Barack Obama, 43rd President

Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt held that Texas's admitting-privileges and surgical-center requirements imposed an undue burden on abortion access. The Court looked at evidence and concluded the rules created major access barriers without enough medical benefit. The decision was a major pre-Dobbs abortion-access ruling, later displaced when Dobbs overruled Roe and Casey.

Caetano was a narrow per curiam Second Amendment decision. The Court vacated a Massachusetts judgment because the state court used reasoning that conflicted with Heller and McDonald when it excluded stun guns from protection. The Court did not conduct a full merits review of all stun-gun regulation, but it made clear that modern arms are not outside the Second Amendment for that reason alone.

Obergefell v. Hodges held that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry under the Fourteenth Amendment. States must license same-sex marriages and recognize lawful same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.

Burwell v. Hobby Lobby held that applying the contraceptive-coverage mandate to closely held companies with religious objections violated RFRA. The Court did not decide a constitutional Free Exercise claim. It assumed the government had an important interest in access to contraception, but ruled that the mandate was not the least restrictive way to serve that interest for these employers.

McCullen v. Coakley struck down Massachusetts’s 35-foot fixed buffer zones around abortion clinics. The Court held that the law was not narrowly tailored because it burdened too much speech on public sidewalks, even though the state’s safety and access interests were legitimate.

NLRB v. Noel Canning held that President Obama’s challenged recess appointments to the NLRB were invalid because the Senate was holding pro forma sessions and retained the capacity to conduct business. The Court also held that the Recess Appointments Clause can apply to intrasession recesses and vacancies that predate the recess.

The Court unanimously ruled that police generally need a warrant to search the digital contents of a cell phone seized from someone they arrest.

Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank held that adding generic computer implementation to an abstract idea does not make it patent eligible. The Court invalidated Alice’s patent claims because they covered intermediated settlement without an inventive concept beyond routine computer use.

McCutcheon v. FEC struck down federal aggregate contribution limits under the First Amendment. The decision left base contribution limits intact but allowed donors to contribute to more candidates and committees overall.

United States v. Castleman held that a misdemeanor domestic-violence conviction can qualify as a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence for the federal firearm ban when it involves the degree of physical force required by common-law battery. The ruling strengthened enforcement of firearm restrictions tied to domestic-violence convictions.

United States v. Windsor invalidated Section 3 of DOMA, which denied federal recognition to same-sex marriages valid under state law. The decision required the federal government to recognize lawful same-sex marriages but did not yet require all states to license them.

Koontz held that Nollan and Dolan apply when a permit is denied because the applicant refuses an allegedly unconstitutional condition, and when the condition requires money. The decision expanded takings scrutiny in land-use permitting.

Shelby County v. Holder struck down Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act, the coverage formula that determined which jurisdictions had to seek preclearance before changing voting laws. The ruling left Section 5 formally on the books but largely inoperative unless Congress adopts a new coverage formula.

The Court affirmed Salinas's conviction after prosecutors used his silence during a voluntary pre-arrest interview. The controlling judgment was 5-4, but the reasoning was split between a three-justice plurality and a two-justice concurrence.