Year Case Significance
1992 New York v. United States This Supreme Court 6-3 decision concluded that Congress cannot
promote waste disposal by instructing state governments to “take title”
to waste because under the Tenth Amendment it impermissibly
commandeered state legislative choice.
1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey By a narrow majority (5-4), a plurality joint opinion of the Court
reaffirmed theRoe v. Wade(1973) abortion decision emphasizing a
woman’s right to make autonomous decisions before viability of the
fetus without undue interference from the state. However, the justices
made significant changes in the Court’s jurisprudence regarding
abortions. They eliminated the trimester and viability structure
because advancements in neonatal medicine had enabled a fetus to
exist outside the mother’s body as young as twenty-three weeks old.
Further, they replaced the state’s job of showing it had a compelling
state interest for its regulation with an “undue burden” test. This
allowed states greater leeway to regulate access to abortion pre-viability
so long as no undue burden was placed on the mother. If a regulation
had the purpose or effect of imposing a substantial obstacle in a
woman’s right to choose before the fetus attains viability, the law failed
the undue burden test.
1992 Quill Corporation v. North Dakota by
and Through Heitkamp
Where the only contact a business has with a state is by mail or
common carrier, it is unconstitutional under the commerce
clause’s “substantial nexus” requirement for a state to impose a use
tax because it would burden interstate commerce and the national
economy.1992 R. A. V. v. City of St. Paul A unanimous Court struck down a hate-crime ordinance that prohibited
cross or swastika burning on public or private property because the
ordinance violated the doctrine of neutral content in that it regulated
speech based on “hostility—or favoritism—towards the underlying
message expressed.”
1992 United States v. Fordice A 6-3 Court held that even though state higher education school
policies may be race-neutral on their face regarding admissions, if they
substantially restricted a person’s choice of which institution to enter
and perpetuated the school’s former segregation, the policies violated
the equal protection clause.
1992 White v. Illinois The Court added two hearsay exceptions to the right of a
defendant to confront a witness because the statements were
not likely to be fabricated: (1) statements made for the purpose
of medical treatment and (2) excited utterances because there
was no time for reflection.
1993 Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v.
Hialeah
A local ordinance that attempted to ban animal sacrifices in
religious ceremonies was held to violate the free exercise
of religion clause.1993 Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals A unanimous Court changed the test of admissibility for expert
opinions from the question of whether a consensus existed among
a community of experts to a “reliability” standard. This required
federal judges to make a preliminary assessment of whether the
testimony was valid because it was scientifically well grounded
and relevantly connected to the facts at issue.
The Nineties in America Legislation: U.S. Supreme Court Decisions 991