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| Baker v. Carr, No. 6,
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, March 26, 1962, Decided
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Overview: Plaintiffs, residents of several counties, filed a complaint against defendants, state officers and election officials, alleging that a state statute arbitrarily and capriciously appointed representatives without reference to any logical or rational formula and that it deprived them of the equal protection of the laws in violation of U.S. Const. amend. XIV. The trial court granted defendants' motion to dismiss, finding that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction and that the complaint failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The court reversed and remanded, holding that the complaint's allegations of a denial of equal protection presented a justiciable constitutional cause of action upon which plaintiffs were entitled to a trial and a decision. The right that plaintiffs asserted was within the reach of judicial protection under U.S. Const. amend. XIV. The court further found that if discrimination were sufficiently shown, the right to relief under the Equal Protection Clause would not be diminished by the fact that the discrimination related to political rights.
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| Engel v. Vitale, No. 468,
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, June 25, 1962, Decided
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Overview: Petitioner parents requested a writ of certiorari on a judgment of the state court of appeals rendered for respondent Board of Education and upholding the order from the lower state courts allowing respondent's authority to use prayer in the public schools so long as no pupil was required to pray if his parents refused permission. The court granted certiorari. The court reversed the challenged judgment and remanded the matter. The court decided that respondent's decision to use its school system to facilitate recitation of the official prayer constituted the adoption of a practice entirely inconsistent with Establishment Clause, U.S. Const. amend. I. The court held that respondent's use of the prayer in its school system breached the constitutional wall of separation between church and state. The court ruled that the constitutional prohibition of laws establishing religion meant that government had no business drafting formal prayers for any segment of its population to repeat in a government-sponsored religious program. The court found that respondent's provision of the contested daily prayer was inconsistent with the Establishment Clause.
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| Robinson v. California, No. 554,
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, June 25, 1962, Decided
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Overview: A jury found defendant guilty under Cal. Health & Safety Code ¿ 11721 for being addicted to the use of narcotics, a conviction that was affirmed on appeal. Defendant sought further review from the United States Supreme Court. The Court reviewed the record, which included a police officer's testimony that defendant had scar tissue and discoloration on the inside of his arm, as well as needle marks and a scab below the crook of the elbow, which the officer believed was the result of injections by hypodermic needles. The officer also testified that defendant admitted to the occasional use of narcotics. At the time of his arrest, defendant was not engaged in any illegal conduct, and there was no proof that he had actually used narcotics within California. The Court concluded that ¿ 11721 made the status of being addicted to the use of narcotics a criminal offense, whether or not he ever used or possessed narcotics within California or had been guilty of any antisocial behavior there. The Court found ¿ 11721 to be unconstitutional and in violation of U.S. Const. amend. XIV for inflicting cruel and unusual punishment.
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| Foman v. Davis, No. 41,
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, December 3, 1962, Decided
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Overview: The daughter filed an action alleging that she had cared for her mother in exchange for her father's promise not to make a will, which thereby assured her of an intestate share of his estate. She claimed that she fully performed the oral agreement, but her father devised his property to the executrix, who was his second wife. Because an oral agreement was unenforceable under the statute of frauds, the trial court dismissed the complaint for the failure to state a claim. The daughter filed motions to vacate the judgment and to amend the complaint to assert a right to quantum meruit recovery. Subsequently, she filed a notice of appeal. After the motions were denied, the daughter filed a second notice of appeal. The appellate court dismissed on procedural grounds, holding that the first notice of appeal was premature and that the second was ineffective because it failed to cite the judgment appealed from. On certiorari, the Court held that the appellate court should have permitted the appeal on the merits because the procedural rules should have been liberally construed to secure a just, speedy, and inexpensive determination, and the two notices together provided an effective appeal.
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