Antonin Scalia, Civil Rights, Dissent, William Rehnquist

United States v. Paradise

JUSTICE O’CONNOR, with whom THE CHIEF JUSTICE and JUSTICE SCALIA join, dissenting.

In Wygant v. Jackson Board of Education, 476 U. S. 267, 476 U. S. 273 (1986), we concluded that the level of Fourteenth Amendment

scrutiny does not change merely because the challenged classification operates against a group that historically has not been subject to governmental discrimination.

Thus, in evaluating the constitutionality of the District Court order in this case under the Fourteenth Amendment, we must undertake a two-part inquiry. First, we must decide whether the order is “supported by a compelling [governmental] purpose.” Ibid. Second, we must scrutinize the order to ensure that “the means chosen to accomplish that purpose are narrowly tailored.” Ibid.

One cannot read the record in this case without concluding that the Alabama Department of Public Safety had undertaken a course of action that amounted to “pervasive, systematic, and obstinate discriminatory conduct.” Ante at 480 U. S. 167. Because the Federal Government has a compelling interest in remedying past and present discrimination by the Department, the District Court unquestionably had the authority to fashion a remedy designed to end the Department’s egregious history of discrimination. In doing so, however, the District Court was obligated to fashion a remedy that was narrowly tailored to accomplish this purpose. The plurality today purports to apply strict scrutiny, and concludes that the order in this case was

Concurrence, Criminal Procedure, Harry Blackmun

United States v. Ojeda Rios

Justice O’CONNOR, with whom Justice BLACKMUN joins, concurring.

I join the Court’s opinion on the understanding that a “satisfactory explanation” within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 2518(8)(a) cannot merely be a reasonable excuse for the delay; it must also reflect the actual reason for the delay. Thus, as the Court today holds, an appellate court’s review of the sufficiency of the Government’s explanation for a delay should be based on the findings made and evidence presented in the district court, rather than on a post hoc explanation given for the first time on appeal. See ante at 495 U. S. 267. With this understanding, I agree with the Court that this case should be remanded for a determination whether the Government’s explanation to the District Court for the delay -not the explanation offered on appeal -meets the “satisfactory explanation” standard.

Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, Civil Rights, Dissent, William Rehnquist

Zinermon v. Burch

Justice O’CONNOR, with whom Chief Justice SCALIA and Justice KENNEDY join, dissenting.

Without doubt, respondent Burch alleges a serious deprivation of liberty, yet equally clearly he alleges no violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court concludes that an allegation of state actors’ wanton, unauthorized departure from a State’s established policies and procedures, working a deprivation of liberty, suffices to support a procedural due process claim even though the State provides adequate postdeprivation remedies for that deprivation. The Court’s opinion unnecessarily transforms well established procedural due process doctrine, and departs from controlling precedent. I respectfully dissent.

Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U. S. 527 (1981), and Hudson v. Palmer, 468 U. S. 517 (1984), should govern this case. Only by disregarding the gist of Burch’s complaint -that state actors’ wanton and unauthorized departure from established practice worked the deprivation -and by transforming the allegations into a challenge to the adequacy of Florida’s admissions procedures can the Court attempt to distinguish this case from Parratt and Hudson.

Burch alleges a deprivation occasioned by petitioners’ contravention of Florida’s established procedures. Florida allows the voluntary admission process to be employed to admit to its mental hospitals only patients who have made “application by express and informed consent for admission,” and requires that the elaborate involuntary admission process

Concurrence, First Amendment, Timeline

Zelman v. Simmons-Harris

JUSTICE O’CONNOR, concurring.

The Court holds that Ohio’s Pilot Project Scholarship Program, Ohio Rev. Code Ann. §§ 3313.974-3313.979 (Anderson 1999 and Supp. 2000) (voucher program), survives respondents’ Establishment Clause challenge. While I join the Court’s opinion, I write separately for two reasons. First, although the Court takes an important step, I do not believe that today’s decision, when considered in light of other longstanding government programs that impact religious organizations and our prior Establishment Clause jurisprudence, marks a dramatic break from the past. Second, given the emphasis the Court places on verifying that parents of voucher students in religious schools have exercised “true private choice,” I think it is worth elaborating on the Court’s conclusion that this inquiry should consider all reasonable educational alternatives to religious schools that are available to parents. To do otherwise is to ignore how the educational system in Cleveland actually functions.

I

These cases are different from prior indirect aid cases in part because a significant portion of the funds appropriated for the voucher program reach religious schools without restrictions on the use of these funds. The share of public resources that reach religious schools is not, however, as significant as respondents suggest. See, e. g., Brief for Respondents Simmons-Harris et al. 1-2. Data from the 1999-2000 school year indicate that 82 percent of schools participating in the

Attorneys, Partial concurrence, partial dissent, Warren Burger, William Rehnquist

Zauderer v. Office of Disc. Counsel

JUSTICE O’CONNOR, with whom THE CHIEF JUSTICE and JUSTICE REHNQUIST join, concurring in part, concurring in the judgment in part, and dissenting in part.

I join Parts I, II, V, and VI of the Court’s opinion, and its judgment except insofar as it reverses the reprimand based on appellant Zauderer’s use of unsolicited legal advice in violation of DR 2-103(A) and 2-104(A). I agree that appellant was properly reprimanded for his drunken driving advertisement and for his omission of contingent fee information from his Dalkon Shield advertisement. I also concur in the Court’s judgment in Part IV. At least in the context of print media, the task of monitoring illustrations in attorney advertisements is not so unmanageable as to justify Ohio’s blanket ban. [ Footnote 3/1 ] I dissent from Part III of the Court’s opinion. In my view, the use of unsolicited legal advice to entice clients poses enough of a risk of overreaching and undue influence to warrant Ohio’s rule.

Merchants in this country commonly offer free samples of their wares. Customers who are pleased by the sample are likely to return to purchase more. This effective marketing technique may be of little concern when applied to many products, but it is troubling when the product being dispensed is professional advice. Almost every State restricts an attorney’s ability to accept employment resulting from unsolicited legal advice. At least two persuasive reasons can be advanced for the restrictions. First, there is an enhanced

Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, Byron White, Clarence Thomas, Criminal Procedure, David Souter, Harry Blackmun, Majority, William Rehnquist

Zafiro v. United States

JUSTICE O’CONNOR delivered the opinion of the Court. Rule S(b) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure provides that defendants may be charged together “if they are alleged to have participated in the same act or transaction or in the same series of acts or transactions constituting an offense or offenses.” Rule 14 of the Rules, in turn, permits a district court to grant a severance of defendants if “it appears that a defendant or the government is prejudiced by a joinder.” In this case, we consider whether Rule 14 requires severance as a matter of law when codefendants present “mutually antagonistic defenses.”

I

Gloria Zafiro, Jose Martinez, Salvador Garcia, and Alfonso Soto were accused of distributing illegal drugs in the Chicago area, operating primarily out of Soto’s bungalow in Chicago and Zaftro’s apartment in Cicero, a nearby suburb. One day, Government agents observed Garcia and Soto place a large box in Soto’s car and drive from Soto’s bungalow to Zaftro’s apartment. The agents followed the two as they carried the box up the stairs. When the agents identified themselves, Garcia and Soto dropped the box and ran into the apartment. The agents entered the apartment in pursuit and found the four petitioners in the living room. The dropped box contained 55 pounds of cocaine. After obtaining a search warrant for the apartment, agents found approximately 16 pounds of cocaine, 25 grams of heroin, and 4 pounds of marijuana inside a suitcase in a closet. Next to the suitcase

Byron White, Harry Blackmun, Judicial Power, Lewis Powell, Majority, Thurgood Marshall, Warren Burger, William Brennan, William Rehnquist

Young v. Commun. Nutrition Inst

JUSTICE O’CONNOR delivered the opinion of the Court.

We granted certiorari in this case to determine whether the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit correctly concluded that the Food and Drug Administration’s longstanding interpretation of 21 U.S.C. § 346 was in conflict with the plain language of that provision. 474 U.S. 1018 (1985). We hold that, in light of the inherent ambiguity of the statutory provision and the reasonableness of the Food and Drug Administration’s interpretation thereof, the Court of Appeals erred. We therefore reverse.

I

A

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) enforces the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (Act) as the designee of the Secretary of Health and Human Services. 21 U.S.C. § 371(a). See also 21 CFR § 5.10 (1986). The Act seeks to ensure the purity of the Nation’s food supply, and accordingly bans “adulterated” food from interstate commerce. 21 U.S.C. § 331(a). Title 21 U.S.C. § 342(a) deems food to be “adulterated”

(1) If it bears or contains any poisonous or deleterious substance which may render it injurious to health; but in case the substance is not an added substance such food shall not be considered adulterated under this clause if the quantity of such substance in such food does not ordinarily render it injurious to health; or (2)(A) if it bears or contains any added poisonous or added deleterious substance (other than [exceptions not relevant here]) which is unsafe within the meaning of section 346a(a) of this

Concurrence, Criminal Procedure

Yarborough v. Alvarado

Justice O’Connor, concurring.
I join the opinion of the Court, but write separately to express an additional reason for reversal. There may be cases in which a suspect’s age will be relevant to the Miranda “custody” inquiry. In this case, however, Alvarado was almost 18 years old at the time of his interview. It is difficult to expect police to recognize that a suspect is a juvenile when he is so close to the age of majority. Even when police do know a suspect’s age, it may be difficult for them to ascertain what bearing it has on the likelihood that the suspect would feel free to leave. That is especially true here; 17½-year-olds vary widely in their reactions to police questioning, and many can be expected to behave as adults. Given these difficulties, I agree that the state court’s decision in this case cannot be called an unreasonable application of federal law simply because it failed explicitly to mention Alvarado’s age.

Civil Rights, Concurrence

Wygant v. Jackson Bd. of Educ

JUSTICE O’CONNOR, concurring in part and concurring in the judgment.

This case requires us to define and apply the standard required by the Equal Protection Clause when a governmental agency agrees to give preferences on the basis of race or national origin in making layoffs of employees. The specific question posed is, as JUSTICE MARSHALL puts it,

whether the Constitution prohibits a union and a local school board from developing a collective bargaining agreement that apportions layoffs between two racially determined groups as a means of preserving the effects of an affirmative hiring policy.

Post at 476 U. S. 300 (dissenting). There is no issue here of the interpretation and application of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; accordingly, we have only the constitutional issue to resolve.

The Equal Protection Clause standard applicable to racial classifications that work to the disadvantage of “nonminorities” has been articulated in various ways. See, e.g., post at 476 U. S. 301 -302 (MARSHALL, J., dissenting). JUSTICE POWELL now would require that: (1) the racial classification be justified by a ” compelling governmental interest,'” and (2) the means chosen by the State to effectuate its purpose be “narrowly tailored.” Ante at 476 U. S. 274. This standard reflects the belief, apparently held by all Members of this Court, that racial classifications of any sort must be subjected to “strict scrutiny,” however defined. See, e.g., Fullilove v. Klutznick, 448 U. S.

Concurrence, Criminal Procedure, Harry Blackmun, John Paul Stevens

Wright v. West

JUSTICE O’CONNOR, with whom JUSTICE BLACKMUN and JUSTICE STEVENS join, concurring in the judgment.

I agree that the evidence sufficiently supported respondent’s conviction. I write separately only to express disagreement with certain statements in JUSTICE THOMAS’ extended discussion, ante, at 285-295, of this Court’s habeas corpus jurisprudence.

First, JUSTICE THOMAS errs in describing the pre-1953 law of habeas corpus. Ante, at 285. While it is true that a state prisoner could not obtain the writ if he had been provided a full and fair hearing in the state courts, this rule governed the merits of a claim under the Due Process Clause. It was not a threshold bar to the consideration of O’CONNOR, J., concurring in judgment

other federal claims, because, with rare exceptions, there were no other federal claims available at the time. During the period JUSTICE THOMAS discusses, the guarantees of the Bill of Rights were not yet understood to apply in state criminal prosecutions. The only protections the Constitution afforded to state prisoners were those for which the text of the Constitution explicitly limited the authority of the States, most notably the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. And in the area of criminal procedure, the Due Process Clause was understood to guarantee no more than a full and fair hearing in the state courts. See, e. g., Ponzi v. Fessenden, 258 U. S. 254, 260 (1922) (“One accused of crime has a right to a full and fair trial according to the