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100 unusual facts about Supreme Court of the United States


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 Litigation in the United States

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

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.

Beefcake magazine

H. Lynn Womack published magazines such as Manorama, MANual, Fizeek, and Trim and was involved in the U.S. Supreme Court case MANual Enterprises v. Day (1962).

Benjamin Ogle Tayloe

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

Bowman v. Monsanto Co.

Clarence Thomas, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, had formerly served as a lawyer for the Monsanto Corporation.

Bruce Karsh

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

Bruno Bernard

In the early 1950s, Bernard fought obscenity charges that ended with a case in the U. S. Supreme Court.

Bryant Bowles

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

C. B. Bird House

Bird, a prominent attorney, once argued a case in front of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Caleb Nelson

After graduating from Yale, Nelson clerked for Judge Stephen F. Williams of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and then for Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States.

California Criminal Syndicalism Act

One of the Act's most well-known convictions was that of Charlotte Anita Whitney in 1920, which led to the Act being upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in Whitney v. California (1927).

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.

Capital punishment in Louisiana

The Supreme Court, however, ruled it unconstitutional on 25 June 2008 in Kennedy v. Louisiana, saying "there is a distinction between intentional first-degree murder on the one hand and nonhomicide crimes against individual persons".

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.

Caroline County, Virginia

Their case went to the Supreme Court of the United States, which in 1967 found anti-miscegenation statutes to be unconstitutional in Loving v. Virginia.

Chinatown, Los Angeles

After thirty years of decay, a Supreme Court ruling approved condemnation of the area to allow for construction of a major rail terminal, Union Station.

Christine Comer

In mid 2008, Comer filed a suit in federal court in Austin, Texas, that stated that the policy she was terminated for contravening (which required employees to be neutral on the subject of creationism) was unconstitutional, as the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that teaching creationism as science in public schools is illegal.

Clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States

The Clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States is the officer of the Supreme Court of the United States responsible for overseeing filings with the Court and maintaining its records.

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.

Court dress

The robes are similar in appearance to those worn by Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, although they are more elaborately tailored.

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.

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.

El Rancho Vegas

Stripper Candy Barr was headlining at El Rancho Vegas in 1959 when she was arrested by the FBI after her appeal on a marijuana conviction originating in Texas was rejected by the US Supreme Court.

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.

Eppley Airfield

The river cut off the oxbow during an 1877 flood, leaving behind Carter Lake on a portion of its former course; the Supreme Court ruled in 1893 that though the land cut off by the river's changed route now lay west of the Missouri, it remained part of Iowa.

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.

Eyewitness identification

Although it has been observed, by the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., in his dissent to Watkins v. Sowders, that witness testimony is evidence that "juries seem most receptive to, and not inclined to discredit".

Facing Ali

The Justices decided 8-0 (with Thurgood Marshall abstaining), that "... for the reasons stated, that the Department of Justice was simply wrong as a matter of law in advising that the petitioner's beliefs were not religiously based and were not sincerely held".

Fish Wars

The so-called Boldt Decision was reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in 1979 and has been used as a precedent for handling other similar treaties.

Forensic psychology

As a result of Ford v. Wainwright, a case by a Florida inmate on death row that was brought before the Supreme Court of the United States, forensic psychologists are appointed to assess the competency of an inmate to be executed in death penalty cases.

Forsyth County, Georgia

Forsyth county subsequently charged large fees for parade permits until the practice was overturned in Forsyth County, Georgia v. The Nationalist Movement (505 U.S. 123) in the Supreme Court of the United States on June 19, 1992.

Freedom of religion in the Philippines

The ruling went on to cite a U.S. Supreme Court decision which had held that if prohibiting the exercise of religion is merely the incidental effect of a generally applicable and otherwise valid provision, the First Amendment has not been offended.

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.

Graphē paranómōn

In this it seems to resemble a court of review such as the modern U.S. Supreme Court.

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.

Harold B. Willey

Harold B. Willey, an American lawyer, was the Clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1952 to 1956.

History of Montgomery, Alabama

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

I. Beverly Lake, Sr.

When the United States Supreme Court invited North Carolina to appear as amicus curiae in the famous Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954, Lake argued against it, telling the governor that it was a "diabolical scheme" designed to subject the state directly to whatever orders the Court issued as a consequence of the decision.

Increase Sumner

In 1752 Sumner enrolled in the grammar school in Roxbury, now Roxbury Latin School, where the headmaster was William Cushing, future justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

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.

J. Clark Kelso

Kelso was clerk to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit District, before Kennedy was appointed to the Supreme Court, and later worked closely with the California Senate and Assembly to reform the California judiciary and improve the administration of justice.

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.

Jerry Falwell, Jr.

Falwell is licensed by the Commonwealth of Virginia to practice law in Virginia, United States District Courts in both Eastern and Western districts of Virginia, the Fourth Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals, and 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.

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 Doe

Another set of names often used for anonymous parties, particularly plaintiffs, are Richard Roe for males and Jane Roe for females (as in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court abortion decision Roe v. Wade).

John Mercer Langston School

The school was generally overcrowded before the Supreme Court's 1954 decision banning school segregation.

John T. Fey

John T. Fey served as Clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1956 to 1958, during the Chief Justiceship of Earl Warren.

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).

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.

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.

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 Corke

In addition Corke frequently reported from the The Pentagon, U.S. Supreme Court and other locations in Washington D.C. Corke figured prominently in NBC's coverage of the Massacre at Virginia Tech.

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 .

Leonard I. Garth

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

Louie L. Wainwright

He is most famous for being the named respondent in two U.S. Supreme Court cases: Gideon v. Wainwright in which indigents are guaranteed an attorney, and Ford v. Wainwright, in which the Court approved the common law rule prohibiting the execution of the insane.

McClanahan v. Arizona State Tax Comm'n

The Arizona Supreme Court declined to hear the case, and the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari to hear the case.

Michaelmas

The U.S. Supreme Court follows this tradition (though not by name) by convening each new term the first Monday in October, which is shortly after Michaelmas.

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.

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.

National Response Scenario Number One

In the case of an attack on Washington, the president or the presidential successor along with any potential surviving members of Congress, military leadership, department and agency heads, and Supreme Court justices would be high-value rescue targets.

Occupation: Foole

Pacifica appealed this decision, which ultimately made its way to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Okla. Tax Comm'n v. Citizen Band, Potawatomi Indian Tribe of Okla.

, 498 U.S. 505 (1991), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the tribe was not subject to state sales taxes on sales made to tribal members, but that they were liable for taxes on sales to non-tribal members.

Paul Cameron

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

Paul Posnak

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

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.

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.

Richmond Public Schools

The lawsuit, Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, later became one of the five cases decided under the caption Brown v. Board of Education before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1954.

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.

Ronald Dworkin

He was a frequent commentator on contemporary political and legal issues, particularly those concerning the Supreme Court of the United States, often in the pages of The New York Review of Books.

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.

Sau Lan Wu

She first experienced racial discrimination when visiting the Supreme Court and was confronted with the choice of ‘black’ or ‘white’ on the door to the restroom.

Scott S. Harris

The Court announced on July 1, 2013 that Harris would replace longtime Clerk William K. Suter after the latter's retirement on August 31.

Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act

In Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. v. Dabit, 547 U.S. 71 (2006), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that SLUSA operated to preempt state law "holder" claims, which alleged injury based on the prolonged retention of stock due to fraud, as well as claims arising from the fraud-induced purchase or sale of securities.

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.

Sidney Runyan Thomas

Senior White House officials listed Judge Thomas among approximately 10 individuals considered to replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice John Paul Stevens.

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.

State Senator

This changed in 1963 when the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that state legislatures must apportion seats in both houses according to population.

The Hound of Heaven

Thompson's poem is also the source of the phrase, "with all deliberate speed," used by the Supreme Court in Brown II, the remedy phase of the famous decision on school desegregation.

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.

Todd Tiahrt

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

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".

Vic Eliason

After discovering UPI Supreme Court reporter Julia Brienza (born 1962) was a lesbian and had written a free-lance article on "hate radio" for The Washington Blade, a gay newspaper in Washington, DC.

Vincent Kosuga

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

Walter Nathan Tobriner

He served as president of the board from 1957 to 1961, during which time was responsible for carrying out the Supreme Court decision of 1954 which required the desegregation of public schools.

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.

Yosef Abramowitz

Abramowitz won a U.S. Supreme Court case for free speech.


1929 World Series

Attending Game 1 was 9-year-old John Paul Stevens, who would grow up to become a Supreme Court Justice.

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.

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.

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.

Brunswick Town, North Carolina

Maurice, a future colonial governor and father of Supreme Court Associate Justice Alfred Moore, named the town after Brunswick-Lüneburg, the German territory ruled by Great Britain's reigning King George I.

Christopher L. Eisgruber

Following his graduation from law school, Eisgruber served as law clerk to Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and then Justice John Paul Stevens of the Supreme Court of the United States.

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.

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.

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.

Gideon's Trumpet

Gideon's Trumpet is a book by Anthony Lewis describing the story behind Gideon v. Wainwright, in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that criminal defendants have the right to an attorney even if they cannot afford it.

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.

Indecent exposure in the United States

Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc. 501 U.S. 560 (1991) is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States on freedom of speech and the ability of the government to outlaw certain forms of expressive conduct.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

LGBT rights in Louisiana

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

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.

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 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).

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.

WHOL

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