American Civil Liberties Union : Supreme Court : 2007 Term



	ACLU President Nadine Strossen and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia discuss past court rulings at the 2006 Membership Conference

Last year's Supreme Court Term was a difficult one for civil liberties. The Court limited the ability of local officials to address the problem of segregated schools, upheld the authority of Congress to ban an abortion procedure, made it more difficult to challenge the use of taxpayers funds to promote religion, and restricted student free speech rights.

One-third of all the Court’s cases last Term were decided by a 5-4 vote, and Justice Kennedy was in the majority in every 5-4 case. More than ever, therefore, Justice Kennedy is a critical swing vote on an increasingly conservative Court.

A summary of all of the Court's civil liberties-related cases from the 2006 Term is online at:
www.aclu.org/scotus/2006term/30308res20070628.html.

In the 2007 Term, the ACLU has brought or been involved in various cases including key arguments in criminal justice and the death penalty, due process, and voting rights. Nearing the end of the term, decisions are still pending in several important suits: Boumediene v. Bush and Al Odah v. United States, on the due process rights of Guantánamo detainees; and Kennedy v. Louisiana, which takes up the constitutionality of Louisiana's statute allowing the death penalty for the rape of a child.

LEARN MORE
> Video: ACLU Leaders Discuss the 2007 Term (with transcripts)

SUPREME COURT CASES

CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Virginia v. Moore
Whether the Fourth Amendment bars the government from relying on evidence seized following an arrest that state law prohibits. DECIDED

DEATH PENALTY
Baze v. Rees
Whether Kentucky's lethal injection protocol violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment by using a combination of drugs that creates an unnecessary and avoidable risk of excruciating pain. DECIDED

Kennedy v. Louisiana
Whether a state may constitutionally impose the death penalty for the rape of a child.

DISCRIMINATION
Engquist v. Oregon Department of Agriculture
Whether public employees who are subject to arbitrary discrimination can raise an equal protection claim without also being required to show that the discrimination was based on membership in a protected class.

Crawford v. Nashville
Whether employees who cooperate with an internal investigation of alleged sexual harassment are protected against retaliation under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

CBOCS West Inc. v. Humphries
Whether a federal law enacted shortly after the Civil War that grants all persons the same right to make and enforce contracts regardless of race protects those who complain about discrimination from retaliation.