Court decisions - social policy (U.S.)

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The following list of Supreme Court rulings are of importance in U.S. social policy:

• Baehr v. Lewin [r]: In 1993, a state supreme court ruling in Hawaii in a case involving same sex marriage, held that under Hawaii's Equal Rights amendment a standard of "strict scrutiny" must be applied to any case that deprives people of basic civil rights. The decision did not establish a fundamental right of same sex marriage and was later invalidated by an amendment to the state constitution. ^[e]
• Bowers v.Hardwick [r]: In a closely divided (5-4) case originating in Georgia, in 1986 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the right of privacy did not apply to homosexual conduct. Michael Harwick had been arrested on a sodomy charge after police entered his house to serve a traffic warrant and found him in bed with another man. ^[e]
• Boy Scouts of America v. Dale [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Brown v. Board of Education [r]: A landmark 1954 decision by the Supreme Court of the United States which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in publicly-funded schools are unconstitutional even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality. ^[e]
• Gratz v. Bollinger
• Gruter v. Bollinger
• Helvering v. Davis [r]: In a suit brought by a shareholder of the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Boston, in 1937 the court upheld the constitutionality of the compulsory tax of Old Age Insurance on the basis of the general welfare. ^[e]
• Hendrick Hudson Central School District v. Rowley
• Lawrence v. Texas
• Lessard v. Schmidt
• Loving v. Virginia [r]: Landmark United States Supreme Court case which overturned state laws making interracial marriage illegal. ^[e]
• Mentor Savings Bank v. Vinson
• Mills v. Board of Education of District of Columbia
• NAACP v. Alabama
• O'Conner v. Donaldson
• Olmstead v. L.C. & E.W.
• Oncale v. Sundou'ner Offshore Services
• Ozawa v. United States
• Planned Parenthood of S.W. Pennsylvania v. Casey
• Plessey v. Ferguson
• Plyer v. Doe
• Pollock v. Farmers' Loan and Trust
• Quarles v. Phillip Morris
• Quill v. Vacco
• Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
• Rodriquez vs. San Antonio School District
• Roe v. Wade
• Romer v. Evans
• Roper v. Simmons
• Silva v. University of New Hampshire
• Springer v. United States
• Stewart Machine Co. v. Davis [r]: In the first of two important cases, the Supreme Court ruled in 1937 that taxes collected for the Social Security program were not illegal excise taxes. ^[e]
• Sullivan, et. al. v. Bush and Ashcraft, et. al.
• Sutton v. United Airlines
• Tarisoff v. Regents of the University of California
• Toyota Motor Mfg., Ky. v. Williams
• Wyatt v. Stickney