Highlights of the Supreme Court's 1998-99 Term

The Court ruled on:

ADA

• Evaluating (dis)abilities - Sutton v. United Air Lines, Inc. (June 22, 1999)
  Applicants for jobs as pilots suffered from severe myopia, but their vision impairments were fully corrected through optical lenses. Applicants argued that the airline violated ADA by requiring minimum standards of uncorrected visual acuity; the district court held that applicants had no standing to sue under ADA, since their corrected vision left them fully able. The Court held that the determination whether an individual is disabled under 42 U.S.C. § 12102(2) should be made in the light of measures, such as eyeglasses and contact lenses, that mitigate the individual's impairment.
• Federal safety regulations and the disabled employee - Albertsons, Inc. v. Kirkingburg (June 22, 1999)
  Delivery driver with seriously impaired vision claimed that ADA required an employer to justify as a business necessity its decision to enforce DOT safety regulations and terminate his employment as driver. The Court ruled that an employer who requires that an employee meet a federal safety regulation does not have to justify enforcing the regulation even though its standard may be waived experimentally in an individual case.
• Caring for the mentally disabled - Olmstead v. L.C. (June 22, 1999)
  Plaintiffs argued that ADA's proscription of discriminatory treatment requires placement of persons with mental disabilities in community settings rather than in institutions. On the facts of the case, a majority of the Court agreed.
• Compatibility of SSDI benefits and ADA remedies - Cleveland v. Policy Management Systems Corp. (May 24, 1999)
  Although SSDI benefits are reserved for those who become so severely disabled that they cannot return to their former job, an employee whose disability qualified her for SSDI benefits claimed that she nevertheless should be able to pursue an action for disability discrimination under the ADA, on the ground that with reasonable accommodation she could perform the essential functions of her job. The Court rejected the argument that application for and receipt of of SSDI benefits barred the recipient from pursuing an ADA claim.

Advertising

• Authority of FTC to regulate nonprofit professional association's advertising - California Dental Assn. v. Federal Trade Comm'n (May 24, 1999)
  Nonprofit professional association representing for-profit businesses contested FTC's regulatory authority over its advertising guidelines. FTC had found that the guidelines excessively restricted free trade. The Court upheld FTC jurisdiction.
• Casino gambling - Greater New Orleans Broadcasting Assn., Inc. v. United States (June 14, 1999)
  Radio and television advertisers argued that a federal statute prohibiting advertisements of casino gambling, 18 U.S.C. § 1304, should not apply to broadcasts originating in a state where such gambling is legal. The Court agreed.

Civil Procedure

• Order of determining elements of federal jurisdiction - Ruhrgas AG v. Marathon Oil Co. (May 17, 1999)
  The Court rejected a contention that a federal district court is barred from dismissing a case for lack of personal jurisdiction without first deciding whether it has subject-matter jurisdiction.

Civil Rights

• Punitive damages under Title VII - Kolstad v. American Dental Assn. (June 22, 1999)
  Employee filed a gender discrimination claim and sought punitive damages from an employer who had passed over her in promoting another employee. The Court of Appeals held en banc that an employee seeking punitive damages under Title VII must show that the employer engaged in "egregious" misconduct. The Supreme Court disagreed but laid down a difficult standard for holding the employer responsible for the misconduct of one of its employees.

Criminal Law and Procedure

• Constitutionality of anti-gang ordinance - City of Chicago v. Morales (June 10, 1999)
  City ordinance prohibited criminal street gang members from loitering in public places. State supreme court held that the ordinance restricted personal liberty, in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed.
• Confrontation Clause, out-of-court statements, Fifth Amendment privilege - Lilly v. Virginia (June 10, 1999)
  When called as a witness at petitioner's trial, accomplice invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination; nevertheless, the court admitted into evidence the accomplice's statements to the police which incriminated petitioner. The state supreme court held that the trial court had not violated petitioner's rights under the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment, since the accomplice's statements fell within an exception to the hearsay rule. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed.
• Guilty plea and waiver of Fifth Amendment privilege at sentencing; bearing of defendant's silence on severity of sentence - Mitchell v. United States (April 5, 1999)
  Defendant argued (1) that her guilty plea did not waive her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination in the sentencing phase of her case, and (2) that in determining facts about the crime which bore upon the severity of the sentence, the trial court erred in drawing an adverse inference from her silence. The Supreme Court agreed, holding that in the federal criminal system, a guilty plea does not waive the self-incrimination privilege at sentencing.

Election and Voting Law

• Statistical sampling in the 2000 Decennial Census - Department of Commerce v. United States House (January 25, 1999)
  Suit challenging the legality and constitutionality of the Census Bureau's planned use of statistical sampling to determine the population for purposes of congressional apportionment. Holding that the Census Act, 13 U.S.C. § 1 et seq., barred sampling, the Court did not reach the constitutional issue.
• Ballot initiative circulation and free speech - Buckley v. American Constitutional Law Foundation, Inc. (January 12, 1999)
  A successful constitutional challenge to conditions Colorado placed on its ballot-initiative process: (1) the requirement that initiative-petition circulators be registered voters; (2) the requirement that they wear an identification badge bearing the circulator's name; and (3) the requirement that proponents of an initiative report the names and addresses of all paid circulators and the amount paid to each circulator.
• Race consciousness and gerrymandering - Hunt v. Cromartie (May 17, 1999)
  Petitioners argued that the North Carolina legislature was conscious of race when it redrew its 12th Congressional District, and thus violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court found the evidence of improper motivation to be insufficient for a summary judgment.

Evidence

• Expert testimony of non-scientists - Kumho Tire Co., Ltd. v. Carmichael (March 23, 1999)
  Applicability of the rule in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993) (controlling the admissibility of expert testimony under Fed. Rule Evid. 702), to engineers and other experts who are not scientists. The Court held that the rule is not limited to scientists.

Federalism

• State immunity from suit in state court - Alden v. Maine (June 23, 1999)
  State employees sued Maine under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act; the state insisted it was immune from suit under federal law, even in state courts. Voting five to four, the Supreme Court agreed.
• State immunity from suit under federal patent and trademark law - Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Ed. Expense Bd. v. College Savings Bank; College Savings Bank v. Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Ed. Expense Bd. (June 23, 1999)
  Florida challenged Congress' 1992 amendments to patent and trademark laws, which had abrogated states' sovereign immunity from suit for infringements. Voting five to four, the Supreme Court agreed.
• Intergovernmental immunities - Jefferson County v. Acker (June 21, 1999)
  County imposed occupational tax on persons working within the county who were not otherwise required to pay a license fee under state law, and attempted to collect the tax from two federal judges who held court in the county. The Court upheld the tax, viewing it as a nondiscriminatory tax on the judges' compensation, to which the Public Salary Tax Act of 1939, 4 U.S.C. § 111, consents.
• RICO and state regulation of the insurance industry - Humana Inc. v. Forsyth (January 20, 1999)
  McCarran-Ferguson Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1011 et seq., which grants the states broad authority to regulate insurance industry, prohibits the application of federal law that would interfere with the State's regulation. Question: whether this Act blocks application of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. § 1961 et seq., to the insurance industry. The Court held it does not.

Fourth Amendment

• Media "ride-alongs" - Wilson v. Layne (May 24, 1999)
  Successful argument that news reporters and photographers accompanying police as they enter a suspect's home violate the Fourth Amendment.
• Search of automobile passenger's property for contraband - Wyoming v. Houghton (April 5, 1999)
  Driver's conduct gave police officer probable cause to search car for drugs. A passenger in the car, however, claimed that search of her personal belongings was unauthorized. The Court disagreed.
• Search of car stopped for speeding violation - Knowles v. Iowa (December 8, 1998)
  Officer stopped driver for speeding, but issued him a citation rather than arresting him. The driver claimed that such a procedure did not authorize officer to conduct a full search of the car. The Court agreed.
• Surveillance through open windows - Minnesota v. Carter (December 1, 1998)
  Police officer watched through a drawn window blind as occupants of apartment bagged cocaine. State supreme court held that the officer's viewing was a search which violated respondents' Fourth Amendment rights. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed.

Miscellaneous

• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) - Cedar Rapids Community School Dist. v. Garret F. (March 3, 1999)
  Successful argument that the definition of "related services" in 20 U.S.C. § 1401(a)(17)1 requires a school district in a state receiving federal assistance under the IDEA program to provide a ventilator-dependent student with nursing services during school hours.
• FCC power under the Telecommunications Act of 1996 - AT&T Corp. v. Iowa Utilities Bd. (January 25, 1999)
  Challenges to (1) the FCC's jurisdiction to implement the Act's local-competition provisions, (2) the FCC's rules governing unbundled access, and (3) the FCC's "pick and choose" rule. The Court upheld the FCC's jurisdiction and rules with the exception of one rule concerning unbundled access.

Native American Law

• Usufructuary rights to ceded land - Minnesota v. Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa Indians (March 24, 1999)
  Under terms of an 1837 treaty, the Chippewa ceded land in present-day Wisconsin and Minnesota to the United States, but retained certain usufructuary rights. Minnesota argued that the Chippewa lost these rights through an Executive Order in 1850, an 1855 Treaty, and the admission of Minnesota into the Union in 1858. The Supreme Court ruled that they still held those rights.

Patent Law

• Commercial marketing of prototypes - Pfaff v. Wells Electronics, Inc. (November 10, 1998)
  The Court rejected an inventor's claim that although his invention had been on sale for more than one year before he filed his patent application, the invention had not yet been reduced to practice and thus the patent application was timely

President, Congress, Public Officials

• Gifts to public officials - United States v. Sun-Diamond Growers of California (April 27, 1999)
  Secretary of Agriculture received gifts of value from growers. Court of Appeals concluded that under the "illegal gratuity statute," 18 U.S.C. § 201(c)(1)(A), the Government need not show that such gifts were given "for or because of" any particular act or acts of the official. The Supreme Court affirmed.

Sexual Harassment

• Student-on-student harassment - Davis v. Monroe County Bd. of Educ. (May 24, 1999)
  Plaintiff argued that school receiving federal funds was liable in a private claim for damages under 20 U.S.C. § 1681(a), for student-on-student sexual harassment at the school. The Court set limits to such claims but upheld them.

Trade Law

• Duties owed on goods modified by operations "incidental to the assembly process" - United States v. Haggar Apparel Co. (April 21, 1999)
  In an action brought by a manufacturer to obtain a refund of duties paid for clothing assembled in Mexico of U.S. components, Court of Appeals had rejected Customs Service's classification of fabric treatment as not a part of the assembly process. Concluding that the Court of Appeals had not applied the proper test to the regulation at issue, the Supreme Court remanded the case.

Welfare

• Restrictions on new residents in California's welfare program - Saenz v. Roe (May 17, 1999)
  California limited new residents, for their first year of residence in the state, to the benefits they would have received in their former state of residence. Class action suit successfully challenged the restriction as an unconstitutional limitation on freedom of travel.