Volume 417 — United States Reports

This is a list of all the United States Supreme Court cases from volume 417 of the United States Reports:

When respondent unions called a jurisdictional-dispute strike against petitioner employer, petitioner brought this suit, which is… Held: When the activity in question is arguably both an unfair labor practice prohibited by § 8 of the NLRA and a breach of a collective-bargaining agreement, the NLRB's authority 'is not exclusive and does not destroy the jurisdiction of the courts in suits under § 301.' Smith v. Evening News Assn., 371 U.S. 195, 197, 83 S.Ct. 267, 269, 9…

Respondent, a North Carolina prison inmate, had an altercation with another prisoner, and was charged with the misdemeanor of assault with… Held: The indictment on the felony charge contravened the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, since a person convicted of a misdemeanor in North Carolina is entitled to pursue his right under state law to a trial de novo without apprehension that the State will retaliate by substituting a more serious charge for the original…

Fuller v. Oregon, 417 U.S. 40 (1974), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that Oregon's statute allowing for the recoupment of costs related to court-appointed defense counsel did not violate either the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause or the Sixth Amendment's Assistance of Counsel Clause. The statute required convicted defendants who were indigent at the time of their trial, but later acquired financial means, to repay the costs of their court-appointed lawyer and investigator.

Cash registers and other machines built to foreign buyers' specifications which were warehoused in Ohio awaiting shipment abroad, title, possession, and control remaining in respondent manufacturer, held not immune from state ad valorem tax, since the prospect of eventual exportation, however certain, did not start the process of exportation and move the machines into the export stream, without which the immunity from local taxation conferred by the Import-Export Clause of…

Title 10 U.S.C. § 687(a) provides for readjustment pay for an Armed Forces Reservist who is involuntarily released from active duty and… Held: the 'rounding' provision, as is clear from the statute's legislative history, applies only in computing the amount of readjustment pay, and not in determining eligibility therefor; hence, a reservist must serve a minimum of five full years of continuous active duty before his involuntary release in order to qualify for readjustment…

Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination held not available to member of dissolved law partnership who had been subpoenaed by a grand jury to produce the partnership's financial books and records, since the partnership, though small, had an institutional identity and petitioner held the records in a representative, not a personal, capacity.

A longshoreman was injured when, while loading a vessel owned by one respondent and time chartered to the other (hereinafter collectively the Vessel), he stepped into a concealed gap between crates… Held: The award of contribution between joint tortfeasors in a noncollision maritime case was proper under the circumstances.

Petitioner F. D. Rich Co., the prime contractor on a federal housing project in California, had two separate contracts for the project… Held: Based on the substantiality and importance of its relationship with the prime contractor, MacEvoy Co. v. United States for Use and Benefit of Calvin Tomkins Co., 322 U.S. 102, 64 S.Ct. 890, 88 L.Ed. 1163, Cerpac was clearly a subcontractor for Miller Act purposes, considering not just its plywood contract but also its custom millwork…

Respondent corporate taxpayer, pursuant to a recapitalization plan, issued $50 face value 5% sinking fund debentures in exchange for its outstanding unlisted $50 par 5% cumulative preferred shares,… Held: Respondent did not incur amortizable debt discount upon the issuance of its debentures in exchange for its outstanding preferred stock. Pp. 142—155.

Petitioner brought a class action under Fed.Rule Civ.Proc. 23 on behalf of himself and all odd-lot traders on the New York Stock Exchange for a certain four-year period, charging respondent brokerage… Held: The District Court's resolution of the notice problems constituted a 'final' decision within the meaning of 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and was therefore appealable as of right under that section. Pp. 169—172.

Corning Glass Works v. Brennan, 417 U.S. 188 (1974), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court interpreted the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and held that Corning Glass Works violated the Act by paying male night shift inspectors higher wages than female day shift inspectors performing the same work. The decision was the Supreme Court's first ruling applying the Equal Pay Act.

For having conspired to cast fictitious votes for federal, state, and local candidates in a West Virginia primary election, petitioners were convicted of violating 18 U.S.C. § 241, which makes it… Held: The out-of-court statements were admissible under basic principles of the law of evidence and conspiracy, regardless of whether or not § 241 encompasses conspiracies to cast fraudulent votes in state and local elections. Pp. 214—222.

Howard Johnson Co. v. Detroit Local Joint Executive Board, 417 U.S. 249 (1974), is a US labor law case that decided that under the Labor Management Relations Act § 301 there can be no obligation on an employer to collectively bargain with employees of a business that has been transferred to him.

The Federal Power Commission (FPC) instituted a proceeding in 1961 to establish an area rate structure for interstate sales of natural gas produced in the Southern Louisiana area. Held: The FPC had the statutory authority to adopt the 1971 order, notwithstanding the Court of Appeals' affirmance of the 1968 order. Pp. 310—315.

Held: inter alia, that even though the legal issue raised in a § 2255 motion "was determined against [the applicant] on the merits on a prior application," "the applicant may [nevertheless] be entitled to a new hearing upon showing an intervening change in the law . . . ." Sanders v. United States, 373 U. S. 1, 17 .

Respondent operators of offstreet parking facilities in Pittsburgh, Pa., sued to enjoin the enforcement of a city ordinance imposing an increased 20% tax on the gross receipts from parking or storing… Held: The ordinance is not unconstitutional, and the city was constitutionally entitled to put the automobile parker to the choice of using other transportation or paying the increased tax. Pp. 373—379.

Following its notice of proposed rulemaking 'propos(ing) prospectively to exempt from regulation under the Natural Gas Act all existing and all future… Held: The scheme for regulating small-producer rates indirectly did not exceed the FPC's statutory authority. Pp. 386—393. (a) Order No. 428 is not invalid because it does not initially consider each company and the reasonableness of its rates, or because it has a two-tier system for small producers and large producers.

Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (the Act) provides for federal funding of special programs for educationally deprived children in both public and private… Held: At this stage of the proceedings this Court cannot reach and decide whether Title I requires the assignment of publicly employed teachers to provide remedial instruction during regular school hours on the premises of private schools attended by Title I eligible students. Pp. 415—426.

Respondent, who had been arrested for rape, was questioned by police. Held: The police conduct in this case, though failing to afford respondent the full measure of procedural safeguards later set forth in Miranda, did not deprive respondent of his privilege against self-incrimination since the record clearly shows that respondent's statements during the police interrogation were not involuntary or the…

Petitioners, trustees of a railroad in a § 77 reorganization proceeding, brought suit for freight charges against respondent shipper, and… Held: The Court of Appeals erred in allowing the setoff, since it thereby granted a preference to the claim of one creditor that happened to owe freight charges over other creditors that did not, and thus interfered with the Reorganization Court's duty under § 77e, 11 U.S.C. § 205(e), to approve a 'fair and equitable plan' that duly…

Geduldig v. Aiello, 417 U.S. 484 (1974), was an equal protection case in the United States in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that discrimination on the basis of pregnancy was not sex-based discrimination, and therefore the denial of insurance benefits for work loss resulting from a normal pregnancy did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment.

Respondent, an American manufacturer based in Illinois, in order to expand its overseas operations, purchased from petitioner, a German… Held: The arbitration clause is to be respected and enforced by federal courts in accord with the explicit provisions of the United States Arbitration Act that an arbitration agreement, such as is here involved, 'shall be valid, irrevocable, and enforceable, save upon such grounds as exist at law or in equity for the revocation of any…

Morton v. Mancari, 417 U.S. 535 (1974), was a United States legal case about the constitutionality, under the Fifth Amendment, of hiring preferences given to Indians within the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Supreme Court of the United States held that the hiring preferences given by the United States Congress does not violate the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

Petitioners, Negro citizens of Montgomery, Ala., brought this class action in 1958 to desegregate the city's public parks, and in 1959 the District Court ordered the parks desegregated. Held: The city was properly enjoined from permitting exclusive access to its recreational facilities by segregated private schools and by groups affiliated with such schools. Pp. 566—569.

On July 24, 1967, law enforcement officers interviewed respondent in connection with a murder that had occurred five days before and viewed his automobile, which was thought to have been used in the… Held: The judgment is reversed. Pp. 585—596. 476 F.2d 467, reversed. Mr. Justice BLACKMUN, joined by THE CHIEF JUSTICE, Mr. Justice WHITE, and Mr. Justice REHNQUIST, concluded that: 1 1.

Respondent, an indigent, while represented by court-appointed counsel, was convicted of forgery in state court in two separate cases, and his convictions were affirmed on his appeals of right by the… Held: The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment does not require North Carolina to provide respondent with counsel on his discretionary appeal to the State Supreme Court. Pp. 609—611.

Held: those judges are largely free to devise whatever procedures they choose to initiate the process of decision to order such a rehearing, and to decide who may participate in those preliminary procedures, see n. 3, supra, neither the Court nor Congress has suggested that any other than a regular active service judge is eligible to participate in the making of the decision whether to hear or rehear a case in banc.

Under the Social Security Act illegitimate children are deemed entitled to disability insurance benefits without any showing that they are in fact dependent upon their disabled parent if state law… Held: Title 42 U.S.C. § 416(h)(3)(B), as part of the statutory scheme applicable to illegitimates, contravenes the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment and the equal protection of the laws guaranteed thereby. Pp. 631—638.

1. An income tax refund is 'property' that passes to the trustee under § 70a(5) of the Bankruptcy Act, being 'sufficiently rooted in the bankruptcy past,' and not being related conceptually to or the equivalent of future wages for the purpose of giving the bankrupt wage earner a 'fresh start.' Lines v. Frederick, 400 U.S. 18, 91 S.Ct. 113, 27 L.Ed.2d 124, distinguished. Pp. 645—648. 2.

The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, which became effective May 1, 1971, makes parole under the general… Held: Section 1103(a) of the 1970 statute bars the Board of Parole from considering respondent for parole under 18 U.S.C. § 4202, since parole eligibility, as a practical matter, is determined at the time of sentencing, and sentencing is a part of the concept of 'prosecution,' saved by § 1103(a), Bradley v. United States, 410 U.S. 605, 93…

When a fire destroys insured corporate property prior to the corporation's adoption of a complete plan of liquidation, but the fire insurance proceeds are received within 12 months after the plan's adoption, the gain realized from the excess of such proceeds over the corporate taxpayer's adjusted income tax basis in the insured property must be recognized and taxed to the corporation, and is not entitled to nonrecognition under § 337(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954,…

In 1964 petitioner Bangor Punta Corp. (Bangor Punta), through its wholly owned subsidiary, petitioner Bangor Punta Operations, Inc., acquired… Held: The equitable principles that a stockholder, who has purchased all or substantially all the shares of a corporation from a vendor at a fair price, may not seek to have the corporation recover against that vendor for prior corporate mismanagement, and that the corporate entity may be disregarded if equity so demands, preclude…

Article 90(2) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (Code) provides for punishment of any person subject to the Code who 'willfully disobeys a lawful command of his superior commissioned officer';… Held: Articles 133 and 134 are not unconstitutionally vague under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Pp. 752—757.

A union does not commit an unfair labor practice under § 8(b)(1)(B) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) when it disciplines supervisor-members for crossing a picket line and performing rank-and-file struck work during a lawful economic strike against the employer. Pp. 798—813.

Pell v. Procunier, 417 U.S. 817 (1974), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the court held that when other channels for communication exist, restricting physical access of the media to incarcerated people is not unconstitutional.

The Policy Statement of the Federal Bureau of Prisons prohibiting personal interviews between newsmen and individually designated inmates of federal medium security and maximum security prisons does not abridge the freedom of the press that the First Amendment guarantees, Pell v. Procunier, 417 U.S. 817, 94 S.Ct. 2800, 41 L.Ed.2d 495, since it 'does not deny the press access to sources of information available to members of the general public,' but is merely a particularized…