2003 Term Opinions of the Court

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2003 Supreme Court opinions

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The libertarianCato Institute publishes an analysis of the important decisions of the Supreme court in September. (See: "Cato Supreme Court Review: 2002-2003" ). This page is taken from the Government site so that I can add summaries of the decisions, etc. and any discussion of the decisions can be carried on on the Blog WeMatter.com if appropriate. Note: I will point to the Cato site if they do decide to open up areas for their book and the decisions that they consider important.

The liberal ACLU is often a party, either as primary or a friend of the court for these cases and has a page on the 2003 term, as well as specific cases. In the case where they have specific comments, I have added "ACLU" to the details area.

2003 TERM OPINIONS OF THE COURT

Taken July 4, 2004 from: Government site, opinions

Slip Opinions, Per Curiams (PC), and Original Case Decrees (D)

The "slip" opinion is the second version of an opinion. It is sent to the printer later in the day on which the "bench" opinion is released by the Court. Each slip opinion has the same elements as the bench opinion--majority or plurality opinion, concurrences or dissents, and a prefatory syllabus--but may contain corrections not appearing in the bench opinion. The slip opinions collected here are those issued during October Term 2003 (October 6, 2003, through October 3, 2004). These opinions are posted on this Website within hours after the bench opinions are issued and will remain posted until the opinions are published in a bound volume of the United States Reports. For further information, see Column Header Definitions and the file entitled Information About Opinions.

Caution: These electronic opinions may contain computer-generated errors or other deviations from the official printed slip opinion pamphlets. Moreover, a slip opinion is replaced within a few months by a paginated version of the case in the preliminary print, and--one year after the issuance of that print--by the final version of the case in a U. S. Reports bound volume. In case of discrepancies between the print and electronic versions of a slip opinion, the print version controls. In case of discrepancies between the slip opinion and any later official version of the opinion, the later version controls.

Note: MLL, I have added my summary of some of the cases, If there is interest, I will add specific link pages, and comment areas relative to the decisions of interest.

Please mailto:mll @ WeMatter.com or put your comments in: WeMatter.blogspot.com if the page should be altered, the summaries are not correct, etc.

R-	Date	Docket	See	Name (PDF file) To convert to HTML	J.	Pt.
80	06/29/04	03-339		Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain -- sued the United States for false arrest under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) -- DENIED, but left open some FTCA cases.	DS	542/2
79	06/29/04	03-218	ACLU	Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union -- sued to overturn Child Online Protection Act (COPA) application -- AGREED to return to lower court to find if other than validation technology would be acceptable because the statute likely violates the First Amendment	K	542/2
78	06/28/04	03-1200		Holland v. Jackson -- sought state postconviction relief, alleging, inter alia, that his trial counsel had been ineffective in failing to conduct an adequate investigation. -- AGREED, the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.	PC	542/2
77	06/28/04	02-1183	ACLU	United States v. Patane --sued to suppress the pistol, reasoning that the officers lacked probable cause to arrest him, -- HELD:* The judgment is reversed, and the case is remanded.*	T	542/2
76	06/28/04	02-1371		Missouri v. Seibert -- sued to suppress statements made before and after meranda warnings were given -- HELD: The judgment is affirmed. and a the second statement was considered as part of a continious illegal interrigation	DS	542/2
75	06/28/04	03-6696		Hamdi v. Rumsfeld -- alleged, among other things, that the Government holds his son in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. HELD: The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded. on remand Hamdi should have a meaningful opportunity to offer evidence that he is not an enemy combatant. (Note: The court seems to have accepted the holding of this American Citizen, but requires some form for him to present evidance that he is not an illegal compatent)	O	542/2
74	06/28/04	03-334		Rasul v. Bush -- HELD: United States courts have jurisdiction to consider challenges to the legality of the detention of foreign nationals captured abroad in connection with hostilities and incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay.	JS	542/2
73	06/28/04	03-1027		Rumsfeld v. Padilla -- alleged that Padilla’s military detention violates the Constitution. The Government denied this and was up-held in the lower courts -- HELD (that Padilla has not properly chalenged the Goverment's detention): 1. Because this Court answers the jurisdictional question in the negative, it does not reach the question whether the President has authority to detain Padilla militarily.	R	542/2
72	06/24/04	02-1603		Beard v. Banks	T	542/2
71	06/24/04	03-475		Cheney v. United States Dist. Court for D. C.	K	542/2
70	06/24/04	03-526		Schriro v. Summerlin	AS	542/2
69	06/24/04	02-1632		Blakely v. Washington	AS	542/2
68	06/24/04	02-10038		Tennard v. Dretke	O	542/2
67	06/21/04	02-572		Intel Corp. v. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.	G	542/1
66	06/21/04	03-221		Pliler v. Ford	T	542/1
65	06/21/04	02-1845		Aetna Health Inc. v. Davila	T	542/1
64	06/21/04	03-5554		Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial Dist. Court of Nev., Humboldt Cty.	K	542/1
63	06/14/04	03-724		F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd. v. Empagran S. A.	B	542/1
62	06/14/04	03-95		Pennsylvania State Police v. Suders	G	542/1
61	06/14/04	02-1809		Hibbs v. Winn	G	542/1
60	06/14/04	03-167		United States v. Dominguez Benitez	DS	542/1
59	06/14/04	03-101		Norton v. Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance	AS	542/1
58	06/14/04	02-1624		Elk Grove Unified School Dist. v. Newdow	JS	542/1
57	06/07/04	02-1609		City of Littleton v. Z. J. Gifts D-4, L. L. C.	B	541/2
56	06/07/04	03-358		Department of Transportation v. Public Citizen	T	541/2
55	06/07/04	02-891		Central Laborers' Pension Fund v. Heinz	DS	541/2
54	06/07/04	03-13		Republic of Austria v. Altmann	JS	541/2
53	06/01/04	02-1684		Yarborough v. Alvarado	K	541/2
52	05/24/04	03-6821		Nelson v. Campbell	O	541/2
51	05/24/04	03-5165		Thornton v. United States	R	541/2
50	05/17/04	03-44		Sabri v. United States	DS	541/2
49	05/17/04	02-1689		Grupo Dataflux v. Atlas Global Group, L. P.	AS	541/2
48	05/17/04	02-1667		Tennessee v. Lane	JS	541/2
47	05/17/04	02-1016		Till v. SCS Credit Corp.	JS	541/2
46	05/17/04	02-1606		Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation v. Hood	R	541/2
45	05/03/04	03-1028		Middleton v. McNeil	PC	541/2
44	05/03/04	03-6539		Johnson v. California	PC	541/2
43	05/03/04	02-1657		Scarborough v. Principi	G	541/2
42	05/03/04	02-1824		Dretke v. Haley	O	541/2
41	05/03/04	02-1205		Jones v. R. R. Donnelley & Sons Co.	JS	541/2
40	04/28/04	02-1580	ACLU	Vieth v. Jubelirer	AS	541/1
39	04/28/04	02-1343		Engine Mfrs. Assn. v. South Coast Air Quality Management Dist.	AS	541/1
38	04/21/04	02-857		Household Credit Services, Inc. v. Pfennig	T	541/1
37	04/19/04	03-107		United States v. Lara	B	541/1
36	03/31/04	02-1593		BedRoc Limited, LLC v. United States	R	541/1
35	03/30/04	02-954		National Archives and Records Administration v. Favish	K	541/1
34	03/30/04	02-1794		United States v. Flores-Montano	R	541/1
33	03/24/04	02-1238		Nixon v. Missouri Municipal League	DS	541/1
32	03/23/04	02-1389		United States v. Galletti	T	541/1
31	03/23/04	02-626		South Fla. Water Management Dist. v. Miccosukee Tribe	O	541/1
30	03/08/04	02-1541		Iowa v. Tovar	G	541/1
29	03/08/04	02-9410		Crawford v. Washington	AS	541/1
28	03/02/04	02-964		Baldwin v. Reese	B	541/1
27	03/02/04	02-458		Raymond B. Yates, M. D., P. C. Profit Sharing Plan v. Hendon	G	541/1
26	02/25/04	02-9065		Muhammad v. Close	PC	540/2
25	02/25/04	02-1290		Postal Service v. Flamingo Industries (USA) Ltd.	K	540/2
24	02/25/04	02-1315	ACLU	Locke v. Davey -- whether the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment requires the state to pay for ministerial training	R	540/2
23	02/24/04	02-8286		Banks v. Dretke	G	540/2
22	02/24/04	02-1348		Olympic Airways v. Husain	T	540/2
21	02/24/04	02-1377		Doe v. Chao	DS	540/2
20	02/24/04	02-1080		General Dynamics Land Systems, Inc. v. Cline	DS	540/2
19	02/24/04	02-811		Groh v. Ramirez	JS	540/2
18	02/23/04	03-374		Illinois v. Fisher	PC	540/2
17	01/26/04	02-693		Lamie v. United States Trustee	K	540/2
16	01/26/04	02-6320		Fellers v. United States	O	540/2
15	01/21/04	02-658		Alaska Dept. of Environmental Conservation v. EPA	G	540/2
14	01/14/04	02-819		Kontrick v. Ryan	G	540/2
13	01/14/04	02-628	ACLU	Frew v. Hawkins -- state is arguing that it did not waive its Eleventh Amendment immunity by voluntarily entering into a consent decree in this Medicaid Act case,	K	540/2
12	01/13/04	02-1060		Illinois v. Lidster	B	540/2
11	01/13/04	02-682		Verizon Communications Inc. v. Law Offices of Curtis V. Trinko, LLP	AS	540/2
10	01/13/04	02-1196		SEC v. Edwards	O	540/2
9	12/15/03	02-6683		Castro v. United States	B	540/2
8	12/15/03	02-809		Maryland v. Pringle	R	540/2
7	12/10/03	02-1674	ACLU	McConnell v. Federal Election Comm'n	JS	540/1
6	12/09/03	129, Orig.		Virginia v. Maryland	R	540/1
5	12/02/03	02-749		Raytheon Co. v. Hernandez	T	540/1
4	12/02/03	02-473		United States v. Banks	DS	540/1
3	11/12/03	02-763		Barnhart v. Thomas	AS	540/1
2	11/03/03	02-1369		Mitchell v. Esparza	PC	540/1
1	10/20/03	02-1597		Yarborough v. Gentry	PC	540/1

* For Justice Scalia's Recusal Memorandum in No. 03-475, see 2003 Term Opinions Relating to Orders

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July 4, 2004