Supreme Court of the United States, 1991

The Court held per curiam that the Secret Service agents were entitled to qualified immunity because a reasonable officer could have believed probable cause existed to arrest Bryant for threatening the President, even if that belief was mistaken.

Justice Souter delivered the opinion of the Court, holding that 38 U. S. C. § 2024(d) imposes no implicit durational limit on military leave qualifying for civilian reemployment protection.

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Stevens, held that FOIA Exemption 6 permitted the State Department to redact identifying information from reports of confidential interviews with Haitian returnees.

The Court reversed the Ninth Circuit's grant of habeas relief, holding that neither the admission of evidence of the victim's prior injuries nor the instruction governing its use violated due process.

The Court held that the District Court lacked jurisdiction to enjoin either of the Federal Reserve Board’s ongoing administrative proceedings against MCorp. The proceedings fell within the Bankruptcy Code’s police-or-regulatory-power exception to the automatic stay, and bankruptcy jurisdiction did not override FISA’s…

Justice O’Connor delivered the opinion of the Court, holding that state officials sued in their individual capacities are persons under § 1983 even when the alleged injuries arise from official acts.

The Court reversed Gentile's disciplinary sanction through two overlapping majorities. In Parts I and II of Chief Justice Rehnquist's opinion, joined by Justices White, O'Connor, Scalia, and Souter, the Court held that the First Amendment permits regulation of participating lawyers' extrajudicial speech under a…

Justice O'Connor's majority opinion affirmed the Fourth Circuit's judgment barring federal habeas review of Coleman's procedurally defaulted claims. The Harris presumption applies only when the state decision fairly appears to rest primarily on, or be interwoven with, federal law; Virginia's dismissal of Coleman's…

Justice O'Connor's majority opinion rejected a categorical rule that suspicionless police questioning and requests to search luggage aboard a bus necessarily constitute a Fourth Amendment seizure.

Justice Scalia's opinion for the Court held that an Eighth Amendment challenge to prison conditions requires both a sufficiently serious deprivation and a culpable state of mind, with deliberate indifference supplying the applicable mental-state standard.

A "final judgment" that starts the 30-day attorney-fee filing period under the Equal Access to Justice Act must be a judgment rendered by a court that terminates the civil action; an administrative award of benefits following a remand does not qualify, and the clock runs only after the time to appeal the court's…

Justice White's opinion for the Court affirmed the Fifth Circuit, holding that the District Court properly used its inherent authority to award NASCO its entire attorney's fees and related expenses for Chambers' pervasive bad-faith abuse of the judicial process.

The Court held Connecticut's prejudgment real-estate attachment procedure unconstitutional as applied to an assault-and-battery claim where the plaintiff had no pre-existing interest in the property and alleged no exigent circumstances warranting attachment without prior notice and a hearing.

Justice Kennedy's majority opinion held that a private litigant's racially discriminatory peremptory challenges in a civil trial constitute governmental action and violate the excluded jurors' equal protection rights. An opposing civil litigant has third-party standing to assert those rights.

The Court held that a prosecutor has absolute immunity from § 1983 damages liability for appearing in court and presenting evidence in support of a search warrant, but not for giving police investigative legal advice about hypnosis and probable cause to arrest. It therefore affirmed in part and reversed in part.

Justice Blackmun's majority opinion held that police may search a container in an automobile without a warrant when probable cause supports searching that container, even without probable cause to search the entire vehicle.

The Court affirmed the rejection of Hernandez's Batson challenge. Justice Kennedy's plurality, joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices White and Souter, concluded that the prosecutor's concerns about two bilingual prospective jurors' willingness to accept the official translation were race neutral, and that the…

Chief Justice Rehnquist's majority opinion upheld the Title X regulations against facial statutory and constitutional challenges and affirmed the Court of Appeals. The Court held that restrictions on abortion counseling, referral, and advocacy, together with physical and financial separation requirements, permissibly…

Chief Justice Rehnquist's opinion for the Court held that general consent to search a car for narcotics may reasonably include permission to open a closed paper bag capable of containing drugs.

The Court affirmed dismissal of Siegert's Bivens action because his allegations of malicious defamation and resulting employment losses did not establish a constitutional deprivation.

Justice White's opinion for the Court held that Gilmer's ADEA claim was subject to compulsory arbitration under the agreement in his securities registration application and affirmed the Fourth Circuit.

Justice O'Connor's majority opinion held that judicial probable-cause determinations within 48 hours of a warrantless arrest generally satisfy the Fourth Amendment, although an individual may establish that a shorter delay was unreasonable.

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Scalia, held that a police show of authority does not constitute a Fourth Amendment seizure unless the person submits; absent submission, physical force is required.

Justice Blackmun's opinion for the Court held that the Florida forum-selection clause in Carnival's passenger tickets was enforceable despite its nonnegotiated character. Assuming notice, the passengers failed to establish sufficient inconvenience or fundamental unfairness to defeat enforcement.

The Court, through Justice Kennedy, affirmed the Eleventh Circuit's judgment that McCleskey's assertion of a Massiah claim in his second federal habeas petition constituted abuse of the writ.

Justice Kennedy's opinion for the Court held that prosecutors violate prospective jurors' equal protection rights by excluding them through peremptory challenges solely because of race, and that a criminal defendant may assert those rights regardless of whether the defendant and excluded jurors share the same race.

Justice O’Connor’s opinion held that copyright requires independent creation and at least minimal creativity, and that facts cannot be copyrighted. A factual compilation may protect an original selection, coordination, or arrangement, but not the underlying facts; effort alone does not establish copyright protection.

The Court, in an opinion by Chief Justice Rehnquist, held that Title VII did not apply to United States citizens employed abroad by American employers and affirmed the Fifth Circuit.

The Court held that the Federal Tort Claims Act's discretionary function exception barred Gaubert's negligence claims concerning federal regulators' informal supervision of a savings and loan association.

Through different five-Justice majorities, the Court held that Fulminante's confession was coerced, that admission of a coerced confession is subject to harmless-error analysis, and that the error here was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Supreme Court held that Johnson Controls’ policy excluding women who are capable of bearing children from lead‑exposed jobs is unlawful sex discrimination under Title VII as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and that the policy does not satisfy the narrow bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ)…

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Blackmun, held that federal courts of appeals must review district courts' determinations of state law de novo, including predictions about unsettled state law.

The Supreme Court reversed the D.C. Circuit, holding that postal unions lack standing because they are not within the zone of interests protected by the Private Express Statutes, and therefore cannot challenge the Postal Service’s suspension of those statutes for international remailing.

Chief Justice Rehnquist's opinion of the Court held that postal employees fall outside the zone of interests protected by the Private Express Statutes and therefore cannot challenge the Postal Service's suspension of those statutes for international remailing.

The Court held per curiam that adding a nondiverse transferee of a plaintiff's contractual interest did not defeat diversity jurisdiction that existed when the action commenced, where the transferee had no interest in the litigation and was not indispensable at filing.

The Court held per curiam that the Ninth Circuit erred in denying Lozada a certificate of probable cause to appeal the denial of federal habeas relief. His claim that ineffective assistance deprived him of an appeal made a substantial showing of the denial of a federal right because reasonable jurists could resolve…

The Court held that the Florida Supreme Court’s conclusion that the trial judge found no non‑statutory mitigating circumstances was not fairly supported by the record, rendering Parker’s death sentence unconstitutional; it reversed the Eleventh Circuit and remanded for further state proceedings.

The Court unanimously held that Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(2) saved FirsTier's notice of appeal, filed after a bench ruling disposing of all its claims but before entry of judgment.

Justice Stevens delivered the unanimous opinion holding that the ordinary preponderance-of-the-evidence standard governs all discharge exceptions under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a), including fraud.

The Supreme Court held that a bench ruling announcing a decision that purports to dispose of all claims qualifies as a “decision” under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(2), so a notice of appeal filed after the announcement but before entry of judgment is treated as timely for the later judgment.