For those of you who don’t want to review all seventy-nine Supreme Court opinion haiku authored this term, I’ve extracted the wheat from the chaff, and present seventeen haiku from seventeen major cases this term. I’ve included at least one opinion from each of the Justices. I considered at least ten other cases to include, which included several important decisions related to habeas corpus, arbitration clauses, and constitutional criminal procedure, but when close calls needed to be made, I erred on the side of picking the more interesting haiku. You can click on the case names, arranged in reverse-chronological order, to access the actual opinions. Enjoy!
Hollingsworth v. Perry (June 26, 2013)
Proposition 8
Initiatives’ proponents
Do not have standing
United States v. Windsor (June 26, 2013)
DOMA Invalid
States decide what “marriage” means
Equal protection
Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder (June 25, 2013)
“Decades-old data”
Can’t justify preclearance
In Voting Rights Act
Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin (June 24, 2013)
Race in admissions
Strict scrutiny required
Good faith not enough
Vance v. Ball State University (June 24, 2013)
Title VII Claim
A “supervisor” defined
“Tangible” actions
Agency for Int’l Development v. Alliance for Open Society Int’l (June 20, 2013)
Tying AIDS funds to
Prostitution policy
Violates Free Speech
Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc. (June 17, 2013)
State cannot require
For Federal elections
Extra documents
Salinas v. Texas (June 17, 2013)
Failure to answer
Before Miranda invoked
May use at trial
Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. (June 13, 2013)
Can you patent it?
A DNA sequence, no
cDNA, yes
Maryland v. King (June 3, 2013)
Serious offense
Cheek swab for DNA test
Reasonable search
Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. (Apr. 17, 2013)
Alien Tort law
Does not reach to foreign lands
Just U.S., pirates
Missouri v. McNeely (Apr. 17, 2013)
DUI arrest
Cops need warrant for blood test
Sans exigency
Florida v. Jardines (Mar. 26, 2013)
Drug sniffing canine
A front porch is curtilage
Evidence suppressed
Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (Mar. 19, 2013)
The “first sale” doctrine
Allows student to resell
Books bought in Thailand
Clapper v. Amnesty Int’l USA (Feb. 26, 2013)
Foreign surveillance
Possible future contacts
No standing for you
Florida v. Harris (Feb. 19, 2013)
Search based on dog’s sniff
Performance log not needed
For probable cause
Arkansas Game & Fish Comm’n v. U.S. (Dec. 4, 2012)
Flooded timberland
Seasonal release from dam
Might be a Taking
If I missed any of your favorites, you can find them here, or write your own below. Happy haiku-ing!
