Supreme Court rulings - San Diego, California Talk Radio Station - 760 KFMB AM - 760kfmb

Supreme Court rulings

The Supreme Court released their rulings on four cases today. They were as follows: 

FCC vs. Fox :

Whether the Federal Communications Commission's standards for indecency on television are too vague to be constitutional.

Ruling: Overturned.  There were too vague of rules at the time of incident. 

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Southern Union v. United States: 

Whether the Constitution requires that a jury, rather than a judge, must find beyond a reasonable doubt any fact that leads to a higher fine for a criminal defendant.

Ruling: Overturned. Jurors must play a greater role in determining how large criminal penalties can be.

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Knox v. SEIU

Whether a state can require its employees to pay a special union fee that will be spent for political purposes without first giving the employees information about the fee and a chance to object to it.

Ruling: 

Infringement of 1st Amendment. Unions have no right to add fees in order to promote a candidate or political cause without consent of union member. 

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Dorsey v. United States

Whether the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, which reduced the sentences for defendants who are convicted of crack cocaine offenses, applies to defendants who were convicted before the Act went into effect but sentenced after it.

Ruling:

The sentencing rules should apply to convictions prior to the ruling as well.