Case Summary

Facts—A series of cases went to the Supreme Court from the states of Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware. Since all of the cases involved the same basic problem—African American minors, through their legal representatives, seeking the aid of the courts in obtaining admission to the public schools of their respective communities on a non-segregated …

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483; 74 S. Ct. 686; 98 L.Ed. 873 (1954) Read More »

Facts—Screws was a county sheriff who enlisted the assistance of a police- man and a deputy in an arrest. They arrested an African American late at night on a warrant charging him with the theft of a tire. They placed handcuffs on the individual. When they arrived at the courthouse square, the petitioners immediately started …

Screws v. United States, 325 U.S. 91; 65 S. Ct. 1031; 89 L. Ed. 1495 (1945) Read More »

Facts—The Law School of the University of Missouri refused Lloyd Gaines, an African American, admittance because of his race. He had completed his undergraduate training at Lincoln University, an all-black school. Missouri had separated the white students from the black students all through the school system, but as yet the state had not added a …

Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada, 305 U.S. 337; 59 S. Ct. 232; 83 L. Ed. 208 (1938) Read More »

Facts: After the Court invalidated Nebraska’s regulation of “partial birth abortions,” in Stenberg v. Carhart, 530 U.S. 914 (2000), Congress adopted the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, which sought to limit dilation and extraction (D&X) abortion procedures, in which fetuses were purposely killed when part of their bodies had been delivered and part was …

Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124; 127 S. Ct. 1610; 167 L. Ed. 2d 480 (2007) Read More »

Facts—Responding to a report of a weapons disturbance, Houston police legally entered Lawrence’s apartment and discovered another man and him engaged in an intimate sexual act. Both were arrested and convicted by a justice of the peace under a Texas law defining sexual intercourse between individuals of the same sex as deviate. The Harris County …

Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558; 123 S. Ct. 2472; 156 L. Ed. 2d 508 (2003) Read More »

Facts—The state of Washington prohibited individuals from aiding suicides (the law does not prohibit the withholding of “life-sustaining treatment”). Physicians who sometimes treated terminally ill individuals challenged the law as an undue burden on the “liberty interest” protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The U.S. District Court agreed. Although the Ninth …

Vacco v. Quill, Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. 702; 117 S. Ct. 2258; 138 L. Ed. 2d 772 (1997) Read More »

Facts—Pennsylvania adopted restrictions on abortions. These required informed consent and a twenty-four-hour waiting period, either the consent of at least one parent or the exercise of a judicial bypass mechanism in cases where minors sought abortions, a requirement that a married woman sign a statement indicating that she had informed her husband of her decision, …

Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833; 112 S. Ct. 2791; 120 L. Ed. 2d 674 (1992) Read More »

Facts—In August 1982 respondent was charged with violating a Georgia statute that had criminalized sodomy. He had committed this act with another male in the bedroom of his home, where they had been discovered by a police officer serving a warrant. Respondent Hardwick brought suit in the District Court challenging the constitutionality of the statute …

Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186; 106 S. Ct. 2841; 92 L. Ed. 2d 140 (1986) Read More »

Facts—Texas statutes prohibited abortions except by medical advice for the purpose of saving the life of the mother. A woman proceeding under the pseudonym of Jane Roe instituted a federal class action against the district attorney of Dallas County challenging the validity of the statutes. Because the pregnancy did not threaten her life, she could …

Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113; 93 S. Ct. 705; 35 L. Ed. 2d 147 (1973) Read More »

Facts—Statutory provisions in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia denied welfare assistance to persons who were residents and met all other eligibility requirements except that they had not resided within the jurisdiction for at least a year immediately preceding their applications for assistance. Question—Does this law limiting welfare payments create a classification that constitutes …

Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U.S. 618; 89 S. Ct. 1322; 22 L. Ed. 2d 600 (1969) Read More »