The United States Supreme Court just finished it 2023-2024 term.
I've assigned one the cases it ruled on below to my GOVT 2305 summer 2 students and have requested that they study, describe, and analyze it.
- Click here for pointers.
Acheson Hotels, LLC v. Laufer
A case in which the Court was asked to decide whether a civil rights “tester” has Article III standing to challenge under the Americans with Disabilities Act a hotel’s failure to provide disability accessibility information on its website.
Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP
A case in which the Court held that South Carolina’s congressional redistricting plan does not constitute an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.
Brown v. United States
A case in which the Court held that a state drug conviction counts as an ACCA predicate if it involved a drug on the federal schedules at the time of that conviction.
Campos-Chaves v. Garland
A case in which the Court held that the government provides adequate notice under 8 U.S.C. § 1229(a) when it serves an initial notice document lacking the “time and place” of proceedings followed by an additional document containing that information.
Cantero v. Bank of America, N.A.
A case in which the Court clarified the test for whether the National Bank Act preempts the application of state laws to national banks.
Carnahan v. Maloney
A case in which the Court will decide whether individual members of Congress have Article III standing to sue an executive agency to compel it to disclose information that the members have requested under 5 U.S.C. § 2954.
Chiaverini v. City of Napoleon, Ohio
A case in which the Court will decide whether a Fourth Amendment malicious-prosecution claim can proceed as to a baseless criminal charge so long as other charges brought alongside the baseless charge are supported by probable cause.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association of America
A case in which the Court upheld the funding scheme for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as consistent with the Appropriations Clause.
Department of Agriculture Rural Development Rural Housing Service v. Kirtz
A case in which the Court held that the civil-liability provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act unequivocally and unambiguously waive the sovereign immunity of the United States.
Devillier v. Texas
A case in which the Court was asked to decide whether a person whose property is taken without compensation may seek redress directly under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment even if the legislature has not affirmatively provided them with a cause of action, but it concluded that it did not need to resolve that question to dispose of this case.
Fischer v. United States
A case in which the Court will decide whether 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c), which prohibits obstruction of congressional inquiries and investigations, includes acts unrelated to investigations and evidence.
Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine
A case in which the Court was asked to resolve a challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s 2016 and 2021 approval of the abortion drug mifepristone.
Garland v. Cargill
A case in which the Court will decide whether a bump stock device is a “machinegun” as defined in 26 U.S.C. § 5845(b).
Gonzalez v. Trevino
A case in which the Court will decide whether the probable-cause exception in Nieves v. Barlett can be satisfied by objective evidence other than specific examples of arrests that never happened; and whether Nieves is limited to individual claims against arresting officers for split-second arrests.
Lindke v. Freed
A case in which the Court held that a public official who prevents someone from commenting on the official’s social-media page engages in state action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 only if the official both (1) possessed actual authority to speak on the State’s behalf on a particular matter, and (2) purported to exercise that authority when speaking in the relevant social-media posts.
Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo
A case in which the Court will decide whether to overrule its decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council.
McElrath v. Georgia
A case in which the Court held that the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment prohibits a second prosecution for a crime of which a defendant was found by a jury to be not guilty by reason of insanity.
Moody v. NetChoice, LLC
A case in which the Court will decide whether Florida S.B. 7072’s content-moderation restrictions comply with the First Amendment; and whether the law’s individualized-explanation requirements comply with the First Amendment.
Moore v. United States
A case in which the Court will decide whether the 16th Amendment authorizes Congress to tax unrealized sums without apportionment among the states.
Muldrow v. City of St. Louis, Missouri
A case in which the Court held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in transfer decisions that cause some harm, not merely "significant" harm.
Murthy v. Missouri
A case in which the Court will decide whether the government’s requests to large social media companies that they take steps to prevent the dissemination of purported misinformation constituted coercion and thus transformed those private companies’ content-moderation decisions into state action and violated users’ First Amendment rights.
National Rifle Association of America v. Vullo
A case in which the Court permitted the National Rifle Association's lawsuit to proceed where it plausibly alleged that the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) violated the First Amendment by coercing regulated entities to terminate their business relationships with the NRA in order to punish or suppress the NRA’s gun-promotion advocacy.
NetChoice, LLC v. Paxton
A case in which the Court will decide whether a state law restricting social media platforms from engaging in editorial choices about whether, and how, to publish and disseminate speech and requiring them to submit to onerous operational and disclosure requirements violates the First Amendment.
O'Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier
A case in which the Court will decide whether a public official engages in state action subject to the First Amendment by blocking an individual from the official’s personal social media account, which the official uses to communicate about job-related matters with the public.
Ohio v. Environmental Protection Agency
A case in which the Court stayed the Environmental Protection Agency’s federal emission reductions rule, the Good Neighbor Plan, for failure to adequately explain its emissions reduction requirements, likely violating the Administrative Procedure Act.
Pulsifer v. United States
A case in which the Court held that a defendant must satisfy individually each of the three conditions of the “safety valve” provision of 18 U.S.C. §3553(f)(1) to be eligible for sentencing relief.
Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce
A case in which the Court will decide whether to overrule Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, or at least clarify that statutory silence concerning controversial powers expressly but narrowly granted elsewhere in the statute does not constitute an ambiguity requiring deference to the agency.
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy
A case in which the Court will decide whether the statutory scheme that empowers the Securities and Exchange Commission violates the Seventh Amendment, the nondelegation doctrine, or Article II of the U.S. Constitution.
Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, California
A case in which the Court held that the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause does not distinguish between legislative and administrative land-use permit conditions.
Smith v. Arizona
A case in which the Court will decide whether the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment permits the prosecution in a criminal trial to present testimony by a substitute expert conveying the testimonial statements of a nontestifying forensic analyst?
Snyder v. United States
A case in which the Court will decide whether 18 U.S.C. § 666(a)(1)(B) criminalizes gratuities, i.e., payments in recognition of actions a state or local official has already taken or committed to take, without any quid pro quo agreement to take those actions.
Thornell v. Jones
A case in which the Court held that when a capital defendant claims that he was prejudiced at sentencing because counsel failed to present available mitigating evidence, a court must decide whether it is reasonably likely that the additional evidence would have avoided a death sentence, which the court does by evaluating the strength of all the evidence and comparing the weight of aggravating and mitigating factors.
Trump v. Anderson
A case in which the Court held that Congress alone must decide whether Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment disqualifies an individual from running for the office of President.
Trump v. United States
A case in which the Court will decide whether, and if so to what extent, a former president enjoys presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office.
Vidal v. Elster
A case in which the Court will decide whether the refusal to register a trademark under 15 U.S.C. § 1052(c) violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment when the mark contains criticism of a government official or public figure.
