Year Case Significance
1993 Heller v. Doe In a 6-3 decision, the Court ruled that the involuntary commitment
of mentally retarded persons based upon clear and convincing
evidence as compared to the higher standard of beyond a reasonable
doubt for mentally ill persons did not violate the equal protection
clause under the Fourteenth Amendment. Family observations were
important evidence with retarded youths, whereas the sudden mental
illness of an adult necessitates far more intrusive medical treatment
and justified the higher standard.
1993 Helling v. McKinney A 7-2 decision held there was no constitutional right to a smoke-
free prison facility unless the prison was in fact “deliberately
indifferent” to a prisoner’s health and the exposure led to actual
serious injury.
1993 Herrera v. Collins The Court denied a habeas corpus claim for relief from execution
based on new evidence that had emerged that would prove the
defendant not guilty of the crime. The Court explained that a
governor’s right to assert executive clemency did not implicate
the U.S. Constitution.
1993 Johnson v. Texas The Court’s 5-4 decision allowed a youth’s age to be considered
as a mitigating factor in death penalty cases.
1993 Wisconsin v. Mitchell The Court unanimously upheld a state hate-crime law that
provided for an enhanced sentence of up to five additional
years for a defendant who intentionally selected a victim because
of the person’s race, religion, color, disability, sexual orientation,
national origin, or ancestry.
1993 Zobrest vs. Catalina Foothills School
District
Individual disabled children could be provided government-based
assistance even if attending a sectarian school without violating
the First Amendment’s establishment clause.1994 Dolan v. City of Tigard When government effectively took land without having paid for
it by means of an “impact fee,” the owner of the land could bring
an action for inverse condemnation to obtain compensation for
the taking if the public facility was extrinsic to the development.
Thus, a city must show a “roughly proportional” nexus between
the effect a proposed development would have on the community
and the requirement of a dedication for a new public facility
because it was necessitated by the proposed land development.
1994 J. E. B. vs. Alabama The equal protection clause made it unconstitutional for lawyers
to assert peremptory challenges to exclude jurors based on gender
or race factors. This was controversial, as it placed the right to be
on a jury ahead of the rights of a defendant.
1994 Madsen v. Women’s Health Center, Inc. In a complex case involving antiabortion protesters at a clinic, the
Court endorsed narrowly tailored restrictions on non-viewpoint
speech if the restrictions burdened no more speech than was
necessary to protect access to the facility, ensured orderly traffic
flow, and reasonably limited threats and noise to occupants
undergoing surgery.
992 Legislation: U.S. Supreme Court Decisions The Nineties in America