Overview of the 2012 Supreme Court Term

 

 

The Supreme Court’s docket this term is highlighted by a series of landmark cases involving gay rights and racial equality.  The ACLU is deeply engaged in those and other battles.  In United States v. Windsor, we are part of the team challenging the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, which discriminates against married gay couples by denying them recognition under federal law. And, in Shelby County v. Holder, we are defending the constitutionality of a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.  In total, the ACLU is counsel or co-counsel in six Supreme Court cases this term.  A complete list of all the briefs filed by the ACLU in the Supreme Court this term appears below.

 

Supreme Court Cases

Gene Patents

Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics

5/3/2013 - Whether human genes can be patented.

Search and Seizure

Missouri v. McNeely (Decided)

4/17/2013 - Whether every person arrested for drunk driving can be forced to submit to a blood test without consent and without a warrant.

First Amendment

Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International

4/2/2013 - Whether organizations can be required to submit a pledge to oppose prostitution in order to participate in a federal program designed to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria internationally.

Native American Rights

Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl

3/28/2013 - Whether the Indian Child Welfare Act was properly applied under the facts of this case.

Lesbian and Gay Rights

Windsor v. United States

3/27/2013 - Whether the Defense of Marriage Act violates equal protection by denying married gay couples recognition under federal law.

Lesbian and Gay Rights

Hollingsworth v. Perry

3/27/2013 - Whether California’s Proposition 8, which amended the state constitution to define marriage as solely between a man and a woman, violates equal protection.

Voting Rights

Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona

3/18/2013 - Whether Arizona may require proof of citizenship before registering to vote in federal elections when federal law does not.

Criminal Justice

Salinas v. Texas

2/28/2013 - Whether the Fifth Amendment prohibits the prosecution from commenting at trial on a defendant’s silence when questioned by the police prior to Miranda warnings.

Search and Seizure

Maryland v. King

2/5/2013 - Whether collecting and analyzing DNA samples from arrestees without a warrant or consent violates the Fourth Amendment.

Voting Rights

Shelby County v. Holder

1/30/2013 - The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is one of our nation’s most critical federal civil rights statutes. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which is a key element of the Act, requires certain jurisdictions that have a history of discriminatory voting practices to get advance approval from the federal government before changing their election laws.

Freedom of Information Act

McBurney v. Young (Decided)

1/3/2013 - Whether a state may limit access to its public records by allowing only its own citizens to use the state’s freedom of information law.

Criminal Justice

Alleyne v. United States

12/12/2012 - Whether the quantity of drugs involved in a crime must be decided by the jury before it can be the basis for a mandatory minimum sentence.

National Security

Clapper v. Amnesty International (Decided)

9/17/2012 - Whether a federal statute that broadly expanded the government’s surveillance powers can be challenged by lawyers, journalists, and human rights organizations who face a reasonable likelihood that their international communications will be monitored under the statute and have taken prudent (and, in some cases, ethically compelled) steps to safeguard against that risk.

Search and Seizure

Florida v. Harris (Decided)

9/4/2012 - Whether the police may conduct a warrantless search for drugs based solely on an alert by a drug-sniffing dog without any other evidence of the dog’s reliability so long as the dog has been “trained” or “certified.”

Search and Seizure

Bailey v. United States (Decided)

8/21/2012 - Whether someone who has left the immediate vicinity of a house that is about to be searched may be seized by the police without probable cause.

Racial Equality

Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin

8/10/2012 - Whether it is constitutional for the admissions program at the University of Texas to consider race as one factor, among many, in attempting to create a diverse educational experience for its students.

Death Penalty

Ryan v. Gonzales and Tibbals v. Carter (Decided)

7/26/2012 - Whether death row inmates who have been found incompetent are entitled to a stay of their federal habeas corpus proceedings.

Human Rights

Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. (Decided)

6/12/2012 - Whether aliens who suffered severe human rights abuses abroad can sue those responsible for the abuses in federal court under the Alien Tort Statute.

Statistics image