A motion for an interlocutory injunction was brought to prevent the City of Toronto from enforcing its By-law that prohibited camping and erecting tents, structures, and shelters in City parks, City of Toronto Municipal Code, c. 608. The applicants did not challenge the validity of the By-law but sought an order to have it suspended …Read more

The applicants appealed a decision affirming the constitutionality of Brian’s Law (Mental Health Legislative Reform), 2000, S.O. 2000, c. 9. (“Brian’s Law”), which was enacted by the Ontario legislature in 2000. Brian’s Law amended the Mental Health Act (“MHA”), adding provisions that expanded criteria for involuntary committal in a psychiatric hospital and introduced community treatment …Read more

The applicants’ claim was based on s. 27(1)(b) of the Constitution – the right to sufficient food and water, which they submitted found further expression in the provisions of the Water Services Act 108 of 1997 (“WSA”). Their complaint argued that farm occupiers and labour tenants, especially the applicants, lacked “access to sufficient water, basic …Read more

The applicant, Mr. Slavko Krajnc, was a professional truck driver in Celje, Slovenia. On September 29, 2003, Krajnc was deemed to have “category III work-related disability” as a result of his epilepsy, which rendered him unable to work as a truck driver. Accordingly, he had the right to be assigned to a different, more suitable …Read more

In 2014, the legislature in Louisiana passed Act 620 which requires any doctor who performs abortions in Louisiana to have admitting privileges at a hospital no more than 30 miles from where the abortion is performed. Admitting privileges is defined as being “a member in good standing” of the hospital’s “medical staff…with the ability to …Read more

The petitioners in this case were a group of abortion service providers claiming that two provisions in the House Bill 2 (H.B.2) enacted by the Texas Legislature were unconstitutional as they violated the 14th Amendment. One of the provisions (the admitting privilege provision) stipulated that a physician performing or inducing the abortion had to have …Read more

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“the Act”) advanced three key reforms to the U.S. health insurance market. First, it instituted insurance market regulations barring insurers from denying coverage or charging higher premiums to any individual based on health status. Second, it enacted a coverage mandate, requiring individuals to have health insurance or pay …Read more

The petitioners were same-sex couples from various U.S. states who challenged the constitutionality of bans on same-sex marriage in those states. They claimed that the bans violated the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Due Process Clause protects individuals from the arbitrary denial of life, …Read more

The state of Oklahoma adopted lethal injection as its method of execution for inmates on death row. The injection consisted of a three-drug protocol of (1) sodium thiopental (a barbiturate) to induce unconsciousness, (2) a paralytic agent to inhibit all muscular-skeletal movements, and (3) potassium chloride to induce cardiac arrest. The Supreme Court had previously ruled …Read more

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) imposed an obligation on certain employers to provide “‘preventive care and screenings’ for women without ‘any cost sharing requirements.’” Under that law, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) imposed a regulation that the preventive care includes 20 types of contraceptives. Four of those …Read more

The petitioner and his accomplice kidnapped, beat, raped, and murdered a pregnant woman before driving to a convenience store, which they planned to rob. In the parking lot of the store, they killed a sheriff’s deputy who attempted to apprehend them. The petitioner received the death penalty for both murders. He argued that he could …Read more

The United States Leadership against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003 (Leadership Act), 22 U.S.C. §7601 set forth a strategy to globally combat the spread of HIV/AIDS. Congress authorized the appropriation of billions of dollars to fund efforts by nongovernmental organizations working in this area. The Leadership Act’s conditions stated that: (1) No funds …Read more

After significant political struggles, the US Congress enacted the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010. This act had two components, 1) it obligated individuals to maintain “‘minimum essential’ health insurance coverage” through an individual mandate, 2) it contained an expansion of the federal Medicaid program that is run by US states. The constitutionality …Read more

This case involved a challenge to background checks for government jobs on the basis of constitutional privacy.  Nelson and twenty-seven other federal contract employees, working for NASA at a government laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, claimed that two elements of a standard employment background investigation violated their constitutional rights:  a questionnaire that asked …Read more

This case involved an appeal from a decision made by a three-judge court that was convened by the Federal District Court to decide the appropriate remedy for violations of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The violations were the subject of two related Federal District Court cases in California: Coleman v. Brown (1990) …Read more

Pharmacies, “as a matter of business routine and federal law, receive prescriber-identifying information when processing prescriptions.” This “[k]nowledge of a physician’s prescription practices—called prescriber-identifying information,’” enables marketers representing pharmaceutical drug manufacturers (Detailers) to better “ascertain which doctors are likely to be interested in a particular drug and how best to present a particular sales message.” …Read more

Metoclopramide is a drug commonly used to treat digestive tract problems such as diabetic gastroparesis and gastroesophageal reflux disorder. In 1980, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first approved metoclopramide tablets under the brand name Reglan. Generic manufacturers also began producing metoclopramide five years later. Over its usage history, evidence accumulated that long-term metoclopramide use …Read more

The Respondent, Glenn, an employee at a Sears retail store, sought federal-court review under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) of Sears’ insurer, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MetLife), due to its denial to extend payment of her disability benefits. MetLife was the administrator and the insurer of Sears’ long-term disability insurance plan, …Read more

The Respondents, doctors who performed second-trimester abortions, brought suit challenging the constitutionality of the federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 (the Act). The Act banned second trimester abortions using the “intact Dilation & Extraction” (intact D&E) method in which the doctor removed the fetus intact, or largely intact, rather than breaking the fetus …Read more

The Appellant, Panetti, was convicted of capital murder in a Texas state court and sentenced to death. After the execution date was set, Panetti brought proceedings claiming that he was incompetent to be executed. The federal district court stayed Panetti’s execution in order to allow the state courts to adjudicate Panetti’s claim of mental incompetence. …Read more

The state of Oregon legalized a physician-assisted suicide law. This law exempts state-licensed physicians who “dispense or prescribe a lethal dose of drugs upon the request of a terminally ill patient” from civil or criminal liability. The law required that the patient must have a diagnosis of an incurable and irreversible disease that reasonably will cause …Read more

Petitioner, Sell, had a long history of mental illness. In 1998, a federal grand jury issued an indictment charging Sell with attempting to murder an FBI agent who had arrested him in connection with a separate charge of mail fraud and a former employee who planned to testify against him in the upcoming fraud case. …Read more

Police officers entered a private residence in response to a report of a disturbance and came upon two men engaged in a sexual act. The men were arrested for and charged with violating a Texas state criminal law that prohibited “deviate sexual intercourse [defined as oral or anal sex] with another individual of the same sex.” …Read more

The Appellant, Atkins, a mentally disabled individual, was convicted of capital murder and related crimes by a Virginia jury and sentenced to death. He brought this appeal alleging that he could not be sentenced to death because executing the mentally disabled would constitute “cruel and unusual punishment” as prohibited by the Eighth Amendment.

Petitioners were former patients who received obstetrical care at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), a public hospital in the city of Charleston, and who were arrested after testing positive for cocaine. In 1988, concerns arose among MUSC staff about an apparent increase in the use of cocaine by patients who were receiving prenatal …Read more

The Respondent, Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative (Cooperative), was a not-for-profit medical cannabis dispensary established after California voters enacted a measure that created “an exception to California laws” that prohibited “the possession and cultivation of marijuana.” The Cooperative had a physician as its medical director, registered nurses as staff during business hours, and dispensed marijuana to …Read more

Carhart, a physician who performed abortions, brought suit challenging the constitutional validity of a Nebraska statute which prohibited non-lifesaving “partial birth abortions.” The statute defined this procedure as “deliberately and intentionally delivering into the vagina a living unborn child, or a substantial portion thereof, for the purpose of performing a procedure that the person performing …Read more

The Respondents, L. C. and E. W., both mentally disabled women, brought proceedings against the State alleging that the State’s failure to place them in a community-based program, after their treating professional had determined that such a placement was appropriate, violated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). Title II of …Read more

After disclosing she was HIV-positive on a patient registration form, Respondent Abbott was informed by her dentist, Petitioner, of his policy against filling cavities of HIV-infected patients. Petitioner offered to perform the work at a hospital with no added service fee, but with the cost of the use of the hospital’s facilities borne by Respondent. …Read more

The Respondent, Yeskey, brought this claim against Pennsylvania’s Department of Corrections alleging that his exclusion from a prison Motivational Boot Camp because of his medical history of hypertension violated the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). ADA Title II prohibited a “public entity” from discriminating, excluding or denying benefits to a “qualified individual with …Read more

Respondents, physicians operating in New York and gravelly-ill patients (who had died prior to the appeal), asserted that, though it was consistent with the standards of medical practice to “prescribe lethal medication for ‘mentally competent, terminally ill patients’ who are suffering great pain and desire a doctor’s help in taking their own lives, they [were] …Read more

Under the Wash. Rev. Code §9A36.060 (1) it was a crime to cause or aid another person to commit suicide. In 1996, a lower court struck down this law on the basis it violated an individual’s constitutionally protected right to choose the time and manner of death. The petitioners, the State of Washington and its …Read more

Respondent, Redmond, received counseling from a licensed clinical social worker after a “traumatic incident” in which she shot and killed a man while on duty as a police officer. Petitioner, Allen, the administrator of the estate of the deceased, filed an action in the Federal District Court seeking damages and alleging that Respondent had violated …Read more

Petitioners (supporters of Amendment 2) brought this appeal from the Colorado State Supreme Court where that court affirmed a lower court’s ruling that Amendment 2 was invalid. Amendment 2 barred the State of Colorado from enacting, adopting or enforcing anti-discrimination laws which would have protected homosexuals, gays and lesbians. Prior to Amendment 2, multiple cities …Read more