Volume 507 — United States Reports

This is a list of all the United States Supreme Court cases from volume 507 of the United States Reports:

Held: itself reflects the improbability of completing judicial review before the necessary deadline for a new redistricting scheme. It may be useful to describe what ought to have happened with respect to each redistricting plan. The state court entered its judgment adopting its modified version of Chapter 246 in late January (nearly three weeks before the federal court issued its opinion).

Fex v. Michigan, 507 U.S. 43 (1993), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the court held that the Interstate Agreement on Detainers's statute of limitation for bringing a case against an incarcerated person who gives notice to a forum state that they are incarcerated in another state begins after the notice letter has been received by the forum state's prosecution.

* Petitioner Itel Containers is a domestic company that leases cargo containers for use exclusively in international shipping. Held: Tennessee's sales tax, as applied to Itel's leases, does not violate the Commerce, Import-Export, or Supremacy Clause. Pp. ---- - ----. (a) The sales tax is not pre-empted by the 1972 or 1956 Container Convention.

* At respondent's federal trial for conspiracy to distribute cocaine, the Government's case-in-chief consisted of five witnesses who took part in, or observed, her… Held: Upon a proper determination that the accused has committed perjury at trial, a court may enhance the accused's sentence under § 3C1.1. Pp. ---- - ----. (a) The parties agree, and the commentary to § 3C1.1 is explicit, that the phrase "impede or obstruct the administration of justice" includes perjury.

* Petitioner Negonsott, a member of the Kickapoo Tribe and a resident of the Kickapoo reservation in Kansas, was convicted by a County District Court jury of aggravated battery for shooting another… Held: The Kansas Act explicitly confers jurisdiction on Kansas over all offenses involving Indians on Indian reservations. Congress has plenary authority to alter the otherwise exclusive nature of federal jurisdiction under § 1153.

* The Government filed an in rem action against the parcel of land on which respondent's home is located, alleging that she had purchased the property with funds given her by Joseph Brenna that were… Held: The judgment is affirmed. 937 F.2d 98 (CA 3 1991), affirmed.

Held: “[Electoral devices . . . may not be considered per se violative of § 2. Plaintiffs must demonstrate that, under the totality of the circumstances, the devices result in unequal access to the electoral process.” 478 U. S., at 46 . As a result, the District Court was required to determine the consequences of Ohio’s apportionment plan before ruling on its validity; the failure to do so was error.

* Petitioner homeowners filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against respondents—local officials acting in their official capacity, a county, and two municipal corporations—alleging that the conduct of… Held: A federal court may not apply a "heightened pleading standard"—more stringent than the usual pleading requirements of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a)—in civil rights cases alleging municipal liability under § 1983.

* A provision of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c), makes it unlawful "for any person employed by or associated… Held: One must participate in the operation or management of the enterprise itself in order to be subject to § 1962(c) liability. Pp. 6-16. (a) Examination of the statutory language in the light of pertinent dictionary definitions and the context of § 1962(c) brings the section's meaning unambiguously into focus.

Held: in the alternative, that petitioner's suit would be barred even if Antarctica were not a "foreign country" for purposes of the FTCA. Because the FTCA was a limited relinquishment of the common-law immunity of the United States, the Court of Appeals concluded that the absence of any clear congressional intent to subject the United States to liability for claims arising in Antarctica precluded petitioner's suit.

Building & Construction Trades Council v. Associated Builders & Contractors of Massachusetts/Rhode Island, Inc., 507 U.S. 218 (1993), is a US labor law case, concerning the scope of federal preemption against state law for labor rights.

Held: other reasons for dismissal. Referring to our own dismissal in Molinaro , we found that the state statute served “similar ends .... It discourages the felony of escape and encourages voluntary surrenders. It promotes the efficient, dignified operation of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.” 420 U. S., at 537 (footnotes omitted).

* The Interstate Commerce Act (ICA) requires that motor common carriers charge the tariff rates they file with the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), 49 U.S.C. § 10762, and that such rates be… Held: Petitioners' unreasonable-rate claims under § 11705(b)(3) are subject to the ordinary rules governing counterclaims. Pp. ____.

Reno v. Flores, 507 U.S. 292 (1993), was a Supreme Court of the United States case that addressed the detention and release of unaccompanied minors.

Saudi Arabia v. Nelson, 507 U.S. 349 (1993), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court considered the term "based upon a commercial activity" within the meaning of the first clause of 1605(a)(2) of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976.

* As unsecured creditors of petitioner—a company seeking relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code—respondents were required to file proofs of claim with the Bankruptcy Court before the… Held: An attorney's inadvertent failure to file a proof of claim by the bar date can constitute "excusable neglect" within the meaning of Rule 9006(b)(1). Pp. ____.

Cincinnati v. Discovery Network, Inc., 507 U.S. 410 (1993), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that a ban by the city of Cincinnati, on the distribution of commercial material via news racks, violated the First Amendment.

* The United States' federal tax lien on the respondent McDermotts' property applied to after-acquired property, Glass City Bank v. United States, 326 U.S. 265, 66 S.Ct. 108, 90 L.Ed. 56, but could… Held: A federal tax lien filed before a delinquent taxpayer acquires real property must be given priority in that property over a private creditor's previously filed judgment lien.

Arave v. Creech, 507 U.S. 463 (1993), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that, when a state uses a consistent narrowing definition for a broad term like "utter disregard," the broad term can function as a valid aggravating circumstance under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Held: they become escheatable. 7 Between 1985 and 1989, New York es-cheated $360 million in funds of abandoned securities held for more than three years by intermediaries doing business in New York, without regard to the last known address of the beneficial owner or the intermediary’s State of incorporation. N. Y. Aband. Prop. Law § 511 (McKinney 1991). See Report of Special Master 10, n. 9.

* When petitioner Conroy, an officer in the United States Army, failed to pay local real estate taxes on property he owned in Danforth, Maine, the town acquired the property and sold it. Held: A member of the Armed Services need not show that his military service prejudiced his ability to redeem title to property before he can qualify for the statutory suspension of time. The statutory command in § 525 is unambiguous, unequivocal, and unlimited.

* States participating in the Food Stamp Program receive from the United States Department of Agriculture coupons that they distribute to qualified… Held: The Act left in place the States' federal common law obligation to pay prejudgment interest on debts owed to the Federal Government. Pp. ____. (a) It is a longstanding rule that a party owing debts to the Federal Government must pay prejudgment interest where the underlying claim is a contractual obligation to pay money.

* Petitioner newspaper publisher is the successor to The Herald Company. Held: A taxpayer able to prove that a particular asset can be valued and that it has a limited useful life may depreciate its value over its useful life regardless of how much the asset appears to reflect the expectancy of continued patronage. Pp. ____.

* To resolve a dispute among Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, and the United States over water rights to the North Platte River, this Court entered a decree in 1945 imposing restrictions… Held: No exceptions having been filed to the Master's recommendation that the Court deny the intervention motions, that recommendation is adopted. P. ____. 2. The Master's recommended dispositions of the summary judgment motions are adopted, and the parties' exceptions are overruled. Pp. ____.

Hazen Paper Co. v. Biggins, 507 U.S. 604 (1993), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the court held that a disparate treatment claim cannot succeed unless the employee's protected trait had a determinative influence on the employer's decisionmaking.

Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U.S. 619 (1993), was a United States Supreme Court case decided in 1993. The Court held that, when federal courts are deciding whether to grant habeas relief due to unconstitutional error at trial, they should use the harmless error standard outlined in Kotteakos v. United States to assess such claims.

* After her husband was killed when a train owned and operated by CSX Transportation collided with his truck at a Georgia crossing, Lizzie Easterwood brought this diversity wrongful death action,… Held: Under the FRSA, federal regulations adopted by the Secretary of Transportation pre-empt Easterwood's negligence action only insofar as it asserts that CSX's train was traveling at an excessive speed. Pp. ____.

Withrow v. Williams, 507 U.S. 680 (1993), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that Fifth Amendment Miranda v. Arizona arguments can be raised again in federal habeas corpus proceedings, even if a criminal defendant had a fair chance to argue those claims in state court. The Court rejected the state's argument that Stone v. Powell, a case holding the opposite in the context of Fourth Amendment claims on habeas review, applied in Williams' case.

United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725 (1993), was a United States Supreme Court case that distinguished between forfeiture and waiver. Quoting from Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458 (1938), the Court noted, "Whereas forfeiture is the failure to make the timely assertion of a right, waiver is the "intentional relinquishment or abandonment of a known right.... Whether a particular right is waivable; whether the defendant must participate personally in the waiver; whether certain procedures are required for waiver; and whether the defendant's choice must be particularly informed or voluntary, all depend on the right at stake." According to the Court, mere forfeiture, as opposed to waiver, does not extinguish an "error" under Rule 52(b) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.

Held: the Government had no state cause of action and no quasi-contract action. “Since federal statutes of limitations become determinative only after the government acquires a cause of action, and since the United States never acquired a cause of action,” the court reasoned, the 6-year statute of limitations of “28 U. S. C. §2415 does not apply.” Id., at 1351.

Respondent Fane, a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) licensed to practice by the Florida Board of Accountancy, sued the Board for declaratory and injunctive relief… Held: As applied to CPA solicitation in the business context, Florida's prohibition is inconsistent with the free speech guarantees of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Pp. ____. (a) The type of personal solicitation prohibited here is clearly commercial expression to which First Amendment protections apply.