Court : US Supreme Court
Walton v. Arizona - 497 U.S. 639 (1990) U.S. Supreme Court Walton v. Arizona, 497 U.S. 639 (1990) Walton v. Arizona No. 88-7351 Argued January 17, 1990 Decided June 27, 1990 497 U.S. 639 CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF ARIZONA Syllabus Petitioner Walton was found guilty in an Arizona court of first-degree murder and was sentenced in a separate sentencing hearing before the judge, as required by state law. Under that law, the judge, inter alia, determines the existence of aggravating and mitigating circumstances and "shall impose" a death sentence if he finds one or more of several enumerated aggravating circumstances and that there are no mitigating circumstances sufficiently substantial to call for leniency. The burden is on the prosecution to establish the existence of aggravating circumstances and on the defendant to establish mitigating ones. The judge sentenced Walton to death, after finding the presence of two aggravating circumstances -- that the murder was commi...
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United States v. Treasury Employees - 513 U.S. 454 (1994) OCTOBER TERM, 1994 Syllabus UNITED STATES ET AL. v. NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION ET AL. CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT No. 93-1170. Argued November 8, 1994-Decided February 22,1995 Mter 501(b) of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 was amended to prohibit a Member of Congress, federal officer, or other Government employee from accepting an honorarium for making an appearance or speech or writing an article, respondents-including individual members of, and a union representing, a class composed of all Executive Branch employees below grade GS-16 who, but for 501(b), would receive honoraria-filed a suit challenging the statute as an unconstitutional abridgment of their freedom of speech. The speeches and articles for which respondents had received honoraria in the past concerned matters such as religion, history, dance, and the environment; with few exceptions...
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Seminole Tribe of Fla. v. Florida - 517 U.S. 44 (1995) OCTOBER TERM, 1995 Syllabus SEMINOLE TRIBE OF FLORIDA v. FLORIDA ET AL. CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT No. 94-12. Argued October 11, 1995-Decided March 27,1996 The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, passed by Congress pursuant to the Indian Commerce Clause, allows an Indian tribe to conduct certain gaming activities only in conformance with a valid compact between the tribe and the State in which the gaming activities are located. 25 U. S. C. 2710(d)(I)(C). Under the Act, States have a duty to negotiate in good faith with a tribe toward the formation of a compact, 2710(d)(3)(A), and a tribe may sue a State in federal court in order to compel performance of that duty, 2710(d)(7). In this 2710(d)(7) suit, respondents, Florida and its Governor, moved to dismiss petitioner Seminole Tribe's complaint on the ground that the suit violated Florida's sovereign immunity from suit in federal ...
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United States v. Winstar Corp. - 518 U.S. 839 (1996) OCTOBER TERM, 1995 Syllabus UNITED STATES v. WINSTAR CORP. ET AL. CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FEDERAL CIRCUIT No. 95-865. Argued April 24, 1996-Decided July 1, 1996 Realizing that the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) lacked the funds to liquidate all of the failing thrifts during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980's, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (Bank Board) encouraged healthy thrifts and outside investors to take over ailing thrifts in a series of "supervisory mergers." As inducement, the Bank Board agreed to permit acquiring entities to designate the excess of the purchase price over the fair value of identifiable assets as an intangible asset referred to as supervisory goodwill, and to count such goodwill and certain capital credits toward the capital reserve requirements imposed by federal regulations. Congress's subsequent passage of the Financial Institutions ...
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Washington v. Glucksberg - 521 U.S. 702 (1997) OCTOBER TERM, 1996 Syllabus WASHINGTON ET AL. v. GLUCKSBERG ET AL. CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT No. 96-110. Argued January 8, 1997-Decided June 26,1997 It has always been a crime to assist a suicide in the State of Washington. The State's present law makes "[p]romoting a suicide attempt" a felony, and provides: "A person is guilty of [that crime] when he knowingly causes or aids another person to attempt suicide." Respondents, four Washington physicians who occasionally treat terminally ill, suffering patients, declare that they would assist these patients in ending their lives if not for the State's assisted-suicide ban. They, along with three gravely ill plaintiffs who have since died and a nonprofit organization that counsels people considering physician-assisted suicide, filed this suit against petitioners, the State and its Attorney General, seeking a declaration that the ban is, on ...
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Clinton v. City of New York - 524 U.S. 417 (1998) OCTOBER TERM, 1997 Syllabus CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, ET AL. v. CITY OF NEW YORK ET AL. APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA No. 97-1374. Argued April 27, 1998-Decided June 25,1998 Last Term, this Court determined on expedited review that Members of Congress did not have standing to maintain a constitutional challenge to the Line Item Veto Act (Act), 2 U. S. C. 691 et seq., because they had not alleged a sufficiently concrete injury. Raines v. Byrd, 521 U. S. 811 . Within two months, the President exercised his authority under the Act by canceling 4722(c) of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which waived the Federal Government's statutory right to recoupment of as much as $2.6 billion in taxes that the State of New York had levied against Medicaid providers, and 968 of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, which permitted the owners of certain food refiners and processors t...
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Apprendi v. New Jersey - 530 U.S. 466 (2000) OCTOBER TERM, 1999 Syllabus APPRENDI v. NEW JERSEY CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW JERSEY No. 99-478. Argued March 28, 2000-Decided June 26, 2000 Petitioner Apprendi fired several shots into the home of an MricanAmerican family and made a statement-which he later retracted-that he did not want the family in his neighborhood because of their race. He was charged under New Jersey law with, inter alia, second-degree possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose, which carries a prison term of 5 to lO years. The count did not refer to the State's hate crime statute, which provides for an enhanced sentence if a trial judge finds, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the defendant committed the crime with a purpose to intimidate a person or group because of, inter alia, race. Mter Apprendi pleaded guilty, the prosecutor filed a motion to enhance the sentence. The court found by a preponderance of the evidence that the sho...
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Stenberg v. Carhart - 530 U.S. 914 (2000) OCTOBER TERM, 1999 Syllabus STENBERG, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF NEBRASKA, ET AL. v. CARHART CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT No. 99-830. Argued April 25, 2000-Decided June 28, 2000 The Constitution offers basic protection to a woman's right to choose whether to have an abortion. Roe v. Wade, 410 U. S. 113 ; Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey, 505 U. S. 833 . Before fetal viability, a woman has a right to terminate her pregnancy, id., at 870 (plurality opinion), and a state law is unconstitutional if it imposes on the woman's decision an "undue burden," i. e., if it has the purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the woman's path, id., at 877. Postviability, the State, in promoting its interest in the potentiality of human life, may regulate, and even proscribe, abortion except where "necessary, in appropriate medical judgment, for the preservation of the [moth...
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McKune v. Lile - 536 U.S. 24 (2001) OCTOBER TERM, 2001 Syllabus McKUNE, WARDEN, ET AL. v. LILE CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT No. 00-1187. Argued November 28, 2001-Decided June 10,2002 Respondent was convicted of rape and related crimes. A few years before his scheduled release, Kansas prison officials ordered respondent to participate in a Sexual Abuse Treatment Program (SATP). As part of the program, participating inmates are required to complete and sign an "Admission of Responsibility" form, in which they accept responsibility for the crimes for which they have been sentenced, and complete a sexual history form detailing all prior sexual activities, regardless of whether the activities constitute uncharged criminal offenses. The information obtained from SATP participants is not privileged, and might be used against them in future criminal proceedings. There is no evidence, however, that incriminating information has ever been disclo...
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McConnell v. Federal Election Comm'n - 02-1674 (2003) SYLLABUS OCTOBER TERM, 2003 MCCONNELL V. FEDERAL ELECTION COMM'N SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES McCONNELL, UNITED STATES SENATOR, et al. v. FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION et al. appeal from the united states district court for the district of columbia No. 021674. Argued September 8, 2003Decided December 10, 2003 The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA), which amended the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (FECA), the Communications Act of 1934, and other portions of the United States Code, is the most recent of nearly a century of federal enactments designed to purge national politics of what [is] conceived to be the pernicious influence of big money campaign contributions. United States v. Automobile Workers, 352 U. S. 567 , 572. In enacting BCRA, Congress sought to address three important developments in the years since this Courts landmark decision in Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U. S. 1 (per curiam): ...
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