James et al. v. Valtierra et al.

Decided April 26, 1971. Hugo Lafayette Black delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 154 · 402 U.S. 137 (1971) · Cited 221 times

We don’t yet publish a summary of this opinion — read the official text below for the Court’s holding and reasoning.

How the Justices voted

Decided 5–3.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Hunter v. Erickson · 393 U.S. 385 (1969)
• Douglas v. California · 372 U.S. 353 (1963)
• Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections · 383 U.S. 663 (1966)
• Gomillion v. Lightfoot · 364 U.S. 339 (1960)
• McDonald v. Board of Election Comm'rs of Chicago · 394 U.S. 802 (1969)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• City of Eastlake v. Forest City Enterprises, Inc. · 426 U.S. 668 (1976)
• San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez · 411 U.S. 1 (1973)
• Washington v. Seattle School District No. 1 · 458 U.S. 457 (1982)
• City of Cuyahoga Falls v. Buckeye Community Hope Foundation · 538 U.S. 188 (2003)
• Jefferson v. Hackney · 406 U.S. 535 (1972)
• Crawford v. Board of Ed. of Los Angeles · 458 U.S. 527 (1982)
• Buckley v. Valeo · 424 U.S. 1 (1976)
• Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp. · 429 U.S. 252 (1977)
• Washington v. Davis · 426 U.S. 229 (1976)
• Personnel Administrator of Mass. v. Feeney · 442 U.S. 256 (1979)
• Harris v. McRae · 448 U.S. 297 (1980)
• City of Rome v. United States · 446 U.S. 156 (1980)
• Citizens Against Rent Control/Coalition for Fair Housing v. City of Berkeley · 454 U.S. 290 (1981)
• Palmer v. Thompson · 403 U.S. 217 (1971)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: the U.S. Reports via govinfo.gov; authoring Justice and vote lineup from the Supreme Court Database (Washington University). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).