Year Case Significance
1988 Thompson v. Oklahoma The Court, in a 5-3 ruling, vacated the death sentence of a fifteen-year-
old who was tried as an adult and convicted of murder. The justices
ruled that imposing the death penalty against juveniles under the age of
sixteen was a form of cruel and unusual punishment.
1988 Webster v. Doe This decision allowed a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
employee to sue the CIA for firing him because he was a homosexual,
which the CIA claimed made him a threat to national security. In a 6-2
ruling, the justices concluded that dismissed employees could sue the
CIA if they believed their constitutional rights had been violated.
1989 Allegheny County v. Greater Pittsburgh
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Writing for the majority, Justice Blackmun held that displaying a nativity
scene inside a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, courthouse endorsed religion
and, therefore, violated the Constitution’s establishment clause
separating church and state. This decision differed from the 1984 ruling
inLynch v. Donnelly, which held that a nativity scene that was part of a
secular Christmas display for commercial purposes was constitutional.1989 Sable Communications of California,
Inc. v. Federal Communications
Commission
Sable Communications, a provider of “dial-a-porn” telephone services
both in and outside the metropolitan Los Angeles area, challenged a
federal law that banned these sexually oriented calls. The Court ruled
that the federal law was unconstitutional because it violated the free
speech rights of pornographers.1989 Texas v. Johnson In a 5-4 decision, the Court overturned a Texas law that made the
desecration of the American flag illegal. The justices maintained that
flag burning was a form of symbolic speech and protected under the
First Amendment.
1989 Webster v. Reproductive Health Services This opinion upheld a Missouri law that prohibited the use of state
funds to pay for abortions; the law also determined that life began at
conception and mandated that unborn children should have the same
rights and privileges available to other persons. Prochoice advocates
maintained that by upholding this law, the Court seriously compromised
the landmarkRoe v. Wade(1973) decision, which legalized abortion.
Eddith A. Dashiell
1110 Legislation: U.S. Supreme Court Decisions The Eighties in America