X-Nico

100 unusual facts about Supreme Court of the United States


A Planet for the President

At a later point in the novel, the President's inner circle will even launch a chemical attack on the unsuspecting—and innocent—Justices of the Supreme Court, all nine of whom will be killed in the attack.

Ackley, Iowa

The Iowa state constitution was amended in 1882, making the production and sale of alcoholic beverages illegal within the state (i.e. Iowa became a “dry state.”) The Supreme Court declared the amendment unconstitutional in 1883, but the Iowa legislature then passed another very strict prohibition law.

ADA Amendments Act of 2008

Passed on September 17, 2008, and signed into law by President George W. Bush on September 25, 2008, the ADAAA was a response to a number of decisions by the Supreme Court that had interpreted the original text of the ADA.

Ada Copeland King

Her representatives included the notable lawyers Everett J. Waring, the first black lawyer to argue a case before the Supreme Court of the United States, and J. Douglas Wetmore, who contested segregation laws in Jacksonville, Florida.

ADA Litigation in the United States

The Supreme Court denied a writ of certiorari petition in Danisha Tetreault, et al. v. Elaine Houghton, et al.

Adam Winkler

His writing on the right to bear arms, which is notable for its middle-of-the-road position—recognizing both the individual right to possess firearms and the legitimacy of effective gun control—has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and numerous lower courts.

Alexander v. Yale

In 1986, the Supreme Court ruled, in Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, that a hostile work environment constituted sexual discrimination, vindicating another line of argument in Alexander v. Yale.

Arthur W. Mitchell

Mitchell's suit was advanced to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the railroad violated the Interstate Commerce Act.

Benjamin Ogle Tayloe

Tayloe's lease to Willard later generated an important case before the Supreme Court of the United States.

Black World Wide Web protest

The Communications Decency Act which gave rise to the protest was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court by a 9-0 vote on June 26, 1997, which upheld a federal district court ruling.

Blue Chip Stamps

In 1975, a lawsuit filed by Blue Chip Stamps was decided by the Supreme Court in the opinion Blue Chip Stamps v. Manor Drug Stores.

Blue Ridge Dam

TEPCO challenged the constitutionality of the TVA Act in federal court, but the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law in 1939, and TEPCO was forced to sell its assets to TVA for $78 million in August of that year.

Boston Sugar Refinery

This was the first prosecution brought in front of the Supreme Court under the Sherman Act.

Bradford R. Wood

He became counselor in the New York Supreme Court in 1835 and in the United States Supreme Court in 1845.

Bruce Karsh

Following law school Karsh served as an appellate clerk to current Supreme Court of the United States justice Anthony M. Kennedy.

Bryant Bowles

In May 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racially segregated public schools were unconstitutional.

California Criminal Syndicalism Act

One of the Act's most well-known convictions was that of Charlotte Anita Whitney, which led to the Act being upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in Whitney v. California (1927), which was itself explicitly overturned in Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), effectively declaring the Act unconstitutional.

California gubernatorial election, 2002

In 2000, the United States Supreme Court in California Democratic Party v. Jones struck down California's blanket primary.

Camp Nordland

One of those convicted, August Klapprott, a naturalised American citizen, later petitioned the Supreme Court of the United States in Klapprott v. United States, 335 U.S. 601 (1949), to intervene in the revocation of his citizenship and proposed deportation that resulted from his conviction.

Capital punishment in Connecticut

Since the 1976 United States Supreme Court decision in Gregg v. Georgia until Connecticut repealed capital punishment in 2012, Connecticut executed one individual, although the law allows executions to proceed for those still on death row and convicted under the previous law.

Carl Marzani

He was convicted on 22 June 1947, but nine counts were overturned on appeal, while the Supreme Court split 4-4 on a rare rehearing of the last two charges.

Chickasaw, Alabama

It was the subject of a Supreme Court of the United States decision (Marsh v. Alabama, 326 U.S. 501 (1946)), which stated that despite being a privately owned town, because it functioned as a town open to the public, the right conferred by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution cannot be abridged.

Child pornography laws in the United States

Pornography is generally protected speech, unless it is obscene, as the Supreme Court of the United States held in 1973 in Miller v. California.

In May 2008, the Supreme Court upheld the 2003 federal law Section 2252A(a)(3)(B) of Title 18, United States Code that criminalizes the pandering and solicitation of child pornography, in a 7-to-2 ruling penned by Justice Antonin Scalia.

ConnectU

In May 2011, after the Court of Appeals found against the Winklevosses, the twins announced that they would petition the Supreme Court of the United States to hear the case.

Constitutional Carry

The phrase "Constitutional Carry" reflects the view that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution permits no restrictions or other regulations on gun ownership, although District of Columbia v. Heller, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 2008, suggests that some state or local controls may be allowed, at least as to certain types of weapons.

Courtroom

An exception was the late U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who broke tradition by adorning his robe with four gold stripes on each sleeve.

Daniel S. Schanck Observatory

The Schanck Observatory was dedicated on 18 June 1866 with an address given by Joseph P. Bradley (1813–1892), a Rutgers College alumnus (A.B. 1836) and prominent attorney who four years later was installed as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States.

David W. Burcham

He graduated first in his class from Loyola Law School, and clerked at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Byron White (1986–87) and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit for Chief Judge Ruggero J. Aldisert (1984–86).

Dayton-Wright Company

A United States Senate committee corroborated these allegations, and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson appointed a commission headed by future Supreme Court of the United States Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes to investigate.

Dean H. Kenyon

In 1987 in Edwards v. Aguillard the Supreme Court heard a case concerning a Louisiana Law that required "creation science" be taught on an equal basis with evolution in public schools.

District of Columbia home rule

Efforts to roll back the city's gun laws were curtailed following the June 26, 2008, Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller.

Educational segregation in Sunflower County, Mississippi

Green v. County School Board of New Kent County 1968 and Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education 1969 caused the Supreme Court to declare that integration in schools had to accomplished immediately.

Elevator Repair Service

As of 2013, ERS is developing two new works for the stage: Arguendo, a staging of the 1991 Supreme Court case Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc., slated to premiere at The Public Theater in September 2013, and Fondly, Collette Richland, with preview performances at the Walker Art Center.

Ernie Chambers

However, in Marsh v. Chambers (1983), the Supreme Court held by a 6–3 vote that both practices were constitutional because of the "unique history" of the United States.

Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

United States Supreme Court decisions in the late nineteenth century interpreted the amendment narrowly, and by 1910, most black voters in the South faced obstacles such as poll taxes and literacy tests, from which white voters were exempted by grandfather clauses.

Four Corners Monument

This issue was resolved when New Mexico sued Colorado in 1919, and in 1925 the Supreme Court ruled that the markers placed during the initial surveys were the actual borders, even if the markers were off in some locations (this includes the Four Corners Monument).

George Starbuck

He was fired by SUNY-Buffalo for not taking a loyalty oath, but was vindicated in the Supreme Court.

Glenn A. Fine

In September 1993, Fine married Beth Heifetz, a former law clerk to United States Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun.

Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research

Thanks to a contribution from the United Auto Workers “The Hand of God” was recast and donated to the city of Detroit in honor of Frank Murphy, Michigan Governor and US Supreme Court Associate Justice.

Gotcha journalism

In 1964, the pivotal U.S. Supreme Court case (New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254) ended most libel protection recourse for public figures in the United States effectively clearing the way for intrusive or adversarial reportage into the public or private affairs of public figures by news media outlets whether newspapers, TV or radio.

Gwendolyn T. Britt

She was one of five Howard University students who were plaintiffs in civil rights suits that were heard before the Supreme Court arguing for desegregation of the amusement park.

Hale Woodruff

Located in Savery Library, they depict events on the ship, the U.S. Supreme Court trial, and the Mende people's return to Africa.

Hales Bar Dam

In 1939, however, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Tennessee Electric Power Company v. TVA in which they upheld the TVA Act, and a few months later, TEPCO was forced to sell most of its assets, including Hales Bar Dam, to TVA for $78 million.

History of Montgomery, Alabama

After the Supreme Court upheld the ruling in November, the city desegregated the bus system, and the boycott was ended.

Insanity defense

In Ford v. Wainwright 477 U.S. 399 (1986), the US Supreme Court upheld the common law rule that the insane cannot be executed.

Irene Morgan

After exhausting appeals in state courts, she and her lawyers took her case on constitutional grounds to the federal courts, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Irvin C. Scarbeck

He tried to appeal his conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Jagdish Bhagwati

In 2000, Bhagwati was signatory to an amicus briefing, coordinated by the American Enterprise Institute, with the Supreme Court of the United States to contend that the Environmental Protection Agency should, contrary to a prior ruling, be allowed to take into account the costs of regulations when setting environmental standards.

Jefferson County, West Virginia

The question of the constitutionality of the formation of the new state was brought before the Supreme Court of the United States in the following manner: Berkeley and Jefferson County, West Virginia, counties lying on the Potomac east of the mountains, in 1863, with the consent of the Reorganized Government of Virginia, had supposedly voted in favor of annexation to West Virginia.

Jeremy Jaynes

On March 30, 2009, the Supreme Court of the United States refused the Virginia Attorney General's petition for a writ of certiorari to review the decision of the Supreme Court of Virginia overturning the anti-spam statute.

Jimmy Hoffa

Appeals filed by his chief counsel, St. Louis defense attorney Morris Shenker, reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

John Bell Williams

After the Supreme Court issued its Brown v. Board of Education ruling on May 17, 1954, which outlawed racial segregation in public schools, Williams made a speech on the House floor branding the day 'Black Monday'.

John T. Fey

Before coming to the Supreme Court, Fey (pronounced "Fie") was a professor of tax law and the dean of the George Washington University Law School.

Johnny Leartice Robinson

Final appeals to the United States Supreme Court challenged the process of lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment.

Joseph Glimco

On November 16, 1959, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Hoffa's appeal, and the Board of Monitors pledged to move immediately to force Glimco out.

Judson C. Clements

It was said of Clements that no opinion written by him was overturned in substance by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Kansas City Public Schools

Missouri v. Jenkins is a case decided by the United States Supreme Court.

Kent Conrad

On January 31, 2006, Conrad was one of only four Democrats to vote in favor of confirming Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.

Kevin B. Kamenetz

He is also admitted to practice before the Bars of the United States District Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States.

Larry Alan Burns

He stayed his order for 90 days to allow for an appeal of his ruling to the entire United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit or the Supreme Court of the United States .

LGBT rights in Louisiana

They were rendered unenforceable in 2003 by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas.

LGBT rights in the United States

In Wisconsin v. Mitchell (1993) the Supreme Court unanimously held that state penalty-enhancement laws for hate crimes were constitutional and did not violate First Amendment rights to freedom of thought and expression.

Maryland Route 508

Adelina Road continues south as a county highway toward the unincorporated community of Adelina and the historic home Taney Place, which was the birthplace of Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney.

Maury County, Tennessee

Several people were eventually charged with rioting and attempted murder; the main attorney who arrived in Columbia to defend Stephenson in the case was Thurgood Marshall, who would later become the first black United States Supreme Court justice.

Mena High School

Feeling the punishment was excessive, the students took legal action, and the case was eventually heard by the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled that school boards have a responsibility to assure that the constitutional rights of students are upheld.

Midland, Virginia

Midland is the closest community to the birthplace of John Marshall, the longest-serving Chief Justice in Supreme Court history.

Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission

The "sovereignty" the state was trying to protect was against federal enforcement of civil rights laws, such as the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act, and U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

Mitigating factor

In a series of decisions since 1972, the United States Supreme Court has attempted to make the sentence of death in the United States less arbitrary by emphasizing that the judge or jury must be given the opportunity to consider all mitigating evidence before determining the sentence.

National City Lines

In 1948, the United States Supreme Court (in United States v. National City Lines Inc.) permitted a change in venue to the Federal District Court in Northern Illinois.

National Collegiate women's ice hockey championship

In 1992, the Supreme Court of the United States status cut and when the plaintiffs can ask for compensatory damage to universities and colleges by virtue of the Title IX if the discrimination is deliberate.

New York City Council

In 1989, the Supreme Court ruled that the Board of Estimate also violated the one-person, one-vote mandate.

Northern Neck Proprietary

A portion of this estate, however, was later the subject of the landmark Supreme Court case Martin v. Hunter's Lessee (1816).

Paul Cameron

Cameron's testimony went unused, and the law was struck down by the Supreme Court.

Paul Schenck

In Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network of Western New York, Schenck's challenge to a court order prohibiting certain forms of sidewalk counseling went to the Supreme Court in 1996.

Plitt Theatres

Paramount was required to divest the theater chain as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. (1948).

Powerex Corp. v. Reliant Energy Services Inc.

, 551 U.S. 224 (2007), was a case of the Supreme Court of the United States about federal court jurisdiction and foreign sovereigns.

Rick Chase

The religious nature of the event was in violation of the U.S. Supreme Court's interpretation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and as such the school superintendent said the group would not be permitted to return.

Robin Lovitt

It would have been the 1000th execution in the United States since the Supreme Court ruled in Gregg v. Georgia that new capital punishment laws were constitutionally permissible in 1976.

Safford Unified School District

Safford Unified School District v. Redding, a case involving the strip search of Savana Redding, a 13-year-old student of Safford Middle School, reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 2009.

Samuel Birdsall

Not a candidate for renomination in 1838, Birdsall was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court in 1838; and served as district attorney of Seneca County in 1846.

Sarah Aldridge

After earning her undergraduate degree, followed in 1933 by her law degree from the National University of Washington, D.C. (now George Washington University), she was admitted to practice in Virginia and Washington D.C., and before the US Court of Claims and the US Supreme Court.

Separate Car Act

Finally, the case ended in the Supreme Court of the United States in Plessy v. Ferguson with the judgment being upheld, leading to the judicial sanction of "separate but equal".

Shannon McGauley

McGauley believes sodomy and homosexuality are "improper", but said he respects the Supreme Court's 6-3 decision in Lawrence v. Texas which struck down the criminal prohibition of sodomy in Texas.

Show Me!

Show Me! was not the direct subject of the Ferber case, but the book was prominently featured by both sides in the litigation, and it played a significant role in the oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Solicitor General

In many states, the Solicitor General also formulates a State's legal position in significant out-of-state cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.

Spencer Haywood

The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court before the NBA agreed to a settlement.

Strawberry Islands

The islands and the adjacent Strawberry Channel were part of a border dispute between Wisconsin and Michigan that was eventually resolved in the 1926 United States Supreme Court case Michigan v. Wisconsin.

Taney County, Missouri

The county was officially organized on January 4, 1837, and named in honor of Roger Brooke Taney, the fifth Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, most remembered for later delivering the majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford.

The Executioner's Song

Notable not only for its portrayal of Gilmore and the anguish surrounding the murders he committed, the book also took a central position in the national debate over the revival of capital punishment by the Supreme Court as Gilmore was the first person in the United States executed since the re-instatement of the death penalty in 1976.

The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America

The book begins by examining the family history and early life of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., the future U.S. Supreme Court Justice, and goes on to recount the acquaintance among Holmes, James, Peirce, Dewey and others, and how their association led to James' development of pragmatism.

The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge

Prominent New York Times writers have contributed with essays on health, the Supreme Court and war, among other topics.

The Old Man Down the Road

This case, Fogerty v. Fantasy, Inc., became precedent when the U.S. Supreme Court (1993) overturned lower court rulings and awarded attorneys' fees to Fogerty, without Fogerty having to show that Zaentz's original suit was frivolous.

Thomas Newman O'Neill, Jr.

He was a law clerk to Judge Herbert F. Goodrich, U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit from 1953 to 1954, and to Justice Harold H. Burton, Supreme Court of the United States from 1954 to 1955.

Todd Tiahrt

"Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court justice, if those circumstances were in place, is it possible that we would be denied his great mind?"

United States presidential primary

A few states once staged a blanket primary, in which voters could vote for one candidate in multiple primaries, but the practice was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2000 case of California Democratic Party v. Jones as violating the freedom of assembly guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Vincent Kosuga

After a federal judge ruled against them, they declined to appeal to the Supreme Court and the ban stood.

Why People Believe Weird Things

He closes retelling how a constitutional ban on teaching creationism in public schools was narrowly upheld at the Supreme Court of the United States in 1987.

Wickliffe Draper

He had also promoted opposition to the desegregation of public schools mandated by the Supreme Court's 1954 decision, Brown v. Board of Education.

Wilma Scott Heide

Heide was involved in the Pittsburgh Press case that ended the practice of listing separate help wanted ads for men and women, decided in 1973 by the Supreme Court of the United States in Pittsburgh Press Co. v. Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations.


1963 Pulitzer Prize

Anthony Lewis of The New York Times, for his distinguished reporting of the proceedings of the United States Supreme Court during the year, with particular emphasis on the coverage of the decision in the reapportionment case and its consequences in many of the States of the Union.

Albert Lewis Fletcher

He was a staunch advocate of desegregation, supporting the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, and reprimanding Governor Orval Faubus for attempting to prevent desegregation at Little Rock Central High School in 1957.

Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company

Atlantic Mutual was involved in a significant tax law case which reached the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1990s.

Canton Railroad

The Canton Railroad dispute with Maryland involving whether the state franchise tax on railroad activities in the port of Baltimore violated the Import-Export or Commerce Clauses of the Constitution led to the Supreme Court case Canton Railroad Company v. Rogan, 340 U.S. 511 (1951).

Civil Rights Act of 1875

The Supreme Court of the United States in a nearly unanimous decision declared the act unconstitutional in the Civil Rights Cases (1883) with Justice John Marshall Harlan providing the lone dissent.

David Westin

After graduation, he served as a law clerk to J. Edward Lumbard of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and later clerked for Lewis F. Powell of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Elisabeth Gordon Chandler

Chandler excelled especially in portraiture, and produced busts which were definitive images of such notables as Nobelist Dr. Albert Michelson, United States Secretary of Defense James Forrestal, Supreme Court Chief Justices John Jay, Charles Evans Hughes and Harlan Fiske Stone, actor Charles Coburn, artists James Montgomery Flagg and Alphaeus Philemon Cole, and Adlai Stevenson.

Emily Lyons

In 2005, Lyons appeared in a controversial advertisement opposing the nomination to the Supreme Court of John G. Roberts, who seven years before the bombing had filed a brief opposing the prosecution of abortion clinic blockaders under the federal Ku Klux Klan Act.

Eugene Volokh

He was a law clerk for Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and later for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Henry Brockholst Livingston

Henry Brockholst Livingston (November 25, 1757 – March 18, 1823) was an American Revolutionary War officer, a justice of the New York Court of Appeals and eventually an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Jimmy L. Glass

He is probably best known not for his crime, but as petitioner in the U.S. Supreme Court case Glass v. Louisiana.

Joe Doherty

In August 1991, Doherty was transferred to a federal prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and on 16 January 1992 the Supreme Court of the United States overturned a 1990 Federal Appeals Court ruling by a 5-to-3 decision, paving the way for his deportation.

John J. Creedon

He is a member of the New York Bar and the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Johnny Callison

Callison became a fan favorite in Philadelphia; Supreme Court Justice and lifelong Phillies follower Samuel Alito was one such fan, even stating that while as a boy rooting for the Phillies he "adopted Johnny Callison out there" (in right field).

Jonathan Tasini

Tasini was the lead plaintiff in the case of New York Times Co. v. Tasini, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (in June 2001) in favor of the copyright claims of writers whose work was republished in electronic databases without their permission.

Joyce L. Kennard

Like her retired counterpart from the Supreme Court of the United States, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Kennard often asks the first question in a given case.

Leonard I. Garth

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito clerked for Garth from 1976 to 1977 in his first job out of law school.

Markman hearing

Holding a Markman hearing in patent infringement cases has been common practice since the U.S. Supreme Court, in the 1996 case of Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., found that the language of a patent is a matter of law for a judge to decide, not a matter of fact for a jury to decide.

Mendi Bible

Adams, a former President of the United States and a then-U.S. Representative, was given the Bible as a gift in thanks for his representation of the Mende captives before the Supreme Court, who were freed when the Court ruled in their favor.

National Register of Historic Places listings in Washington, D.C.

This action was eventually overturned in the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision in Bolling v. Sharpe, which made segregated public schools illegal in the District of Columbia.

New York City Law Department

Among the better-known cases that the Department has litigated before the U.S. Supreme Court are Goldberg v. Kelly, Penn Central Transportation Co. v. New York City, Ward v. Rock Against Racism, Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, and Permanent Mission of India v. City of New York.

Paul Posnak

He has performed at the White House, the US Supreme Court, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Richard Raysman

Raysman is admitted to the New York and Connecticut State bars, the Supreme Court of the United States, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York.

Society for Human Rights

Indeed, all gay-interest publications were deemed obscene until 1958, when the Supreme Court ruled in One, Inc. v. Olesen that publishing homosexual content did not mean the content was automatically obscene.

Stanley Fish

In the latter piece, Fish argues that, if one has some answer in mind to the question "what is free speech good for?" along the lines of "in the free and open clash of viewpoints the truth can more readily be known," then it makes no sense to defend deliberate malicious libel (such as that which was at issue in the U.S. Supreme Court case of Hustler Magazine v. Falwell) in the name of "free speech."

Thomas Jefferson Building

Senate, House and Supreme Court pages formerly attended school together in the Capitol Page School located on the attic level above the Great Hall.

Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse

who had worked at the courthouse from 1961 to 1965 as a judge of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals before later being elevated to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Too Young to Die?

His sentence was reversed in May 1987, by the U. S. Supreme Court, in Gray v. Mississippi, 481 U.S. 648, on the basis "a qualified juror was excluded from his trial".

WHOL

The case eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1955 ruled the FCC had acted properly.