Justice BREYER delivered the opinion of the Court. The Federal Arbitration Act states that a "written provision" in a contract providing for "settle[ment] by arbitration" of "a controversy . . . arising out of" that "contract. . . shall be valid, irrevocable, and enforceable, save upon such grounds as exist at law or in equity for the revocation of any contract." 9 U.S.C. 2. We here consider a California court's refusal to enforce an arbitration provision in a contract. In our view,...
Justice SCALIA delivered the opinion of the Court. We consider under what circumstances, if any, a district judge is free to "determin[e] that three judges are not required" for an action "challenging the constitutionality of the apportionment of congressional districts." 28 U.S.C. 2284(a), (b)(1). I A Rare today, three-judge district courts were more common in the decades before 1976, when they were required for various adjudications, including the grant of an "interlocutory or...
Chief Justice ROBERTS delivered the opinion of the Court. The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act shields foreign states and their agencies from suit in United States courts unless the suit falls within one of the Act's specifically enumerated exceptions. This case concerns the scope of the commercial activity exception, which withdraws sovereign immunity in any case "in which the action is based upon a commercial activity carried on in the United States by [a] foreign state." 28 U.S.C....
The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied. Justice THOMAS, with whom Justice SCALIA joins, dissenting from the denial of certiorari. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552, requires federal agencies to "make [agency] records promptly available to any person" who requests them, unless the information that they contain falls under a specifically enumerated exemption. 552(a)(3)(A), (b). One of those exemptions, Exemption 4, authorizes agencies to withhold documents that...
ORDER ANTHONY M. KENNEDY , Associate Justice . of the Supreme Court of the United States. UPON CONSIDERATION of the application of counsel for the applicant, IT IS ORDERED that the order of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California granting discovery is stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court.
Justice ALITO delivered the opinion of the Court. Prisoners sentenced to death in the State of Oklahoma filed an action in federal court under Rev. Stat. 1979, 42 U.S.C. 1983, contending that the method of execution now used by the State violates the Eighth Amendment because it creates an unacceptable risk of severe pain. They argue that midazolam, the first drug employed in the State's current three-drug protocol, fails to render a person insensate to pain. After holding an...
Justice SCALIA delivered the opinion of the Court. The Clean Air Act directs the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate emissions of hazardous air pollutants from power plants if the Agency finds regulation "appropriate and necessary." We must decide whether it was reasonable for EPA to refuse to consider cost when making this finding. I The Clean Air Act establishes a series of regulatory programs to control air pollution from stationary sources (such as refineries and factories)...
Justice GINSBURG delivered the opinion of the Court. This case concerns an endeavor by Arizona voters to address the problem of partisan gerrymandering — the drawing of legislative district lines to subordinate adherents of one political party and entrench a rival party in power. 1 "[P]artisan gerrymanders," this Court has recognized, "[are incompatible] with democratic principles." Vieth v. Jubelirer, 541 U.S. 267 , 292, 124 S.Ct. 1769, 158 L.Ed.2d 546 (2004) (plurality opinion); id....
Justice KENNEDY delivered the opinion of the Court. The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity. The petitioners in these cases seek to find that liberty by marrying someone of the same sex and having their marriages deemed lawful on the same terms and conditions as marriages between persons of the opposite sex. I These cases come from Michigan,...
Chief Justice ROBERTS delivered the opinion of the Court. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act adopts a series of interlocking reforms designed to expand coverage in the individual health insurance market. First, the Act bars insurers from taking a person's health into account when deciding whether to sell health insurance or how much to charge. Second, the Act generally requires each person to maintain insurance coverage or make a payment to the Internal Revenue Service. And...
Justice KENNEDY delivered the opinion of the Court. The underlying dispute in this case concerns where housing for low-income persons should be constructed in Dallas, Texas — that is, whether the housing should be built in the inner city or in the suburbs. This dispute comes to the Court on a disparate-impact theory of liability. In contrast to a disparate-treatment case, where a "plaintiff must establish that the defendant had a discriminatory intent or motive," a plaintiff bringing a...
Justice BREYER delivered the opinion of the Court. In this case, an individual detained in a jail prior to trial brought a claim under Rev. Stat. 1979, 42 U.S.C. 1983, against several jail officers, alleging that they used excessive force against him, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause. The officers concede that they intended to use the force that they used. But the parties disagree about whether the force used was excessive. The question before us is...
Chief Justice ROBERTS , delivered the opinion of the Court. Under the United States Department of Agriculture's California Raisin Marketing Order, a percentage of a grower's crop must be physically set aside in certain years for the account of the Government, free of charge. The Government then sells, allocates, or otherwise disposes of the raisins in ways it determines are best suited to maintaining an orderly market. The question is whether the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment bars...
Justice KAGAN delivered the opinion of the Court. In Brulotte v. Thys Co., 379 U.S. 29 , 85 S.Ct. 176, 13 L.Ed.2d 99 (1964), this Court held that a patent holder cannot charge royalties for the use of his invention after its patent term has expired. The sole question presented here is whether we should overrule Brulotte. Adhering to principles of stare decisis, we decline to do so. Critics of the Brulotte rule must seek relief not from this Court but from Congress. I. In 1990,...
Justice SOTOMAYOR delivered the opinion of the Court. Respondents brought a Fourth Amendment challenge to a provision of the Los Angeles Municipal Code that compels "[e]very operator of a hotel to keep a record" containing specified information concerning guests and to make this record "available to any officer of the Los Angeles Police Department for inspection" on demand. Los Angeles Municipal Code 41.49(2), (3)(a), (4) (2015). The questions presented are whether facial challenges to...
Justice BREYER delivered the opinion of the Court. Texas offers automobile owners a choice between ordinary and specialty license plates. Those who want the State to issue a particular specialty plate may propose a plate design, comprising a slogan, a graphic, or (most commonly) both. If the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles Board approves the design, the State will make it available for display on vehicles registered in Texas. In this case, the Texas Division of the Sons of Confederate...
Justice THOMAS delivered the opinion of the Court. The town of Gilbert, Arizona (or Town), has adopted a comprehensive code governing the manner in which people may display outdoor signs. Gilbert, Ariz., Land Development Code (Sign Code or Code), ch. 1, 4.402 (2005). 1 The Sign Code identifies various categories of signs based on the type of information they convey, then subjects each category to different restrictions. One of the categories is "Temporary Directional Signs Relating to...
Justice SOTOMAYOR , delivered the opinion of the Court. In Atkins v. Virginia , 536 U.S. 304 , 122 S.Ct. 2242, 153 L.Ed.2d 335 (2002), this Court recognized that the execution of the intellectually disabled contravenes the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. After Atkins was decided, petitioner, a Louisiana death-row inmate, requested an opportunity to prove he was intellectually disabled in state court. Without affording him an evidentiary hearing or...
Justice ALITO delivered the opinion of the Court. A quarter-century after a California jury convicted Hector Ayala of triple murder and sentenced him to death, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted Ayala's application for a writ of habeas corpus and ordered the State to retry or release him. The Ninth Circuit's decision was based on the procedure used by the trial judge in ruling on Ayala's objections under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 , 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (...
Justice ALITO delivered the opinion of the Court. Darius Clark sent his girlfriend hundreds of miles away to engage in prostitution and agreed to care for her two young children while she was out of town. A day later, teachers discovered red marks on her 3-year-old son, and the boy identified Clark as his abuser. The question in this case is whether the Sixth Amendment's Confrontation Clause prohibited prosecutors from introducing those statements when the child was not available to be...
