The 2005 term of the Supreme Court of the United States began October 3, 2005, and concluded October 1, 2006. This was the first term of Chief Justice John Roberts's tenure on the Court. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Type | Case | Citation | Issues | Joined by | Other opinions | ||||||||||||||||
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Martin v. Franklin Capital Corp. | 546 U.S. 132 (2005) | Unanimous | |||||||||||||||||||
Gonzales v. O Centro Espírita Beneficente União do Vegetal | 546 U.S. 418 (2006) | Religious Freedom Restoration Act • statutory interpretation | Unanimous | ||||||||||||||||||
Roberts' opinion, which was unanimous as to the eight justices participating, ruled that a church was properly granted an injunction under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act against criminal prosecution for its sacramental use of a hallucinatory substance, because the federal government had failed to demonstrate a compelling interest in prohibiting that use under the Controlled Substances Act. | |||||||||||||||||||||
Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, Inc. | 547 U.S. 47 (2006) | First Amendment • conditions on government funding • compelled speech • Homosexuality in the U.S. military • Solomon Amendment | Unanimous | ||||||||||||||||||
Roberts' opinion, which was unanimous as to the eight justices participating, ruled that the government could constitutionally deny federal funds to universities that do not permit the military to recruit on their campuses because of their objection to the military's exclusion of homosexuals. Roberts wrote that the Solomon Amendment neither denies the institutions the right to speak, nor requires them to say anything. He further believed that Congress, through the "raise and support Armies" clause, could even directly force schools to allow recruiting without threatening the withholding of funds, if they so desired, and that, as a result, no question of "unconstitutional conditions" arises. | |||||||||||||||||||||
Georgia v. Randolph | 547 U.S. 103 (2006) | Fourth Amendment | Scalia |
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Roberts' first written dissent on the Court was from Souter's 5–4 ruling barring warrantless searches where a physically present occupant refuses entry to police despite the consent of a co-occupant. Roberts was concerned that this rule would limit the ability of police to address spousal abuse. He noted that the purpose of the Fourth Amendment was to protect individual privacy, but that any person who shares a dwelling (or, as Roberts pointed out, a locker or a hard drive) with another person may anticipate that the other person sharing access to their belongings might turn them over to authorities. Roberts believed that the majority's judgment was arbitrary in light of prior decisions, which had held that police could ignore the objections of a resident who was being held in a police car rather than in the house. | |||||||||||||||||||||
Jones v. Flowers | 547 U.S. 220 (2006) | Fourteenth Amendment • due process • enforcement of property taxes | Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer |
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Roberts' 5-4 majority opinion held that a state was required to take additional reasonable steps to notify a homeowner of a pending tax sale to satisfy overdue property taxes, when the state knew its previous attempt at notice had failed when the certified mailing was returned unclaimed. Roberts satirized the state's position by analogy, stating that "[i]f the [Tax] Commissioner prepared a stack of letters to mail to delinquent taxpayers, handed them to the postman, and then watched as the departing postman accidentally dropped the letters down a storm drain, one would certainly expect the Commissioner's office to prepare a new stack of letters and send them again. No one desirous of actually informing the owners would simply shrug his shoulders as the letters disappeared and say 'I tried.'" | |||||||||||||||||||||
DaimlerChrysler Corp. v. Cuno | 547 U.S. 332 (2006) | Article Three • standing | Stevens, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas, Breyer, Alito |
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Roberts' 8-justice majority, the judgment of which Ginsburg concurred in, ruled that state residents did not have standing to challenge state taxation and spending decisions simply by virtue of their status as taxpayers. | |||||||||||||||||||||
Sereboff v. Mid Atlantic Medical Services, Inc. | 547 U.S. 356 (2006) | ERISA | Unanimous | ||||||||||||||||||
eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C. | 547 U.S. 388 (2006) | Patent | Scalia, Ginsburg |
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Brigham City v. Stuart | 547 U.S. 398 (2006) | Fourth Amendment • exceptions to warrant requirement • exigent circumstances | Unanimous |
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Roberts' unanimous opinion ruled that police may enter a home without a warrant when they have an objectively reasonable basis for believing that an occupant is seriously injured or imminently threatened with such injury. | |||||||||||||||||||||
House v. Bell | 547 U.S. 518 (2006) | Scalia, Thomas |
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Rapanos v. United States | 547 U.S. 715 (2006) | Clean Water Act |
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Roberts joined Scalia's plurality supporting an interpretation of the Clean Water Act that restricted its application to land directly connected to waterways. He wrote a separate concurrence to express his disappointment that lower courts would have no guidance on how to resolve the issue because of the Court's failure to establish a majority. | |||||||||||||||||||||
Sanchez-Llamas v. Oregon | 548 U.S. 331 (2006) | Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Alito |
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League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry | 548 U.S. 399 (2006) | Voting Rights Act | Alito |
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The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on questions of U.S. constitutional or federal law. It also has original jurisdiction over a narrow range of cases, specifically "all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party." The court holds the power of judicial review: the ability to invalidate a statute for violating a provision of the Constitution. It is also able to strike down presidential directives for violating either the Constitution or statutory law.
Sandra Day O'Connor was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, O'Connor was the first woman to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court justice. A moderate conservative, she was considered a swing vote. Before O'Connor's tenure on the Court, she was an Arizona state judge and earlier an elected legislator in Arizona, serving as the first female majority leader of a state senate as the Republican leader in the Arizona Senate. Upon her nomination to the Court, O'Connor was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate.
This page serves as an index of lists of United States Supreme Court cases. The United States Supreme Court is the highest federal court of the United States.
Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. is an American jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated to the high court by President George W. Bush on October 31, 2005, and has served on it since January 31, 2006. After Antonin Scalia, Alito is the second Italian American justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.
John Glover Roberts Jr. is an American jurist who has served as the 17th chief justice of the United States since 2005. He has been described as having a moderate conservative judicial philosophy, though he is primarily an institutionalist. For his willingness to work with the Supreme Court's liberal bloc, Roberts has been regarded as a swing vote on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Neil McGill Gorsuch is an American jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on January 31, 2017, and has served since April 10, 2017.
The 2005 term of the Supreme Court of the United States began October 3, 2005, and concluded October 1, 2006. The table illustrates which opinion was filed by each justice in each case and which justices joined each opinion.
The 2004 term of the Supreme Court of the United States began October 4, 2004, and concluded October 3, 2005. The table illustrates which opinion was filed by each justice in each case and which justices joined each opinion.
The 2003 term of the Supreme Court of the United States began October 6, 2003, and concluded October 3, 2004. The table illustrates which opinion was filed by each justice in each case and which justices joined each opinion.
The 2006 term of the Supreme Court of the United States began October 2, 2006, and concluded September 30, 2007. The table illustrates which opinion was filed by each justice in each case and which justices joined each opinion.
Anthony McLeod Kennedy is an American attorney and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1988 until his retirement in 2018. He was nominated to the court in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan, and sworn in on February 18, 1988. After the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor in 2006, he was considered the swing vote on many of the Roberts Court's 5–4 decisions.
Robert Trimble was a lawyer and jurist who served as Justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, as United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Kentucky and as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1826 to his death in 1828. During his brief Supreme Court tenure he authored several majority opinions, including the decision in Ogden v. Saunders, which was the only majority opinion that Chief Justice John Marshall ever dissented from during his 34 years on the Court.