The Respondents brought this suit challenging the constitutional validity of § 1903(f) of the Social Security Act (the Act); they claimed it violated the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment. Under the Medicaid program, States were required to provide Medicaid coverage to certain individuals described as the “categorically needy” and, at their discretion, could …Read more

Respondent, Romeo, a severely mentally retarded adult male, was involuntarily committed to the Pennhurst State School and Hospital (Pennhurst), pursuant to the applicable involuntary commitment provision of the Pennsylvania Mental Health and Mental Retardation Act. While at Pennhurst, Respondent was injured on several occasions through his own violence and the reaction of other residents. He …Read more

Appellant, Brenda Payton, suffered from end stage renal disease and required weekly dialysis. She also suffered from drug addition, mental illness, and poverty. She brought action against respondents, physician John C Weaver, Jr. and Alba Bates and Herrick hospitals, in form of petition for writ of mandate alleging that they wrongly failed to provide her …Read more

The Appellant, H.L., brought this class action suit challenging a Utah law which required a physician to notify, if possible, the parents or guardian of a minor upon whom an abortion was to be performed. H.L. represented a class consisting of unmarried minor women who wished to terminate their “unwanted pregnancies” but were unable to …Read more

The Appellant, an obstetrician gynaecologist, brought suit challenging the constitutionality of a Virginia statute, which required second-trimester abortions to be performed in a licensed hospital. The Appellant instituted these proceedings after he was indicted for unlawfully performing an abortion during the second trimester of a pregnancy outside of a licensed hospital. The Appellant performed an …Read more

The President of the Catholics for Christian Political Action and another filed a claim against the United States and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts claiming they failed to fulfill their obligations under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (the Declaration) and American Convention on Human Rights (the Convention) (the United States has …Read more

The Respondent, McRae, a Medicaid recipient seeking an abortion, brought a class action suit challenging the constitutional validity of the ‘Hyde Amendment’, which prohibited federal reimbursement under the Medicaid system for some abortions which were medically necessary. As established by an amendment to Title XIX of the Social Security Act in 1965, the Medicaid system …Read more

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) began a health hazard evaluation of a Westinghouse Electric Corporation plant in Pennsylvania after receiving a request from an authorized union representative from Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Physicians and an industrial hygienist employed by NIOSH did walk-through inspections of the plant. The inspecting physicians suspected that the …Read more

This case was an appeal by the State of Colorado (“Colorado”) and Colorado prison officials, challenging an order from the Colorado Federal District Court directing the State of Colorado to close the maximum security unit of the Colorado State Penitentiary at Canon City (“Old Max”). Inmate Fidel Ramos filed a complaint alleging that the conditions …Read more

Rudkin, a long-time employee of the defendant corporation, developed pneumoconiosis, lung cancer, or other asbestos-related illnesses from his work with asbestos. The defendant knew about the harms of exposure to asbestos, yet it hid that information from Rudkin and continued to encourage him to work in an unsafe environment. After Rudkin had developed an industrial …Read more

The Appellants challenged the constitutional validity of a Massachusetts law that required, in every instance, that the parents or guardian of a minor seeking an abortion be notified. The joined Appellants were an abortion clinic and a pregnant minor representing the class of unmarried minors in Massachusetts who had adequate capacity to give valid and …Read more

The Respondents, a licensed obstetrician and several non-profit organizations, brought suit claiming that § 5(a) of the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act of 1974 (the Act) was unconstitutionally vague. Section 5(a) of the Act required every person who performed or induced an abortion to have made a determination, based on “experience, judgment or professional competence,” that …Read more

Title XIX of the Social Security Act establishes the Medicaid program under which participating States may provide federally funded medical assistance to needy persons. Title XIX requires that state Medicaid plans establish “reasonable standards . . . for determining . . . the extent of medical assistance under the plan which . . . are …Read more

The Respondent, Population Planning Associates (PPA) was a corporation primarily engaged in the mail-order retail sale of nonmedical contraceptive devices. PPA regularly advertised its products in periodicals, and accepted and filled orders by mailing contraceptives to purchasers. The advertisements and order forms did not limit the availability of PPA’s products to persons of any particular …Read more

Petitioners challenged the constitutional validity of regulations contained in the Social Security Act (‘the Act’) of Connecticut which limited Medicaid benefits for first trimester abortions to those that are “medically necessary”. For a benefit to be paid, the regulations required the submission of a written request by the pregnant woman, a physician’s certificate of medical …Read more

The Respondent brought a class action suit alleging constitutional rights violations after her request for a nontherapeutic abortion was refused by a public hospital in St. Louis.  Doe’s inability to obtain an abortion resulted from two factors, a personally motivated policy directive by the Mayor which prohibited the performance of abortions in the city hospitals …Read more

The Respondents, a group of individual patients, doctors and physician associations, challenged the constitutionality of the New York State Controlled Substances Act of 1972 (‘Act’). Certain provisions of the Act required that all prescriptions for Schedule II drugs (dangerous but permissible medication) be prepared by the physician in triplicate on an official form.The completed form …Read more

Plaintiff Magnolia Lyons, a blind woman, brought action against defendant physician, Eugene Grether, for damages resulting from “breach of his duty to treat” on the claim that the defendant’s waiting room was a public place within the White Cane Act so that she had a right to have her guide dog with her. Plaintiff, her …Read more

Plaintiff Virgil Walker filed suit against Defendant, Clovis H. Pierce, the attending obstetrician at Aiken County Hospital in South Carolina, seeking damages and declaratory and injunctive relief for a violation of her civil rights under the 1st, 4th, 5th 8th, 9th, 13th, and 14th amendments. Virgil Walker, an African American woman on Medicaid, went to …Read more

The Respondent, Gamble, an inmate in a state correctional facility, brought suit challenging the actions of the appellants, medical personnel at the facility, claiming they had subjected him to cruel and unusual punishment for inadequate treatment of a back injury suffered while he was undertaking prison work. After sustaining the injury, Gamble was seen by …Read more

Petitioners brought this action against the Attorney General of Missouri, seeking to enjoin enforcement of House Committee Substitute for House Bill No. 1211 (the Act), which attempted to regulate both the abortion procedure and the circumstances surrounding such procedures. Petitioners claimed the Act violated the right to privacy under the due process clause of the …Read more

The Respondents, consumers of prescription drugs and non-profit organizations in Virginia, brought proceedings against the Virginia State Pharmacy Board, alleging that a Virginia statute prohibiting the advertising of prescription drug prices violated the freedom of speech clause of the First Amendment. Section 54-524.35 of the Virginia statute provided that: “a pharmacist licensed in Virginia was …Read more

The petitioner was charged with committing armed robbery and murder. The jury found the petitioner guilty of two counts of armed robbery and two counts of murder, and subsequently returned a sentence of death on each count, finding aggravating conditions present (that the murder offenses were committed while the defendant was engaged in the commission …Read more

Appellant Bigelow was the managing editor of a newspaper. An edition of the paper, under which appellant had direct responsibility, contained an advertisement for abortion services summarized by the Court as follows: [T]he advertisement announced that the Women’s Pavilion of New York City would help women with unwanted pregnancies to obtain “immediate placement in accredited …Read more

Respondent, Donaldson, was civilly committed to confinement as a mental patient in the Florida State Hospital in 1957; he was kept in custody against his will for nearly 15 years. Petitioner, O’Connor, the hospital’s superintendent, had repeatedly refused Donaldson’s requests to be released. Donaldson’s requests for ground privileges, occupational training, and an opportunity to discuss …Read more

The appellants, Henry Evaro and Memorial Hospital, brought an action against Maricopa County challenging the constitutionality of a provision in an Arizona statute requiring 12 months residence in a county before medical care is provided to an indigent person in non-emergency situations. Evaro, an indigent person, suffered from chronic asthma and bronchial illness. In June …Read more

Petitioners brought this challenge to provisions of the Texas Penal Code, which prohibited anyone from procuring or attempting an abortion, except on “medical advice for the purpose of saving the life of the mother.” Petitioner Jane Roe was an unmarried, pregnant woman who sought to terminate her pregnancy by an abortion “performed by a competent, …Read more

Mary Doe, under a pseudonym, was a married, twenty-two year old mother living in Georgia. At the time of this case, she already had three children, two in foster care and the third given up for adoption due to her inability to provide for them. She sought an abortion from the Grady Memorial Hospital Abortion …Read more

The Respondent was convicted under chapter 272 of the Massachusetts General Laws (Crimes Against Chastity, Morality, Decency and Good Order) (the Act) for exhibiting contraceptive articles while presenting a lecture on contraception to a group of university students, and for providing a contraceptive article to a young woman after the lecture. Section 21 of the …Read more

Plaintiffs, the guardians of patients confined at Bryce Hospital, Alabama (the Hospital) and certain employees of the Alabama Mental Health Board assigned to the Hospital, requested an order of reference for an authoritative determination of standards of the adequacy of the current and future mental treatment employed by the Hospital in effecting the right to …Read more