Opinions
Opinions
Supreme Court
Sandra Day O'Connor served as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1981 to 2006. This page lists the opinions she wrote during her time on the court.
Post Retirement Opinions
After her retirement from the Supreme Court, Sandra Day O'Connor continued to hear cases in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit as a designated judge.
Arizona Appellate Court Opinions
Sandra Day O'Connor served as a judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals from 1980 to 1981. This page lists the opinions she wrote during her time on the state bench.
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JUSTICE O’CONNOR, with whom JUSTICE SOUTER joins, concurring.
Applicants challenged certain provisions of the North Dakota Abortion Control Act, N. D. Cent. Code §§ 14-02.1-01 to 14-Â02.1-12 (1991), in the United States District Court for the District of North Dakota. Relying on our decision in United States v. Salerno, 481 U. S. 739 (1987), the District Court granted summary judgment against applicants. The court reasoned that applicants could not mount a successful facial challenge because they were unable to show that â âno set of circumstances exists under which the [challenged provisions] would be valid.ââ Fargo Women’s Health Organization v. Skinner, No. A3-91-95 (Feb. 19, 1993) (quoting Salerno, supra, at 745). The court denied applicantsâ motion for a stay and injunction pending appeal. See Fargo Womenâs Health Organization v. Schafer, No. A3-91-95 (Mar. 9, 1993). The Court of’Appeals for the Eighth Circuit also denied a motion for stay and injunction pending appeal. It agreed with the District Court that the Salerno standard applied and concluded that this Courtâs decision last Term in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey, 505 U. S. 833 (1992), did not counsel a different approach.. See Fargo Womenâs Health Organization v. Schafer, No. 93-1579 (Mar. 30, 1993). The appeal was expedited, and argument is scheduled for April 14, 1993.
Applicants now ask us for a stay of the District Courtâs judgment and for injunction relief. When a matter is pending before a
JUSTICE O’CONNOR delivered the opinion of the Court.
In this case we clarify the standards for liability and liquidated damages under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), 81 Stat. 602, as amended, 29 U. S. C. § 621 et seq.
I
Petitioner Hazen Paper Company manufactures coated, laminated, and printed paper and paperboard. The company is owned and operated by two cousins, petitioners Robert Hazen and Thomas N. Hazen. The Hazens hired respondent Walter F. Biggins as their technical director in 1977. They fired him in 1986, when he was 62 years old.
Respondent brought suit against petitioners in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, alleging a violation of the ADEA. He claimed that age had been a determinative factor in petitioners’ decision to fire him. Petitioners contested this claim, asserting instead that respondent had been fired for doing business with competitors of Hazen Paper. The case was tried before a jury, which rendered a verdict for respondent on his ADEA claim and also found violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 88 Stat. 895, § 510, 29 U. S. C. § 1140, and state law. On the ADEA count, the jury specifically found that petitioners “willfully” violated the statute. Under § 7(b) of the ADEA, 29 U. S. C. § 626(b), a “willful” violation gives rise to liquidated damages.
*Robert E. Williams, Douglas S. McDowell, and Mona C. Zeiberg filed a brief for the Equal Employment Advisory
JUSTICE O’CONNOR delivered the opinion of the Court.
In this original action we revisit the dispute among Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, and the United States over water rights to the North Platte River. In 1945, this Court entered a decree establishing interstate priorities on the North Platte and apportioning the natural flow of one critical portion of the river during the irrigation season. Nebraska returned to the Court in 1986 seeking an order for enforcement of the decree and injunctive relief. A Special Master, appointed by the Court, has supervised pretrial proceedings and discovery since 1987. Before us now are the Special Master’s recommended dispositions of several summary judgment motions, together with exceptions filed to the Special Master’s reports.
I
The North Platte River rises in northern Colorado and flows through Wyoming into Nebraska, where it joins the South Platte River. The topology of the river and the history of its early development are described at length in the Court’s 1945 opinion. See Nebraska v. Wyoming, 325 U. S.
*Briefs of amici curiae were filed for the Basin Electric Power Cooperative by Edward Weinberg, Richmond F. Allan, Michael J. Hinman, and Claire Olson; and for the National Audubon Society et al. by Peter A. A. Berle and Abbe David Lowell. 589, 592-599. In 1934, Nebraska, invoking this Court’s original jurisdiction under Article III, § 2, of the Constitution, brought an action against Wyoming seeking an equitable apportionment of the
JUSTICE O’CONNOR, dissenting.
I have no dispute with the Court’s observation that “collateral review is different from direct review.” Ante, at 633. Just as the federal courts may decline to adjudicate certain issues of federal law on habeas because of prudential concerns, see Withrow v. Williams, post, at 686; post, at 699-700 (O’CONNOR, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part), so too may they resolve specific claims on habeas using different and more lenient standards than those applicable on direct review, see, e. g., Teague v. Lane, 489 U. S. 288, 299-310 (1989) (habeas claims adjudicated under the law prevailing at time conviction became final and not on the basis of intervening changes of law). But decisions concerning the Great Writ “warrant restraint,” Withrow, post, at 700 (O’CONNOR, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part), for we ought not take lightly alteration of that “‘fundamental safeguard against unlawful custody,'” post, at 697-698 (quoting Fay v. Noia, 372 U. S. 391, 449 (1963) (Harlan, J., dissenting)).
In my view, restraint should control our decision today.
The issue before us is not whether we should remove from the cognizance of the federal courts on habeas a discrete prophylactic rule unrelated to the truthfinding function of trial, as was the case in Stone v. Powell, 428 U. S. 465 (1976), and more recently in Withrow v. Williams, post, p. 680. Rather, we are asked to alter a standard that not only finds application in virtually every
JUSTICE O’CONNOR, with whom THE CHIEF JUSTICE joins, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
Today the Court permits the federal courts to overturn on habeas the conviction of a double murderer, not on the basis of an inexorable constitutional or statutory command, but because it believes the result desirable from the standpoint of equity and judicial administration. Because the principles that inform our habeas jurisprudence-finality, federalism, and fairness-counsel decisively against the result the Court reaches, I respectfully dissent from this holding.
I
The Court does not sit today in direct review of a statecourt judgment of conviction. Rather, respondent seeks relief by collaterally attacking his conviction through the writ of habeas corpus. While petitions for the writ of habeas corpus are now commonplace-over 12,000 were filed in 1990, compared to 127 in 1941-their current ubiquity ought not detract from the writ’s historic importance. See L. Mecham, Annual Report of the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts 191 (1991) (1990 figures); Fay v. Noia, 372 U. S. 391, 446, n. 2 (1963) (Clark, J., dissenting) (1941 figures). “The Great Writ” can be traced through the common law to well before the founding of this Nation; its role as a “prompt and efficacious remedy for whatever society deems to be intolerable restraints” is beyond question. Fay, 372 U. S., at 401-402. As Justice Harlan explained:”Habeas corpus ad subjiciendum is today, as
JUSTICE O’CONNOR delivered the opinion of the Court. The question in this case is whether the presence of alternate jurors during jury deliberations was a “plain error” that the Court of Appeals was authorized to correct under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 52(b).
I
Each of the respondents, Guy W. Olano, Jr., and Raymond M. Gray, served on the board of directors of a savings and loan association. In 1986, the two were indicted in the Western District of Washington on multiple federal charges for their participation in an elaborate loan “kickback” scheme. Their joint jury trial with five other codefendants commenced in March 1987. All of the parties agreed that 14 jurors would be selected to hear the case, and that the 2 alternates would be identified before deliberations began.
On May 26, shortly before the end of the 3-month trial, the District Court suggested to the defendants that the two alternate jurors, soon to be identified, might be allowed to attend deliberations along with the regular jurors:”… I’d just like you to think about it, you have a day, let me know, it’s just a suggestion and you can-if there is even one person who doesn’t like it we won’t do it, but it is a suggestion that other courts have followed in long cases where jurors have sat through a lot of testimony, and that is to let the alternates go in but not participate, but just to sit in on deliberations.”I t’s strictly a matter of courtesy and I know many judges have done it with no objections
JUSTICE O’CONNOR, dissenting.
I continue to believe that this Court took a wrong turn with Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, 433 U. S. 350 (1977), and that it has compounded this error by finding increasingly unprofessional forms of attorney advertising to be protected speech. See Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel of Supreme Court of Ohio, 471 U. S. 626 (1985); Shapero v. Kentucky Bar Assn., 486 U. S. 466 (1988); Peel v. Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Comm’n of Ill., 496 U. S. 91 (1990) (plurality opinion). These cases consistently focus on whether the challenged advertisement directly harms the listener: whether it is false or misleading, or amounts to “overreaching, invasion of privacy, [or] the exercise of undue influence,” Shapero, supra, at 475. This focus is too narrow. In my view, the States have the broader authority to prohibit commercial speech that, albeit not directly harmful to the listener, is inconsistent with the speaker’s membership in a learned profession and therefore damaging to the profession and society at large. See Zauderer, supra, at 676-677 (O’CONNOR, J., concurring in part, concurring in judgment in part, and dissenting in part); Shapero, supra, at 488-491 (O’CONNOR, J., dissenting); Peel, supra, at 119 (O’CONNOR, J., dissenting). In particular, the States may prohibit certain “forms of competition usual in the business world,” Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar, 421 U. S. 773, 792 (1975) (internal quotation marks omitted), on the grounds
JUSTICE O’CONNOR delivered the opinion of the Court. This is another in the long line of cases, beginning withMcCullochv.Maryland,4 Wheat. 316 (1819), in which the Federal Government asks this Court for relief from what it considers illegal state taxes. Unlike the typical tax immunity case, however, we are not presented with a claim that the state tax is unconstitutional; instead, the question is whether the Federal Government may recover taxes it claims were wrongfully assessed under California law against one of the Government’s private contractors.
I
The United States has established three Naval Petroleum Reserves in California and Wyoming, one of which is Naval Petroleum Reserve No.1, located in Kern County, California. 10 U. S. C. § 7420. First through the Department of the Navy and later through the Department of Energy, the United States contracted with Williams Brothers Engineering Company (WBEC) to manage oil drilling operations at Reserve No. 1 from 1975 to 1985. Under the contract, WBEC received an annual fixed fee plus reimbursement for costs, which the contract defined to include state sales and use taxes.
California assessed approximately $14 million in sales and use taxes, pursuant to Cal. Rev. & Tax. Code Ann. § 6384 (West 1987), against WBEC for the years 1975 through 1981.
Illinois, Bonnie J. Campbell of Iowa, Richard P. Ieyoub of Louisiana, J. Joseph Curran, Jr., of Maryland, Frank J. Kelley of Michigan, Mike Moore of Mississippi, Hubert H. Humphrey III
JUSTICE O’CONNOR, Circuit Justice.
I have before me an application requesting that I vacate a remand order issued by an en banc panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. This is not the first time that applicant James Blodgett, who is Superintendent of the Washington State Penitentiary, has sought relief here with respect to Charles Campbell’s second petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Last Term applicant sought a writ of mandamus to compel the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to issue a decision in Campbell’s appeal from a District Court decision denying the petition. In re Blodgett, 502 U. S. 236 (1992). Campbell’s appeal, which had been argued and submitted on June 27, 1989, still had not been resolved in January 1992, a delay of well over two years. Id., at 237. Although we declined to issue a writ of mandamus-applicant had failed to seek appropriate relief from the Court of Appeals before seeking extraordinary relief here, id., at 240-we expressed concern about the delay and noted that applicant was free to seek mandamus relief again if the panel did not handle the case expeditiously. Id., at 240-241. In fact, we cautioned that “[i]n view of the delay that has already occurred any further postponements or extensions of time will be subject to a most rigorous scrutiny in this Court if [applicant] files a further and meritorious petition for relief.” Ibid. Approximately three months later, the Ninth Circuit panel issued an opi
JUSTICE O’CONNOR delivered the opinion of the Court.
In this case, we consider whether the State of Oklahoma may impose income taxes or motor vehicle taxes on the members of the Sac and Fox Nation.
I
The Sac and Fox Nation (Tribe) is a federally recognized Indian tribe located in the State of Oklahoma. Until the mid-18th century, the Tribe lived in the Great Lakes region of the United States. M. Wright, A Guide to the Indian Tribes of Oklahoma 225 (1951). In 1789, it entered into its first treaty with the United States and ceded much of its land. See Treaty at Fort Harmar, 7 Stat. 28. That was only the first of many agreements between the Government and the Tribe in which the Tribe surrendered its land and moved elsewhere. As part of its gradual, treaty-imposed migration, the Tribe stopped briefly along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers in what are now the States of Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska. Wright, Guide to Indian
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation et al. by Reid Peyton Chambers and Jeannette Wolfley; for the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma et al. by Melody L. McCoy, Bertram E. Hirsch, and Thomas W Fredericks; for the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma by Bob Rabon; and for the Navajo Nation et al. by Paul E. Frye, Wayne H. Bladh, and Stanley M. Pollack. Tribes of Oklahoma, at 225-226. In the mid-19th century, the Sac and Fox Nation ceded land in several States for two reservatio
JUSTICE O’CONNOR delivered the opinion of the Court. Exemption 7(D) of the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U. S. C. § 552 (FOIA), exempts from disclosure agency records “compiled for law enforcement purposes… by criminal law enforcement authority in the course of a criminal investigation” if release of those records “could reasonably be expected to disclose” the identity of, or information provided by, a “confidential source.” § 552(b)(7)(D). This case concerns the evidentiary showing that the Government must make to establish that a source is “confidential” within the meaning of Exemption 7(D). We are asked to decide whether the Government is entitled to a presumption that all sources supplying information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI or Bureau) in the course of a criminal investigation are confidential sources.
I
Respondent Vincent Landano was convicted in New Jersey state court for murdering Newark, New Jersey, police officer John Snow in the course of a robbery. The crime received considerable media attention. Evidence at trial showed that the robbery had been orchestrated by Victor Forni and a motorcycle gang known as “the Breed.” There was testimony that Landano, though not a Breed member, had been recruited for the job. Landano always has maintained that he did not participate in the robbery and that Forni, not he, killed Officer Snow. He contends that the prosecution withheld material exculpatory evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U. S. 83
JUSTICE O’CONNOR delivered the opinion of the Court. We decide today whether the exchange of a gun for narcotics constitutes “use” of a firearm “during and in relation to… [a] drug trafficking crime” within the meaning of 18 U. S. C. § 924(c)(1). We hold that it does.
I
Petitioner John Angus Smith and his companion went from Tennessee to Florida to buy cocaine; they hoped to resell it at a profit. While in Florida, they met petitioner’s acquaintance, Deborah Hoag. Hoag agreed to, and in fact did, purchase cocaine for petitioner. She then accompanied petitioner and his friend to her motel room, where they were joined by a drug dealer. While Hoag listened, petitioner and the dealer discussed petitioner’s MAC-l0 firearm, which had been modified to operate as an automatic. The MAC-l0 apparently is a favorite among criminals. It is small and compact, lightweight, and can be equipped with a silencer. Most important of all, it can be devastating: A fully automatic MAC-l0 can fire more than 1,000 rounds per minute. The dealer expressed his interest in becoming the owner of a MAC-l0, and petitioner promised that he would discuss selling the gun if his arrangement with another potential buyer fell through.
Unfortunately for petitioner, Hoag had contacts not only with narcotics traffickers but also with law enforcement officials. In fact, she was a confidential informant. Consistent with her post, she informed the Broward County Sheriff’s Office of petitioner’s activities. The Sheriff’s
JUSTICE O’CONNOR, with whom JUSTICE WHITE joins, concurring in the judgment.
Kevin Taylor admitted that he had killed Scott Siniscalchi.
He contended, however, that he had “act[ed] under a sudden and intense passion resulting from serious provocation by [Siniscalchi].” Ill. Rev. Stat., ch. 38,, 9-2 (1985). If Taylor’s account is to be believed, then, under the law of the State of Illinois, he is not guilty of murder but rather of manslaughter. Ibid. At trial, Taylor took the stand and admitted to the two elements of murder. He asked only that the jury consider his state of mind when he acted and convict him of voluntary manslaughter, acquitting him of murder. Illinois law is clear that this put the jury to a choice: Taylor could be convicted only of manslaughter or murder-not of both. Indeed, because Taylor produced sufficient evidence to raise the defense of sudden passion, Illinois law required the State to negate Taylor’s defense beyond a reasonable doubt. People v. Reddick, 123 Ill. 2d 184, 197, 526 N. E. 2d 141, 146 (1988). As a result, the jury should not have been permitted to convict Taylor of murder if there was so much as a reasonable possibility that Taylor’s manslaughter defense had merit. Ibid.
In Falconer v. Lane, 905 F.2d 1129 (1990), the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that instructions similar to those given at Taylor’s trial did not comport with Illinois law and were ambiguous at best. In Taylor’s case, according to the Court of Appeals, this
JUSTICE O’CONNOR, concurring.
I join all of the Court’s opinion, except for the statement that petitioner cannot “rel[y] on ERISA’s original limitation of contingent liability to 30% of net worth.” Ante, at 646. The Court’s reasoning is generally consistent with my own views about retroactive withdrawal liability, which I explained in Connolly v. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, 475 U. S. 211, 228-236 (1986) (concurring opinion), and which I need not restate at length here. In essence, my position is that the “imposition of this type of retroactive liability on employers, to be constitutional, must rest on some basis in the employer’s conduct that would make it rational to treat the employees’ expectations of benefits under the plan as the employer’s responsibility.” Id., at 229.
The Court does not hold otherwise. Rather, it reasons that, although “the withdrawal liability assessed against Concrete Pipe may amount to more… than the share of the Plan’s liability strictly attributable to employment of covered workers at Concrete Pipe,” this possibility “was exactly what Concrete Pipe accepted when it joined the Plan.” Ante, at 638. I agree that a withdrawing employer can be held responsible for its statutory “share” of unfunded vested benefits if the employer should have anticipated the prospect of withdrawal liability when it joined the plan. In such a case, the “basis in the employer’s conduct that would make it rational to treat the employees’ expectations of benefits
JUSTICE O’CONNOR, with whom JUSTICE BLACKMUN joins, dissenting.
When a challenged statute expires or is repealed or significantly amended pending review, and the only relief sought is prospective, the Court’s practice has been to dismiss the case as moot. Today the Court abandons that practice, relying solely on our decision in City of Mesquite v. Aladdin’s Castle, Inc., 455 U. S. 283 (1982). See ante, at 661-663. I believe this case more closely resembles those cases in which we have found mootness than it does City of Mesquite. Accordingly, I would not reach the standing question decided by the majority.
I A
Earlier this Term, the Court reaffirmed the longstanding rule that a case must be dismissed as moot “if an event occurs [pending review] that makes it impossible for the court to grant ‘any effectual relief whatever’ to a prevailing party.” CONTRACTORS OF AMERICA v. JACKSONVILLE
Church of Scientology of Cal. v. United States, 506 U. S. 9, 12 (1992) (quoting Mills v. Green, 159 U. S. 651, 653 (1895)). That principle applies to challenges to legislation that has expired or has been repealed, where the plaintiff has sought only prospective relief. If the challenged statute no longer exists, there ordinarily can be no real controversy as to its continuing validity, and an order enjoining its enforcement would be meaningless. In such circumstances, it is well settled that the case should be dismissed as moot. See, e. g., New Orleans Flour Inspectors v. Glover, 160 U. S.
JUSTICE O’CONNOR, with whom THE CHIEF JUSTICE joins, dissenting.
Today the Court applies a new rule of retroactivity to impose crushing and unnecessary liability on the States, precisely at a time when they can least afford it. Were the Court’s decision the product of statutory or constitutional command, I would have no choice but to join it. But nothing in the Constitution or statute requires us to adopt the retroactivity rule the majority now applies. In fact, longstanding precedent requires the opposite result. Because I see no reason to abandon our traditional retroactivity analysis as articulated in Chevron Oil Co. v. Huson, 404 U. S. 97, 106107 (1971), and because I believe the Supreme Court of Virginia correctly applied Chevron Oil in this case, I would affirm the judgment below.
I
This Court’s retroactivity jurisprudence has become somewhat chaotic in recent years. Three Terms ago, the case of American Trucking Assns., Inc. v. Smith, 496 U. S. 167 (1990), produced three opinions, none of which garnered a majority. One Term later, James B. Beam Distilling Co. v. Georgia, 501 U. S. 529 (1991), yielded five opinions; there, no single writing carried more than three votes. As a result, the Court today finds itself confronted with such disarray that, rather than relying on precedent, it must resort to vote counting: Examining the various opinions in Jim Beam, it discerns six votes for a single proposition that, in its view, controls this case. Ante, at 96-97.
If we had
JUSTICE O’CONNOR, with whom JUSTICE STEVENS joins, dissenting.
I join Part I of JUSTICE BLACKMUN’S dissent. In my view, the Court should vacate and remand this case for consideration of the various threshold problems, statutory and regulatory, that may moot the constitutional question urged upon us by the parties. “It is a fundamental rule of judicial restraint… that this Court will not reach constitutional questions in advance of the necessity of deciding them.” Three Affiliated Tribes of Fort Berthold Reservation v. Wold Engineering, P. c., 467 U. S. 138, 157 (1984). That “fundamental rule” suffices to dispose of the case before us, whatever the proper answer to the decidedly hypothetical issue addressed by the Court. I therefore refrain from addressing it myself. See Rust v. Sullivan, 500 U. S. 173, 223-225 (1991) (O’CONNOR, J., dissenting).
JUSTICE O’CONNOR, concurring in the judgment.
I agree that the District Courts in these two cases, Reno v. Catholic Social Services, Inc. (CSS), and INS v. League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), erred in extending the application period for legalization beyond May 4, 1988, the end of the 12-month interval specified by the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. I would not, however, reach this result on ripeness grounds. The Court holds that a member of the plaintiff class in CSS or LULAC who failed to apply to the INS during the 12-month period does not now have a ripe claim to extend the application deadline. In my view, that claim became ripe after May 4, 1988, even if it was not ripe before. The claim may well lack merit, but it is no longer premature.
The Court of Appeals did not consider the problem of ripeness, and the submissions to this Court have not discussed that problem except in passing. See Pet. for Cert. 11, n. 13; Brief for Petitioners 20; Brief for Respondents 17, n. 23. Rather, certiorari was granted on two questions, to which the parties rightly have adhered: first, whether the District Courts had jurisdiction under 8 U. S. C. § 1255a(f), the judicial-review provision of Title II of the Reform Act; and second, whether the courts properly extended the application period. See Pet. for Cert. 1. The Court finds the jurisdictional challenge meritless under McNary v. Haitian Refugee Center, Inc., 498 U. S. 479 (1991), see ante, at 53-56, as do 1.
JUSTICE O’CONNOR, with whom JUSTICE BLACKMUN, JUSTICE STEVENS, and JUSTICE SOUTER join, dissenting.
Dorsie Lee Johnson was 19 years old when he committed the murder that led to his death sentence. Today, the Court upholds that sentence, even though the jurors who considered Johnson’s case were not allowed to give full effect to his strongest mitigating evidence: his youth. The Court reaches this result only by invoking a highly selective version of stare decisis and misapplying our habeas precedents to a case on direct review. Therefore, I respectfully dissent. I
By all accounts, Dorsie Johnson was not a model youth.
As an adolescent he frequently missed school, and when he did attend, he often was disruptive. He was drinking and using drugs by the time he was 16, habits that had intensified by the time he was 19. Johnson’s father testified that the deaths of Johnson’s mother and sister in 1984 and 1985 had affected Johnson deeply, but he primarily attributed Johnson’s behavior to drug use and youth. A jury hearing this evidence easily could conclude, as Johnson’s jury did, that the answer to the second Texas special question-whether it was probable that Johnson “would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society,” Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann., Art. 37.071(b)(2) (Vernon 1981)-was yes. It is possible that the jury thought Johnson might outgrow his temper and violent behavior as he matured, but it is more likely that the jury considered
JUSTICE O’CONNOR, concurring in the judgment in part and dissenting in part.
I agree with JUSTICE SOUTER that Kentucky’s differential standard of proof for committing the mentally ill and the mentally retarded is irrational and therefore join Part II of his opinion. I conclude, however, that there is a rational basis for permitting close relatives and guardians to participate as parties in proceedings to commit the mentally retarded but not the mentally ill. As the Court points out, there are sufficiently plausible and legitimate reasons for the legislative determination in this area. I also agree with the Court that allowing guardians and immediate family members to participate as parties in commitment proceedings does not violate procedural due process. Like my colleagues, I would not reach the question whether heightened equal protection scrutiny should be applied to the Kentucky scheme.
JUSTICE O’CONNOR, with whom JUSTICE WHITE joins, and with whom JUSTICE SOUTER joins as to Parts II-B-2, II-C, III, and IV, dissenting.
In Pacific Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Has lip, 499 U. S. 1 (1991), this Court held out the promise that punitive damages awards would receive sufficient constitutional scrutiny to restore fairness in what is rapidly becoming an arbitrary and oppressive system. Today the Court’s judgment renders Haslip’s promise a false one. The procedures that converted this commercial dispute into a $10 million punitive verdict were wholly inadequate. Rather than producing a judgment founded on verifiable criteria, they produced a monstrous award-526 times actual damages and over 20 times greater than any punitive award in West Virginia history. Worse, the State Supreme Court of Appeals rejected petitioner’s challenge with only cursory analysis, observing that petitioner, rather than being “really stupid,” had been “really mean.” 187 W. Va. 457, 474-475, 419 S. E. 2d 870, 887-889 (1992). The court similarly refused to consider the possibility of remittitur because petitioner “and its agents and servants failed to conduct themselves as gentlemen.” Id., at 462, 419 S. E. 2d, at 875. In my view, due process does not tolerate such cavalier standards when so much is at stake. Because I believe that neither this award’s size nor the procedures that produced it are consistent with the principles this Court articulated in Haslip, I respectfully dissent.
I
Our system of
JUSTICE O’CONNOR delivered the opinion of the Court. This case involves two of the most complex and sensitive issues this Court has faced in recent years: the meaning of the constitutional “right” to vote, and the propriety of racebased state legislation designed to benefit members of historically disadvantaged racial minority groups. As a result of the 1990 census, North Carolina became entitled to a 12th seat in the United States House of Representatives. The General Assembly enacted a reapportionment plan that included one majority-black congressional district. After the Attorney General of the United States objected to the plan pursuant to § 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 79 Stat. 439, as amended, 42 U. S. C. § 1973c, the General Assembly passed new legislation creating a second majority-black district. Appellants allege that the revised plan, which contains district boundary lines of dramatically irregular shape, constitutes an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The question before us is whether appellants have stated a cognizable claim.
*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the American Jewish Congress by Marc D. Stern and Lois C. Waldman; for the Republican National Committee by Benjamin L. Ginsberg and Michael A. Hess; and for the Washington Legal Foundation et al. by Daniel J. Popeo and Richard A. Samp.
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the Democratic National Committee et al. by Wayne R. Arden and Jeffrey M. Wice; for
JUSTICE O’CONNOR delivered the opinion of the Court.
In this case we consider the definition of a discriminatorily “abusive work environment” (also known as a “hostile work
*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the American Civil Liberties Union et al. by Steven R. Shapiro, John A. Powell, and Lois C. Waldman; for Feminists for Free Expression by Cathy E. Crosson; for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., et al. by Elaine R. Jones and Eric Schnapper; for the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations et al. by Edith Barnett; for the National Employment Lawyers Association by Margaret A. Harris, Katherine L. Butler, and William J. Smith; for the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund et al. by Deborah A. Ellis, Sarah E. Burns, Richard F. Ziegler, and Shari Siegel; for the Southern States Police Benevolent Association et al. by J. Michael McGuinness; and for the Women’s Legal Defense Fund et al. by Carolyn F. Corwin, Judith L. Lichtman, Donna R. Lenhoff, and Susan Deller Ross.
Robert E. Williams, Douglas S. McDowell, and Ann Elizabeth Reesman filed a brief for the Equal Employment Advisory Council as amicus curiae urging affirmance.
Briefs of amici curiae were filed for the American Psychological Association by Dort S. Bigg; and for the Employment Law Center et al. by Patricia A. Shiu. OCTOBER TERM, 1993 Syllabus HARRIS v. FORKLIFT SYSTEMS, INC. CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT No. 92-1168. Argued October
JUSTICE O’CONNOR delivered the opinion of the Court. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA or Act), 84 Stat. 175, as amended, 20 U. S. C. § 1400et seq. (1988ed. and Supp. IV), requires States to provide disabled children with a “free appropriate public education,” § 1401(a)(18). This case presents the question whether a court may order reimbursement for parents who unilaterally withdraw their child from a public school that provides an inappropriate education under IDEA and put the child in a private school that provides an education that is otherwise proper under IDEA, but does not meet all the requirements of § 1401(a)(18). We
*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the State of Arizona et al. by J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Attorney General of Maryland, and Andrew H. Baida and Joann Goedert, Assistant Attorneys General, and by the Attorneys General for their respective jurisdictions as follows:
Grant Woods of Arizona, Michael J. Bowers of Georgia, Richard Ieyoub of Louisiana, Michael E. Carpenter of Maine, Joseph P. Mazurek of Montana, Robert J. Del Tufo of New Jersey, Tom Udall of New Mexico, Michael F. Easley of North Carolina, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Theodore R. Kulongoski of Oregon, T. Travis Medlock of South Carolina, Mark Barnett of South Dakota, Charles Burson of Tennessee, R. Paul Van Dam of Utah, Stephen D. Rosenthal of Virginia, and Joseph B. Meyer of Wyoming; for the National League of Cities et al. by Richard Ruda; and for the
JUSTICE O’CONNOR, Circuit Justice.
The Solicitor General, on behalf of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), requests that I stay an order of the District Court for the Western District of Washington pending appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The Court of Appeals has rejected the INS’ application for such a stay. Though “stay application[s] to a Circuit Justice on a matter before a court of appeals [are] rarely granted,” Heckler v. Lopez, 463 U. S. 1328, 1330 (1983) (REHNQUIST, J., in chambers) (internal quotation marks omitted), I believe this is an exceptional case in which such a stay is proper.
I
In 1986, Congress enacted the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), 100 Stat. 3359, which provided a limited amnesty for immigrants who had come to or stayed in the country illegally. See 8 U. S. C. § 1255a. Not all such immigrants were, however, eligible. Among other restrictions, the amnesty was available only to those who had “resided continuously in the United States in an unlawful status since [January 1, 1982],” § 1255a(a)(2)(A); also, those who came to the country legally but stayed illegally could only get amnesty if their “period of authorized stay … expired before [January 1, 1982,]” or their “unlawful status was known to the Government as of [January 1, 1982],” § 1255a(a)(2)(B). Respondents, organizations that provide legal help to immigrants, believe the INS interpreted these provisions too narrowly, in violation of the