2003 term United States Supreme Court opinions of Antonin Scalia

Verizon Communications Inc. v. Law Offices of Curtis V. Trinko LLP

540 U.S. 398 (2004)

Antitrust • telecommunications

Rehnquist, O'Connor, Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer

Scalia's 6-justice majority ruled that the allegation that an incumbent LEC had breached its duty under the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to share its network with competitors failed to state a claim under § 2 of the Sherman Act.

General Dynamics Land Systems, Inc. v. Cline

540 U.S. 581 (2004)

Employment discrimination

Scalia dissented from Souter's 6-3 judgment that the EEOC had incorrectly interpreted the ADEA as prohibiting employers from favoring older over younger workers. Scalia would defer to the EEOC, whose regulation he believed was a reasonable interpretation of a statute that did not unambiguously require a different interpretation.

Olympic Airways v. Husain

540 U.S. 644 (2004)

Warsaw Convention

O'Connor (in part)

Scalia dissented from Thomas' 6-2 decision, which he criticized for failing to give any serious consideration to how courts of the partners of the U.S. in the Warsaw Convention had resolved the same legal issues

Locke v. Davey

540 U.S. 712 (2004)

Establishment Clause • state funding of religious education

Thomas

Scalia dissented from Rehnquist's 7–2 decision. Scalia believed that Washington's scholarship program facially discriminated against religion by excluding only theology from the applicable subjects of study, "no less than if it had imposed a special tax." Scalia believed the plaintiff student was not asking for a "special benefit," but instead sought "only equal treatment."

Concrete Works of Colorado, Inc. v. City and County of Denver

540 U.S. 1027 (2003)

Rehnquist

Scalia dissented from the denial of certiorari.

Raymond B. Yates, M.D., P.C. Profit Sharing Plan v. Hendon

541 U.S. 1 (2004)

Scalia believed that the Court "use[d] a sledgehammer to kill a gnat...The Department [of Revenue]'s interpretive conclusion is certainly reasonable (the Court's lengthy analysis says that it is inevitable); it is therefore binding upon us. I would reverse the judgment of the Sixth Circuit on that basis. The Court's approach, which denies many agency interpretations their conclusive effect and thrusts the courts into authoritative judicial interpretation, deprives administrative agencies of two of their principal virtues: (1) the power to resolve statutory questions promptly, and with nationwide effect, and (2) the power (within the reasonable bounds of the text) to change the application of ambiguous laws as time and experience dictate. The Court's approach invites lengthy litigation in all the circuits--the product of which (when finally announced by this Court) is a rule of law that only Congress can change."

Crawford v. Washington

541 U.S. 36 (2004)

U.S. Const. amend. VI • Confrontation Clause

Stevens, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer

The Court ruled that the use in court of out-of-court statements made to police in an investigative capacity violated the Sixth Amendment right to confront accusing witnesses.

Cheney v. United States District Court

540 U.S. 913 (2004)

Recusal

Scalia declined to recuse himself from a case involving Vice-President Cheney, who had recently provided Scalia with a plane ride to a duck-hunting trip. Scalia remarked that "[i]f it is reasonable to think that a Supreme Court Justice can be bought so cheap, the Nation is in deeper trouble than I had imagined." He also did not believe his friendship with the Vice-President demanded recusal, because Cheney's "personal fortune or personal freedom were not at issue," only his official actions in a "run-of-the-mill legal dispute about an administrative decision."

S. Fla. Water Mgmt. Dist. v. Miccosukee Tribe of Indians

541 U.S. 95 (2004)

Scalia also joined the majority's decision in part.

Nixon v. Missouri Municipal League

541 U.S. 125 (2004)

Thomas

Engine Mfrs. Ass'n v. S. Coast Air Quality Mgmt. Dist.

541 U.S. 246 (2004)

Rehnquist, Stevens, O'Connor, Kennedy, Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer

Vieth v. Jubelirer

541 U.S. 267 (2004)

Rehnquist, O'Connor, Thomas

Till v. SCS Credit Corp.

541 U.S. 465 (2004)

Rehnquist, O'Connor, Kennedy

Tennessee v. Lane

541 U.S. 509 (2004)

Sovereign immunity • U.S. Const. amend. XI • Americans with Disabilities Act

Grupo Dataflux v. Atlas Global Group, L.P.

541 U.S. 567 (2004)

Rehnquist, O'Connor, Kennedy, Thomas

Thornton v. United States

541 U.S. 615 (2004)

Ginsburg

Republic of Austria v. Altmann

541 U.S. 677 (2004)

Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act

Scalia also joined Stevens' 6-3 majority opinion.

City of Littleton v. Z. J. Gifts D-4, L.L.C.

541 U.S. 774 (2004)

Bunting v. Mellen

541 U.S. 1019 (2004)

U.S. Const. amend. I • Establishment Clause

Rehnquist

Scalia dissented from the denial of certiorari.

F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd v. Empagran S. A.

542 U.S. 155 (2004)

Thomas

United States v. Dominguez Benitez

542 U.S. 74 (2004)

Norton v. S. Utah Wilderness Alliance

542 U.S. 55 (2004)

Unanimous

Intel Corp. v. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

542 U.S. 241 (2004)

Blakely v. Washington

542 U.S. 296 (2004)

U.S. Const. amend. VI • right to jury trial

Stevens, Souter, Thomas, Ginsburg

Scalia wrote for five justices invalidating criminal sentencing system in which judges were the finders of fact for aggravating factors. O'Connor, Kennedy, and Breyer filed dissents.

Schriro v. Summerlin

542 U.S. 348 (2004)

Rehnquist, O'Connor, Kennedy, Thomas

Tennard v. Dretke

542 U.S. 274 (2004)

Rasul v. Bush

542 U.S. 466 (2004)

Rehnquist, Thomas

Hamdi v. Rumsfeld

542 U.S. 507 (2004)

U.S. Const. amend. V • habeas corpus

Stevens

Scalia wrote that if habeas corpus has not been suspended by Congress, U.S. citizens must be tried in ordinary criminal courts. He believed the plurality was misguided in attempting to fashion alternative procedures that might comply with due process, because the role of the Court was simply to declare that the procedures at issue were unconstitutional.

Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union

542 U.S. 656 (2004)

Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain

542 U.S. 692 (2004)

Rehnquist, Thomas

Scalia concurred in part and concurred in the judgment.

Cox v. Larios

542 U.S. 947 (2004)

Legislative redistricting