Tort Claims Act does not authorize pendent-party jurisdiction over related claims against defendants for whom no independent basis of federal jurisdiction exists.

Justice Blackmun's majority opinion held that prison regulations governing incoming publications are subject to Turner's reasonable-relationship standard, even when publishers' First Amendment rights are implicated. The Court confined Procunier v.

Justice Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court, holding that a civil penalty imposed after criminal punishment for the same conduct can constitute a second punishment prohibited by the Double Jeopardy Clause.

Justice Kennedy's majority opinion held that predispute agreements to arbitrate claims under the Securities Act of 1933 are enforceable, overruled Wilko v. Swan, and applied that ruling to the parties before the Court.

The Court unanimously held in a per curiam opinion that a petitioner is not “in custody” under a conviction whose sentence expired before his habeas petition was filed, even when that conviction enhances a subsequent sentence.

The Court reversed the liability judgment and remanded because the lower courts incorrectly required Price Waterhouse to establish its same-decision defense by clear and convincing evidence rather than a preponderance.

Justice Marshall, writing for a unanimous Court, held that an in forma pauperis complaint is not automatically frivolous under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(d) merely because it fails to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6).

Justice Stevens delivered the unanimous opinion of the Court. The Court held that an agency must supplement an environmental impact statement when significant federal action remains and new information reveals significant environmental effects not already considered.

Justice Brennan's opinion for the Court held that the Indian Child Welfare Act uses a uniform federal definition of domicile. The twins acquired their mother's reservation domicile at birth despite being born off the reservation, and their parents could not defeat exclusive tribal jurisdiction by arranging an…

Chief Justice Rehnquist's opinion held that the agents had reasonable suspicion to stop Sokolow under the totality of the circumstances, even though the individual facts were consistent with innocent travel.

The Court, in an opinion by Justice O’Connor, rejected the requirement that civil rights plaintiffs prevail on the central issue and obtain the primary relief sought to qualify for attorney’s fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988.

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Stevens, held that FOIA Exemption 7(C) protects a private citizen's substantial privacy interest in an FBI criminal-history compilation even when its underlying information appears in scattered public records.

The Court, in an opinion by Justice O'Connor, held that Congress did not authorize FSLIC as receiver to adjudicate creditors' claims against failed savings and loan associations or deprive courts of jurisdiction to determine those claims de novo.

The Court held that Congress did not give the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) exclusive authority to adjudicate state‑law claims against a failed savings and loan and that creditors are entitled to a de novo determination of those claims in court; it also held that creditors need not exhaust…

Justice Kennedy's opinion held that railroad drug and alcohol testing mandated or authorized by the Federal Railroad Administration implicates the Fourth Amendment, but that the challenged tests are reasonable without warrants or individualized suspicion.

Chief Justice Rehnquist's majority opinion held that the Federal Arbitration Act does not preempt California's provision permitting arbitration to be stayed pending related litigation when the parties have agreed to follow California arbitration rules.

Justice White's majority opinion held that Caldwell v. Mississippi did not establish cause for Adams's procedural default because an available state-law objection to the jury instructions was a necessary element of his later Caldwell claim.

Justice White's opinion held that a municipality may be liable under § 1983 for inadequate employee training only when the failure reflects deliberate indifference to constitutional rights and the identified training deficiency actually causes the constitutional injury.

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Blackmun, held that § 506(b) of the Bankruptcy Code allows postpetition interest on an allowed oversecured claim even when the lien is nonconsensual, including a federal tax lien.

Justice Scalia, writing for a unanimous Court, held that presenting a federal claim for the first and only time in a petition for discretionary review, where the merits are considered only for special and important reasons, does not fairly present the claim for federal habeas exhaustion purposes.

The Court held that Michigan v. Long’s plain-statement rule applies to federal habeas review: an ambiguous state-court reference to procedural default does not bar review unless the last state court rendering judgment clearly and expressly relied on that default.

The Court affirmed the denial of habeas relief. Justice O'Connor's majority opinion in Parts I–III held that Teague could not obtain retroactive application of Batson and that his distinct Swain claim was procedurally defaulted.

The Court held that Texas's sales-tax exemption for religious periodicals and sacred books violated the Establishment Clause because it exclusively subsidized publications advancing religious teachings without a sufficient secular basis.

Justice O'Connor's opinion held that benefit denials based on plan interpretations challenged under ERISA § 1132(a)(1)(B) receive de novo review unless the plan grants the administrator or fiduciary discretionary authority.