Bond v. United States | |
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Argued February 22, 2011 Decided June 16, 2011 | |
Full case name | Carol Anne Bond, Petitioner v. United States |
Docket no. | 09-1227 |
Citations | 564 U.S. 211 ( more ) 131 S. Ct. 2355; 180 L. Ed. 2d 269; 2011 U.S. LEXIS 4558 |
Case history | |
Prior | Defendant convicted, 2:07-cr-00528-001 (E.D. Pa.); affirmed, 581 F.3d 128 (3d Cir. 2009); cert. granted, 562 U.S. 960(2010). |
Subsequent | On remand, 681 F.3d 149 (3d Cir. 2012); cert. granted, 568 U.S. 1140(2013); reversed, 572 U.S. 844 (2014). |
Court membership | |
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Case opinions | |
Majority | Kennedy, joined by unanimous |
Concurrence | Ginsburg, joined by Breyer |
Laws applied | |
U.S. Const. amend. X |
Bond v. United States, 564 U.S. 211 (2011), is a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that individuals, just like states, may have standing to raise Tenth Amendment challenges to a federal law.
The issue arose in the prosecution of an individual under the federal Chemical Weapons Convention Implementation Act for a local assault that used a chemical irritant. The defendant argued, in part, that the application of the law violated the Constitution's federalism limitations on the statutory implementation of treaties by Congress.
Having decided the defendant could bring the constitutional challenge, the Court remanded the case without deciding the merits of the claims.
After the husband of Carol A. Bond of Lansdale, Pennsylvania, impregnated Myrlinda Haynes, Bond told Haynes, "I am going to make your life a living hell." Carol Bond stole the poisonous chemical: 10-chlorophenox arsine from her employer (Rohm and Haas) and purchased potassium dichromate from the internet. Bond smeared the chemicals on doorknobs, car doors, and the mailbox. Haynes suffered a chemical burn on her thumb. [1] [2] Bond was indicted for stealing mail and for violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention Implementation Act of 1998.
Her appeal argued that applying the chemical weapons treaty to her violated the Tenth Amendment. [3] The Court of Appeals found Bond lacked standing to make a Tenth Amendment claim. [4]
The Supreme Court concluded unanimously that Bond had standing to argue that a federal statute enforcing the Chemical Weapons Convention in that instance intruded on areas of police power reserved to the states. Justice Kennedy reasoned that actions exceeding the federal government's enumerated powers undermine the sovereign interests of the states. Individuals seeking to challenge such actions are subject to Article III and prudential standing rules, but if the litigant is a party to an otherwise-justiciable case or controversy, the litigant is not forbidden to object that the injury results from disregard of the federal structure of American government.
The Court expressed no view on the merits of Bond's challenge to the federal statute and remanded the case to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. [5]
The Third Circuit, on remand, found that the Supreme Court's decision gave Bond standing to raise federalism questions about the federal government's power to enforce legislation that implements a treaty. However, the circuit court found the 1920 Supreme Court precedent Missouri v. Holland made the legislation indisputably valid since the treaty is valid. [6]
The case then returned to the Supreme Court in Bond v. United States , 572 U.S. 844 (2014), in which it ruled that since the Implementation Act did not reach her conduct, the Court declined to address the constitutional issue. [7] [8]
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Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. United States Department of Health and Human Services 682 F.3d 1 is a United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit decision that affirmed the judgment of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the section that defines the terms "marriage" as "a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife" and "spouse" as "a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife." Both courts found DOMA to be unconstitutional, though for different reasons. The trial court held that DOMA violates the Tenth Amendment and Spending Clause. In a companion case, Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, the same judge held that DOMA violates the Equal Protection Clause. On May 31, 2012, the First Circuit held the act violates the Equal Protection Clause, while federalism concerns affect the equal protection analysis, DOMA does not violate the Spending Clause or Tenth Amendment.
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Bond v. United States may refer to two distinct cases:
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Bond v. United States, 572 U.S. 844 (2014), follows up on the Supreme Court's 2011 case of the same name in which it had reversed the Third Circuit and concluded that both individuals and states can bring a Tenth Amendment challenge to federal law. The case was remanded to the Third Circuit, for a decision on the merits, which again ruled against Bond. On appeal, the Supreme Court reversed and remanded again, ruling that the Chemical Weapons Convention Implementation Act of 1998 did not reach Bond's actions and she could not be charged under that federal law.
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