Year Case Significance
1985 New Jersey v. T.L.O. This 6-3 opinion concluded that, in general, the Fourth Amendment
ban on unreasonable searches applied to searches by public school
officials, as well as by law enforcement personnel. However, the Court
determined that in this case the search of a student’s purse by public
school officials did not violate the student’s civil rights.
1985 Wallace v. Jaffree This decision struck down an Alabama law that allowed public school
teachers to hold a one-minute period of silence for “meditation or
voluntary prayer” each day. The Court determined that the law had no
secular purpose and endorsed religion in violation of the First
Amendment’s establishment clause separating church and state.
1985 Thornton v. Caldor This case challenged the constitutionality of Connecticut’s Sabbath
laws, which prevented private companies from forcing employees to
work on Sunday or any day that would be the employees’ Sabbath. The
Court declared the law unconstitutional and ruled that private
companies are free to fire any employees who refused to work on any
day they considered to be their Sabbath because the First Amendment’s
guarantee of freedom of religion applied only to the government and
not to private employers.
1985 American Booksellers Association v.
Hudnut
The Court struck down as unconstitutional a city ordinance that banned
pornography on the grounds that pornography violated women’s civil
rights by portraying them as sex objects.1986 Batson v. Kentucky In his majority opinion, Justice Lewis Powell ruled that attorneys who
rejected prospective jurors solely on the basis of their race violated the
Sixth Amendment. The Court concluded that racial discrimination in
jury selection damaged the community by “undermining public
confidence” in the justice system.
1986 Bethel School District v. Fraser In a 7-2 decision, the Court upheld a school district’s suspension of a
high school student for delivering a speech containing “elaborate,
graphic, and explicit sexual” metaphors. The opinion determined that
the First Amendment did not prevent school officials from prohibiting
vulgar and lewd speech that would undermine the school’s basic
educational mission.
1986 Bowers v. Hardwick This controversial decision upheld a Georgia sodomy law that made it a
crime to engage in homosexual acts, even in the privacy of the home.
The case involved a homosexual man arrested in his bedroom. Gay
rights groups referred to this case as their “Dred Scott decision,”
comparing it toDred Scott v. Sandford(1857), in which the Court ruled
that African Americans were not “citizens” entitled to constitutional
protection.
1986 Goldman v. Weinberger Ruling 5-4, the justices upheld U.S. Air Force penalties against a Jewish
chaplain who wore a yarmulke (skull cap) while on duty in defiance of
the military’s uniform regulations. The Court ruled that the military’s
interest in uniformity outweighed an individual’s religious beliefs.
1108 Legislation: U.S. Supreme Court Decisions The Eighties in America