Published opinions from 1997. The case name opens the case page.
December 15, 1997522 U.S. 192
Justice Ginsburg delivered the Court’s opinion holding that the MPPAA’s six-year limitations period for collecting withdrawal liability begins when an employer misses a scheduled payment, not when it withdraws from the pension plan.
The Court, in an opinion by Justice O'Connor, held that actions seeking review of local administrative decisions were removable because their federal constitutional claims supplied federal question jurisdiction, and that 28 U. S. C.
The unanimous Court held that a prosecutor is not protected by absolute prosecutorial immunity when personally certifying factual statements under penalty of perjury to support an arrest warrant. In doing so, the prosecutor acts as a complaining witness rather than an advocate.
The Court affirmed, holding that administrative monetary penalties and banking debarment did not bar a later criminal prosecution because the administrative sanctions were civil, not criminal.
Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court, holding that a court of appeals reviewing a federal habeas decision is not required to raise a petitioner's procedural default sua sponte. Procedural default is not jurisdictional and ordinarily is a defense the State must raise and preserve.
Justice Kennedy, writing for a unanimous Court, held that 18 U.S.C. § 666(a)(1)(B) does not require proof that a bribe affected federal funds and that the statute was constitutional as applied to Salinas’s participation in a bribery scheme involving a federal prisoner housed under federally funded arrangements.
The Court affirmed the Fifth Circuit, holding that Louisiana’s open-primary system conflicts with federal election-day statutes insofar as it conclusively elects congressional candidates in October without any further electoral act on the federally prescribed November election day.
Justice O’Connor, writing for a unanimous Court, held that vertical maximum price fixing must be evaluated under the Sherman Act’s rule of reason rather than condemned as unlawful per se, overruling Albrecht v. Herald Co.
Chief Justice Rehnquist's majority opinion held that six individual Members of Congress lacked Article III standing to challenge the Line Item Veto Act. Their alleged loss of legislative power was an abstract institutional injury, not a personal deprivation or the complete nullification of decisive votes recognized in…
Chief Justice Rehnquist, joined by Justices O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas, held that the Due Process Clause does not protect a fundamental right to assistance in committing suicide and that Washington's prohibition satisfies rational-basis review, both facially and as applied to competent, terminally ill…
Justice Stevens, writing for seven Justices, held that the Communications Decency Act's restrictions on indecent and patently offensive Internet communications violated the First Amendment because their vague, content-based prohibitions suppressed substantial protected adult speech and were not narrowly tailored to…
The Supreme Court reversed the Eighth Circuit and held that criminal liability under § 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 may be predicated on the misappropriation theory: a fiduciary who trades on confidential information in breach of a duty to the information's source employs a 'deceptive device' 'in connection with' securities…
The Court, in an opinion by Justice Kennedy, held that RFRA's application to state and local governments exceeded Congress' enforcement power under § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Court, in an opinion by Justice Ginsburg joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, and Thomas, affirmed the rejection of a settlement-only class encompassing present and future asbestos claimants.
Justice Breyer, joined by Justices Stevens, O'Connor, Souter, and Ginsburg, held that guards employed by the private prison-management firm at issue were not entitled to qualified immunity from prisoners' § 1983 suits.
Justice Souter, joined by Justices Stevens, O'Connor, Ginsburg, and Breyer, held that AEDPA's new chapter 153 provisions generally apply only to federal habeas cases filed after the Act became effective, so amended § 2254(d) did not govern Lindh's pending noncapital petition.
The Court, in an opinion by Justice O'Connor joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas, held that New York City's safeguarded Title I program could constitutionally provide publicly employed remedial teachers on religious-school premises.
The Court held that Idaho's Eleventh Amendment immunity bars the Tribe's claims against state officials because the requested declaratory and injunctive relief would function as a quiet title decree and eliminate the State's regulatory authority over submerged lands implicating special sovereignty interests.
The Court, in an opinion by Justice Thomas joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices O'Connor, Scalia, and Kennedy, upheld Kansas's Sexually Violent Predator Act and reversed the Kansas Supreme Court.
The Court held that the rule of Simmons v. South Carolina — requiring that a capital defendant be permitted to inform the sentencing jury that he is parole ineligible when the prosecution argues future dangerousness — was a 'new rule' under Teague v.
The Court affirmed the judgment that the Klehrs' civil RICO action was untimely. It rejected the last-predicate-act accrual rule insofar as that rule allowed a timely predicate act to revive recovery for injuries caused by earlier acts outside the limitations period.
The Supreme Court, per curiam, granted certiorari before final judgment and summarily reversed the Ninth Circuit's vacatur of the District Court's denial of a preliminary injunction against Montana's physician-only abortion statute.
Justice Thomas delivered the unanimous opinion holding that the 1986 amendment expanding the availability of False Claims Act qui tam actions did not apply to this action involving pre-enactment conduct.
The Court, through Justice Ginsburg, held that collateral retained and used by a Chapter 13 debtor under the cram down provision must be valued under § 506(a) using replacement value, rather than foreclosure value or a midpoint between the two.
Chief Justice Rehnquist, writing for a unanimous Court, held that Bracy established good cause under Habeas Corpus Rule 6(a) for discovery supporting his claim of actual judicial bias.
Justice Scalia delivered the unanimous opinion holding that due process did not require a presuspension hearing before a state university suspended a police officer without pay following his arrest and formal felony charges.
Justice Kennedy, writing for a unanimous Court, held that the Tax Injunction Act bars Production Credit Associations from independently seeking federal declaratory and injunctive relief against state taxation when an adequate state-court remedy exists.
The Court, in an opinion by Chief Justice Rehnquist joined by Justices O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas, held that Alabama sheriffs represent the State, not their counties, when performing law enforcement duties.
The Court, in an opinion by Justice Thomas joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, and Souter, held that 28 U. S. C. § 994(h) unambiguously requires career-offender sentencing guidelines to use the statutory maximum including all applicable sentencing enhancements.
The Court held that a sitting President has no constitutional entitlement to defer federal civil damages litigation concerning unofficial conduct occurring before taking office. Separation of powers does not require a categorical or nearly categorical stay, although courts must respect presidential responsibilities…
Justice Souter's opinion held that Suitum satisfied the final-decision requirement for her regulatory takings claim without attempting to sell her transferable development rights (TDRs).
The Court affirmed Johnson’s perjury conviction despite the trial judge’s erroneous failure to submit materiality to the jury. Materiality is an element under 18 U.S.C. § 1623, and Gaudin applied to Johnson’s case on direct review.
Justice Stevens delivered the unanimous opinion holding that the Fourth Amendment does not permit a blanket exception to the knock-and-announce requirement for felony drug investigations.
April 28, 1997520 U.S. 438
The Court affirmed that tribal courts lack civil jurisdiction over personal injury actions against non‑tribal members arising from accidents on a state highway right‑of‑way that runs through reservation land, because Montana v. United States controls and the two Montana exceptions do not apply.
April 28, 1997520 U.S. 397
Justice O'Connor, writing for a unanimous Court, held that Title IV–D does not confer an individual federal right to compel a State's substantial compliance with its child-support enforcement requirements.
The Court unanimously held that the Sixth Circuit imposed an excessively demanding fair-warning standard for criminal liability under 18 U.S.C. § 242. Fair warning does not invariably require a Supreme Court decision involving fundamentally similar facts; other courts’ decisions and general constitutional rules…
Justice Scalia delivered the unanimous opinion reversing the dismissal of irrigation districts’ and ranch operators’ challenge to a Fish and Wildlife Service biological opinion. The ESA’s citizen-suit provision extends standing to the limits of Article III, including plaintiffs asserting economic interests, and…