1971—In Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, Justice William Brennan’s majority opinion holds that a plaintiff may seek damages from federal officials for searches and seizures that allegedly violate the Fourth Amendment. Never mind that while Congress had authorized damages actions against state officials who violate a federal constitutional right, it had never done so with respect to federal officials. In dissent, Chief Justice Warren Burger objects that the holding “imping[es] on the legislative and policy functions that the Constitution vests in Congress.”
1973—In their dissents in Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton, Justice Douglas reiterates his belief that obscenity is fully protected by the First Amendment, and Justice Brennan, joined by Justices Stewart and Marshall, expresses the same position, “at least in the absence of distribution to juveniles or obtrusive exposure to unconsenting adults.”
1973—In what politics professor Shep Melnick calls a “deceptively bland opinion” by Justice William Brennan, a Supreme Court majority rules in Keyes v. School Dist. No. 1 that a Denver school board’s “use of various techniques,” including “a neighborhood school policy,” “created or maintained racially or ethnically … segregated schools throughout the school district” and warranted a decree “directing desegregation of the entire school district.”
What Keyes led to, Melnick explains, is that “scores of cities outside the South were required to abandon neighborhood schools in order to create racial ‘balance’—a term that remained ambiguous despite the weight it was expected to carry.”
2023—Federal district judge Robert L. Hinkle rules (in Dekker v. Weida) that Florida’s denial of Medicaid coverage for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones as treatment for gender dysphoria violates the Equal Protection Clause.