Barack Obama, 43rd President

NFIB v. Sebelius upheld most of the Affordable Care Act. The Court sustained the individual mandate as a tax but held that Congress could not force states to expand Medicaid by threatening all existing Medicaid funds.

Arizona v. United States held that federal law preempted major parts of Arizona S.B. 1070. The Court struck down state immigration penalties and arrest authority that conflicted with federal law, while allowing the status-check provision to go forward facially.

Miller v. Alabama held that mandatory life without parole for juvenile homicide offenders violates the Eighth Amendment. Courts must be able to consider youth and individual circumstances before imposing that sentence.

United States v. Jones held that attaching a GPS tracker to a vehicle and using it to monitor the vehicle’s movements is a Fourth Amendment search. The decision revived property-based Fourth Amendment reasoning while also setting up later debates over long-term digital tracking and location privacy.

Golan v. Holder upheld Congress’s power to restore U.S. copyright protection to certain foreign works that had entered the public domain. The Court rejected Copyright Clause and First Amendment challenges to Section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act.

Arizona Free Enterprise Club v. Bennett held that Arizona’s public-campaign-financing matching-funds provision violated the First Amendment. The Court said the law burdened privately financed candidates and independent groups by giving money to their publicly financed opponents when they spent more.

American Electric Power v. Connecticut held that the Clean Air Act displaces federal common-law nuisance claims seeking greenhouse-gas emissions caps from power plants. The ruling left climate regulation to EPA under the statute rather than federal common law.

AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion held that the Federal Arbitration Act preempts state rules that invalidate many class-action waivers in arbitration agreements. The decision strengthened corporate use of individual arbitration clauses and limited consumer class actions.

McDonald v. City of Chicago held that the Second Amendment applies to state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment. The ruling incorporated the individual gun-rights holding from Heller against the states, while leaving many questions about permissible gun regulation for later cases.

Citizens United held that the government cannot ban independent political spending by corporations and unions because of the speaker's identity. The decision struck down federal limits on corporate and union independent expenditures for electioneering communications, while leaving disclosure and disclaimer requirements in place. It did not authorize direct corporate contributions to candidates.

Ashcroft v. Iqbal held that federal complaints must plead factual matter that makes a claim plausible. The Court also held that senior officials cannot be held liable for subordinates’ actions based only on supervisory status. The ruling reshaped federal civil litigation by making early dismissal easier.