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  Pierce v. Society of Sisters   Education has always been one of the foremost social and legal issues in the United States.  Free public education flourished in the United States long before it did in the rest of the world, and even locations with relatively low populations tended to have a one-room schoolhouse.  However, not all American child..

Planned Parenthood v. CaseyPlanned Parenthood v. Casey was a 1992 case decided by the United States Supreme Court that challenged the constitutionality many of Pennsylvania state regulations concerning abortion. The Court came to a plurality decision for Planned Parenthood v. Casey that upheld the constitutional right for an individual to have an abortion but also lowered the s..

  Plaut v. Spendthrift Farm Inc.: The Background The case of Plaut v. Spendthrift Farm Inc. began in 1987, when several Spendthrift Farm shareholders, including Mr. Ed Plaut, filed suit against the underlying corporation claiming stock sales in 1983 through 1984 were in direct violation of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. The United States Supreme Co..

  Posadas de Puerto Rico Associates v. Tourism Company of Puerto Rico   While free speech rights extend in some forms to commercial speech, when the state has a governmental interest in restricting it, the courts have ruled that this is sometimes acceptable.  For example, courts have ruled that bans on cigarette advertising are constitutionally pe..

On March 25th, 1932, nine African-American youths, whom their defense attorney maintained were ‘young, ignorant, and illiterate’, were accused of raping 2 Caucasian women while illegally on board a train carrying the victims. The initial trials lasted only 1 day and the 9 defendants were all sentenced to death; however, the defendants claimed that their public defense attor..

  Prima Paint Corp. v. Flood & Conklin Mfg. Co.   Binding arbitration clauses are incredibly important to businesses today.  However, when these provisions are part of a contract, who is to decide whether the contract itself is enforceable?  That's the question that the Supreme Court had to decide in the case of Prima Paint Corp. v. Fl..

  Quill Corp. v. North Dakota: The Background Through its local tax commissioner, the state of North Dakota filed an action in their local court system to force the Quill Corporation—an out-of-state mail-order office equipment company—to charge a local tax on Quill merchandise to be used within state lines. The state court ultimately ruled in fav..

Richard Hernstein Mesothelioma CaseWho is Richard Hernstein?Born on May 20th of 1930, Richard Hernstein was an American researcher in animal learning. Hernstein is regarded as one of the founding fathers of quantitative analysis for animal behavior. Hernstein’s primary research finding as an experimental psychologist is referred to as “matching law”, which describes ..

  Rodman Wanamaker Rodman Wanamaker was a businessman who inherited businesses from his father John and was best known for his work in the field of aviation, as well as being the founder of the Professional Golfers' Association of America. Many years after his death in 1928, the will of Rodman Wanamaker was the basis of an important Pennsylvania lawsuit reso..

Romer v. Evans was a case that went through the United States Supreme Court and was decided upon in 1996 that dealt with state laws and civil rights. Romer v. Evans: BackgroundColorado voters passed Amendment Two in their State Constitution in 1992 with a 53% vote, which was a measure that did not allow local or state governments to pass any laws that would ban discriminat..

  What is Rostker v. Goldberg? Rostker v. Goldberg was a landmark United States Supreme Court case that held that the practice of allowing only men to register for the draft was indeed constitutional. More specifically, Rostker v. Goldberg held that the legislation requiring only men to vote for the draft did not violate the Fifth Amendment to the United States ..

  Sable Communications of California v. FCC   In 1989, the Supreme Court of the United States decided an obscenity and indecency case relating to phone calls made to a hotline that gave callers access to pre-recorded, sexually explicit content.  A law had recently been passed that banned these services (which were commonly called “dial-a-porn..

  Sell v. United States   When someone is mentally ill, medications may be able to help them balance out their mental state.  Typically, people are allowed to choose whether or not to medicate.  However, when someone accused of a crime refuses medication to treat a mental illness, the government has sometimes intervened to force them to take i..

  Sibel Edmonds Sibel Edmonds is a translator who was hired by the FBI after the events of September 11, 2001 to translate and transcribe wiretaps from investigations relating to the events of that day. During her period working for the FBI, Sibel Edmonds reviewed wiretap conversations which had already been translated and discovered that some of them were badly..

  Smith v. Maryland   The history of wiretapping laws in the United States has been somewhat complicated, largely because the technology to perform wiretaps has been changing and developing for about a century.  Each new development seems to create new constitutional issues for the courts to work out.  Smith v. Maryland was a 1979 Supreme Court ..