Supreme Court of the United States: Difference between revisions

Under chief justices Jay, Rutledge, and [[Oliver Ellsworth|Ellsworth]] (1789–1801), the court heard few cases; its first decision was ''[[West v. Barnes]]'' (1791), a case involving procedure.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/datesofdecisions.pdf |title=Dates of Supreme Court decisions and arguments, United States Reports volumes 2–107 (1791–82) |last=Ashmore |first=Anne |date=August 2006 |publisher=Library, Supreme Court of the United States |access-date=April 26, 2009 |archive-date=July 23, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723204125/https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/datesofdecisions.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> As the court initially had only six members, every decision that it made by a majority was also made by two-thirds (voting four to two).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Shugerman |first=Jed |title=A Six-Three Rule: Reviving Consensus and Deference on the Supreme Court |journal=[[Georgia Law Review]] |volume=37 |page=893}}</ref> However, Congress has always allowed less than the court's full membership to make decisions, starting with a [[quorum]] of four justices in 1789.<ref>Irons, Peter. ''A People's History of the Supreme Court'', p. 101 (Penguin 2006).</ref> The court lacked a home of its own and had little prestige,<ref name="tws31oct01">{{cite news |year=1998 |editor=Gerber |editor-first=Scott Douglas |title=Seriatim: The Supreme Court Before John Marshall |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0tEkU5LiYsQC&pg=PA1 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511112038/http://books.google.com/books?id=0tEkU5LiYsQC&pg=PA1 |archive-date=May 11, 2011 |access-date=October 31, 2009 |publisher=New York University Press |page=3 |isbn=0-8147-3114-7 |quote=Finally many scholars cite the absence of a separate Supreme Court building as evidence that the early Court lacked prestige.}}</ref> a situation not helped by the era's highest-profile case, ''[[Chisholm v. Georgia]]'' (1793), which was reversed within two years by the adoption of the [[Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution|Eleventh Amendment]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Manning |first=John F. |year=2004 |title=The Eleventh Amendment and the Reading of Precise Constitutional Texts |journal=Yale Law Journal |volume=113 |issue=8 |pages=1663–1750 |doi=10.2307/4135780 |author-link=John F. Manning |jstor=4135780 |url=https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/ylj/vol113/iss8/1 |access-date=July 16, 2019 |archive-date=July 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190716011024/https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/ylj/vol113/iss8/1/ |url-status=live |issn = 0044-0094}}</ref>

The Marshall Court also ended the practice of each justice issuing his opinion ''[[seriatim]]'',<ref name="tws31oct11">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A58066-2000Oct2&notFound=true |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429054303/http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A58066-2000Oct2&notFound=true |archive-date=April 29, 2011 |title=The Supreme Quiz |date=October 2, 2000 |quote=According to the ''Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States'', Marshall's most important innovation was to persuade the other justices to stop seriatim opinions—each issuing one—so that the court could speak in a single voice. Since the mid-1940s, however, there's been a significant increase in individual 'concurring' and 'dissenting' opinions. |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=October 31, 2009}}</ref> a remnant of British tradition,<ref name="tws31oct10">{{cite news |url=https://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/04/18/justice-stevens-on-the-death-penalty-a-promise-of-fairness-unfulfilled/ |title=Justice Stevens on the Death Penalty: A Promise of Fairness Unfulfilled |last=Slater |first=Dan |date=April 18, 2008 |quote=The first Chief Justice, John Marshall set out to do away with seriatim opinions–a practice originating in England in which each appellate judge writes an opinion in ruling on a single case. (You may have read old tort cases in law school with such opinions). Marshall sought to do away with this practice to help build the Court into a coequal branch. |work=The Wall Street Journal |access-date=October 31, 2009 |archive-date=August 14, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200814121458/https://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/04/18/justice-stevens-on-the-death-penalty-a-promise-of-fairness-unfulfilled/ |url-status=live}}</ref> and instead issuing a single majority opinion.<ref name=tws31oct11/> Also during Marshall's tenure, although beyond the court's control, the impeachment and [[acquittal]] of Justice [[Samuel Chase]] from 1804 to 1805 helped cement the principle of [[judicial independence]].<ref name="tws31oct12">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1867783,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219174136/http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1867783,00.html |archive-date=December 19, 2008 |title=A Brief History of Impeachment |last=Suddath |first=Claire |date=December 19, 2008 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |quote=Congress tried the process again in 1804, when it voted to impeach Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase on charges of bad conduct. As a judge, Chase was overzealous and notoriously unfair … But Chase never committed a crime—he was just incredibly bad at his job. The Senate acquitted him on every count. |access-date=October 31, 2009}}</ref><ref name="tws31oct13">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/10/us/rehnquist-joins-fray-on-rulings-defending-judicial-independence.html |title=Rehnquist Joins Fray on Rulings, Defending Judicial Independence |last=Greenhouse |first=Linda |author-link=Linda Greenhouse |date=April 10, 1996 |work=The New York Times |quote=the 1805 Senate trial of Justice Samuel Chase, who had been impeached by the House of Representatives … This decision by the Senate was enormously important in securing the kind of judicial independence contemplated by Article III" of the Constitution, Chief Justice Rehnquist said |access-date=October 31, 2009 |archive-date=May 11, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511111352/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/10/us/rehnquist-joins-fray-on-rulings-defending-judicial-independence.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Panorama of United States Supreme Court Building at Dusk.jpg|thumb|right|The [[United States Supreme Court Building|U.S. Supreme Court Building]], current home of the Supreme Court, which opened in 1935]]

[[File:Erich Salomon - The Supreme Court, 1937.jpg|thumb|alt=The Court seated|The [[Hughes Court]] in 1937, photographed by [[Erich Salomon]]. Members include Chief Justice [[Charles Evans Hughes]] (center), [[Louis Brandeis]], [[Benjamin N. Cardozo]], [[Harlan Stone]], [[Owen Roberts]], and the "[[Four Horsemen (Supreme Court)|Four Horsemen]]" [[Pierce Butler (justice)|Pierce Butler]], [[James Clark McReynolds]], [[George Sutherland]], and [[Willis Van Devanter]], who opposed New Deal policies.]]

The Warren Court (1953–1969) dramatically expanded the force of Constitutional [[civil liberties]].<ref name=tws31oct110>{{cite news |agency=[[United Press International]] (UPI) |title=Justice Black Dies at 85; Served on Court 34 Years |quote=Justice Black developed his controversial theory, first stated in a lengthy, scholarly dissent in 1947, that the due process clause applied the first eight amendments of the Bill of Rights to the states. |work=The New York Times |date=September 25, 1971 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0227.html |access-date=October 31, 2009 |archive-date=October 15, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091015050655/http://nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0227.html |url-status=live}}</ref> It held that [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregation in public schools]] violates the [[Equal Protection Clause]] of the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]] (''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'', ''[[Bolling v. Sharpe]]'', and ''[[Green v. County School Board of New Kent County|Green v. County School Bd.]]'')<ref name="tws31oct113">{{cite news |url=https://www.usnews.com/usnews/documents/docpages/document_page87.htm |title=100 Documents that Shaped America Brown v. Board of Education (1954) |date=May 17, 1954 |work=U.S. News & World Report |quote=On May 17, 1954, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous ruling in the landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. State-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th amendment and was therefore unconstitutional. This historic decision marked the end of the "separate but equal" … and served as a catalyst for the expanding civil rights movement... |access-date=October 31, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091106035101/http://www.usnews.com/usnews/documents/docpages/document_page87.htm |archive-date=November 6, 2009}}</ref> and that [[legislative district]]s must be roughly equal in population (''[[Reynolds v. Sims]]''). It recognized a general [[right to privacy]] (''[[Griswold v. Connecticut]]''),<ref name="tws31oct114">{{cite magazine |title=Essay: In defense of privacy |quote=The biggest legal milestone in this field was last year's Supreme Court decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, which overthrew the state's law against the use of contraceptives as an invasion of marital privacy, and for the first time declared the "right of privacy" to be derived from the Constitution itself. |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=July 15, 1966 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,836012-3,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091013120125/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,836012-3,00.html |archive-date=October 13, 2009 |access-date=October 31, 2009}}</ref> limited the role of religion in public school, most prominently ''[[Engel v. Vitale]]'' and ''[[Abington School District v. Schempp]]'',<ref name="tws31oct120">{{cite magazine |first=Nancy |last=Gibbs |title=America's Holy War |quote=In the landmark 1962 case Engel v. Vitale, the high court threw out a brief nondenominational prayer composed by state officials that was recommended for use in New York State schools. 'It is no part of the business of government,' ruled the court, 'to compose official prayers for any group of the American people to recite.' |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=December 9, 1991 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,974430,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071102070141/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,974430,00.html |archive-date=November 2, 2007 |access-date=October 31, 2009 |author-link=Nancy Gibbs}}</ref><ref name="tws31oct121">{{cite news |url=http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/08/column-teach-the-bible-of-course-.html |title=Teach the Bible? Of course. |date=August 17, 2009 |work=USA Today |last2=Trinko |first2=Katrina |quote=Public schools need not proselytize—indeed, must not—in teaching students about the Good Book … In Abington School District v. Schempp, decided in 1963, the Supreme Court stated that "study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education," was permissible under the First Amendment. |first1=William R. Jr |last1=Mattox |access-date=October 31, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090820030545/http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/08/column-teach-the-bible-of-course-.html |archive-date=August 20, 2009}}</ref> [[Incorporation of the Bill of Rights|incorporated]] most guarantees of the Bill of Rights against the states, prominently ''[[Mapp v. Ohio]]'' (the [[exclusionary rule]]) and ''[[Gideon v. Wainwright]]'' ([[Public defender|right to appointed counsel]]),<ref name="tws31oct131">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,898882,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080423044435/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,898882,00.html |archive-date=April 23, 2008 |title=The Law: The Retroactivity Riddle |date=June 18, 1965 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |quote=Last week, in a 7 to 2 decision, the court refused for the first time to give retroactive effect to a great Bill of Rights decision—Mapp v. Ohio (1961). |access-date=October 31, 2009}}</ref><ref name="tws31oct203">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,841844,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528172220/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,841844,00.html |archive-date=May 28, 2010 |title=The Supreme Court: Now Comes the Sixth Amendment |date=April 16, 1965 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |quote=Sixth Amendment's right to counsel (Gideon v. Wainwright in 1963). … the court said flatly in 1904: 'The Sixth Amendment does not apply to proceedings in state criminal courts.' But in the light of Gideon … ruled Black, statements 'generally declaring that the Sixth Amendment does not apply to states can no longer be regarded as law.' |access-date=October 31, 2009}}</ref> and required that criminal suspects be apprised of all these rights by [[police]] (''[[Miranda v. Arizona]]'').<ref name=tws31oct132>{{cite news |title=Guilt and Mr. Meese |quote=1966 Miranda v. Arizona decision. That's the famous decision that made confessions inadmissible as evidence unless an accused person has been warned by police of the right to silence and to a lawyer, and waived it. |work=The New York Times |date=January 31, 1987 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/31/opinion/guilt-and-mr-meese.html |access-date=October 31, 2009 |archive-date=May 11, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511111536/http://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/31/opinion/guilt-and-mr-meese.html |url-status=live}}</ref> At the same time, the court limited [[defamation]] suits by public figures (''[[New York Times Co. v. Sullivan]]'') and supplied the government with an unbroken run of antitrust victories.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Engage |volume=9 |issue=3 |url=http://www.fed-soc.org/doclib/20090107_GragliaEngage93.pdf |title=The Antitrust Revolution |last=Graglia |first=Lino A. |author-link=Lino Graglia |date=October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170621023852/http://www.fed-soc.org/doclib/20090107_GragliaEngage93.pdf |archive-date=June 21, 2017 |access-date=February 6, 2016}}</ref>