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Blogs / Lisa Soronen / Supreme Court Summary: Local Governments in the Limelight

Supreme Court Summary: Local Governments in the Limelight

September 6, 2012 | 2:24 PM | Tags: Supreme Court, State and Local Legal Center

Local governments (and/or local government employees) were directly involved in at least seven Supreme Court cases from the Court’s October 2011 term. Considering the Court decided less than 70 cases, about 10 percent directly involved local governments. Even more cases impact local governments, even if local governments weren’t a named party.

While a number of these cases will have a big impact on local governments, all were outshined by the two most prominent cases of the term—the Affordable Care Act case and the Arizona immigration case. So what were these other cases about? Well, the Court issued opinions in a number of qualified immunity cases, ruled on strip searches in jails, tackled police use of GPS to track suspected criminals, and ruled on an equal protection challenge to a tax scheme.

Want to learn more about these cases? The State and Local Legal Center summarizes here all the cases—big and small—relevant to local governments and describes the impact of each case for local governments.