The Burger Court issued several notable rulings touching on many aspects of American life. Landmark cases of the Burger Court include: •
Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971): In an 8–1 decision written by Chief Justice Burger, the Court struck down a state law that allowed school superintendents to reimburse Catholic schools for the salaries of teachers. The court held that this violated the
Establishment Clause, and the court created the
Lemon test to determine whether a law is constitutional under the Establishment Clause. •
New York Times v. United States (1971): In a 6–3,
per curiam decision, the court allowed
The New York Times and
The Washington Post to publish the
Pentagon Papers. In so doing, the court placed the concept of
freedom of the press above the Nixon Administration's claimed need to keep the papers secret for national security purposes. •
Roe v. Wade (1973): In a 7–2 decision written by Justice Blackmun, the court held that the right to privacy under the
Due Process Clause extended to a woman's decision to have an
abortion. The opinion struck down several state restrictions on abortion, and the opinion sparked an
ongoing debate regarding abortion.
Roe was eventually overturned by ''
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization'' (2022). •
Miller v. California (1973): In a 5–4 decision written by Chief Justice Burger, the court laid out the
Miller test, which the court continues to use as a definition for
obscene material. The court held that First Amendment protections extend only to non-obscene material. •
United States v. Nixon (1974): In an 8–0 decision written by Chief Justice Burger, the court rejected President Nixon's claim that
executive privilege protected all communications between Nixon and his advisers. The ruling was important to the
Watergate scandal, and Nixon resigned weeks after the decision was delivered. •
Milliken v. Bradley (1974): In a 5–4 decision, the court determined that
school desegregation mandates need only be applied to schools within a single district and not to schools across different districts, unless it could be proven that district lines had been drawn with racist intent. The decision enabled
de facto segregation by
white flight from urban to suburban school districts. •
Gregg v. Georgia (1976): In a 7–2 decision written by Justice Stewart, the court held that the
death penalty did not always qualify as
cruel and unusual punishment, which is barred by the
Eighth Amendment. The court required that the death penalty only be applied in extreme circumstances, and that any death penalty sentence be subject to appellate review. •
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978): No single opinion was able to win a majority of the court's vote in this case. Nonetheless,
Bakke upheld the usage of
affirmative action in college admissions while disallowing the use of
racial quotas. •
Bob Jones University v. United States (1983): In an 8–1 decision written by Chief Justice Burger, the court allowed the
Internal Revenue Service to remove the non-profit classification of
Bob Jones University due to the university's policy of racial discrimination. In doing so, the court held that IRS could deny non-profit status on the basis of compelling government interests. •
Bowers v. Hardwick (1986): In a 5–4 decision written by Justice
Byron White, the court upheld the constitutionality of a
Georgia sodomy law criminalizing
oral and
anal sex in private between consenting adults (particularly
gay sex). The ruling was overturned in 2003 by
Lawrence v. Texas. ==Judicial philosophy==