Law Faculty

Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83; 88 S. Ct. 1942; 20 L. Ed. 2d 947 (1968) Facts—Taxpayers in New York challenged the expenditures of federal funds under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 as conflicting with the establishment…

Cooper v. Aaron, 358 U.S. 1; 78 S. Ct. 1401; 3 L. Ed. 2d 5 (1958) Facts—After the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ruling that de jure racial segregation violated the equal protection clause of…

Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64; 58 S. Ct. 817; 82 L. Ed. 1188 (1938) Facts—Tompkins, a citizen of Pennsylvania, was injured on a dark night by a passing freight train of the Erie Railroad Company while walking…

Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Mellon (Frothingham v. Mellon), 262 U.S. 447; 43 S. Ct. 597; 67 L. Ed. 1078 (1923) Facts—The Maternity Act of November 23, 1921 provided for annual federal appropriations for states that cooperated to reduce maternal and…

Ex parte McCardle, 7 Wallace (74 U.S.) 506; 19 L. Ed. 264 (1869) Facts—The Constitution assigns appellate jurisdiction to the Supreme Court with “such exceptions and under such regulations, as the Congress shall make.” In February 1867 Congress passed an…

Ableman v. Booth, 21 Howard (62 U.S.) 506; 16 L. Ed. 169 (1859) Facts—Ableman, a U.S. marshal, held Booth in custody, pending his trial in a District Court of the United States on the charge of having aided the escape…

Eakin v. Raub, 12 Serg. & Rawle 330 (Pa. S. Ct.) (1825) Facts—This otherwise insignificant Pennsylvania Supreme Court case, which dealt with the legitimacy of a state law designed to adjust the time that a person living abroad could make…

Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheaton (19 U.S.) 264; 5 L. Ed. 257 (1821) Facts—Congress passed a law in 1802 authorizing the District of Columbia to conduct lotteries. Acting under this authority, the city passed an ordinance creating a lottery. The…

Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee, 1 Wheaton (14 U.S.) 304; 4 L. Ed. 97 (1816) Facts—In the case of Fairfax’s Devisee v. Hunter’s Lessee, 7 Cranch (11 U.S.) 603, the Court reversed the decision of the state court and sustained title…

Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch (5 U.S.) 137; 2 L. Ed. 60 (1803) Facts—In compliance with the Judiciary Act of 1801, President John Adams signed a commission for William Marbury as a justice of the peace for the county of…

Boudmediene v. Bush, 553 U.S. 723 (2008) Facts—Boumediene, Al Odah, and other foreign nationals who were captured by U.S. military forces in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Gambia were being held at the U.S. base in Guantanamo, Cuba. They were tried by…

Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557; 126 S. Ct. 2749; 165 L. Ed. 2d 723 (2006) Facts—Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni national held in custody at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and alleged to have been a member…

Rasul v. Bush, 542 U.S. 466 (2004) Facts—Two Australian citizens and twelve Kuwaiti citizens who were captured in Afghanistan were among about 640 non-American citizens who were being held at the American Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, which the U.S.…

Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 542 U.S. 507; 124 S. Ct. 2633; 159 L. Ed. 2d 578 (2004) Facts—Yaser Esam Hamdi, who was born in Louisiana in 1980 but moved as a child with his family to Saudi Arabia, was captured by…

Rostker v. Goldberg, 453 U.S. 57; 101 S. Ct. 1; 69 L. Ed. 2d 478 (1981) Facts—The Military Selective Service Act authorized the president to require the registration for possible military service of males but not females. In 1980, President…

Johnson v. Eisentrager, 339 U.S. 763, 70 S. Ct. 936; 94 L. Ed. 1255 (1950) Facts—Eisentrager, and twenty other German nationals were convicted of war crimes by U.S. military tribunals in China (with the consent of the Chinese government) for…

Woods v. Cloyd W. Miller Co., 333 U.S. 138; 68 S. Ct. 421; 92 L. Ed. 596 (1948) Facts—The District Court for the Northern District of Ohio declared unconstitutional Title II of the Housing and Rent Act of 1947, which…

Duncan v. Kahanamoku, 327 U.S. 304; 66 S. Ct. 606; 90 L. Ed. 688 (1946) Facts—Immediately following the Pearl Harbor attack, Governor Poindexter of the Territory of Hawaii proclaimed martial law, suspended the writ of habeas corpus, closed the local…

Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214; 65 S. Ct. 193; 89 L. Ed. 194 (1944) Facts—Korematsu, an American citizen of Japanese ancestry, remained in California after the Commanding General of the Western Defense Command ordered it cleared of all…

Ex parte Quirin, 317 U.S. 1; 63 S. Ct. 1; 87 L. Ed. 3 (1942) Facts—The petitioners were all born in Germany. All lived in the United States and returned to Germany between 1933 and 1941, where they attended sabotage…

Hamilton v. Kentucky Distilleries & Warehouse Co., 251 U.S. 146; 40 S. Ct. 106; 64 L. Ed. 194 (1919) Facts—On November 11, 1918, the armistice with Germany was signed. Ten days later, Congress passed and the president approved the War-Time…

Selective Draft Law Cases (Arver v. United States), 245 U.S. 366; 38 S. Ct. 159; 62 L. Ed. 349 (1918) Facts—On May 18, 1917, Congress provided that all male citizens between the ages of 21 and 30, with certain exceptions,…

Ex parte Milligan, 4 Wallace (71 U.S.) 2; 18 L. Ed. 281 (1866) Facts—Milligan, who was not and had never been in the U.S. military, was tried, convicted, and sentenced to be hanged by a military commission established under presidential…

The Prize Cases, 2 Black (67 U.S.) 635; 17 L. Ed. 459 (1863) Facts—By proclamations of April 15, April 19, and April 27, 1861, President Lincoln established a blockade of southern ports. These cases were brought to recover damages suffered…