Skinner, Secretary of Transportation, et al. v. Railway Labor Executives' Association et al.

Decided March 21, 1989. Anthony McLeod Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 87-1555 · 489 U.S. 602 (1989) · Cited 2,560 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 7–2.

“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.

• Schmerber v. California · 384 U.S. 757 (1966)
• Griffin v. Wisconsin · 483 U.S. 868 (1987)
• United States v. Martinez-Fuerte · 428 U.S. 543 (1976)
• New Jersey v. T. L. O. · 469 U.S. 325 (1985)
• O'CONNOR v. Ortega · 480 U.S. 709 (1987)
• Camara v. Municipal Court of City and County of San Francisco · 387 U.S. 523 (1967)
• United States v. Jacobsen · 466 U.S. 109 (1984)
• New York v. Burger · 482 U.S. 691 (1987)
• Winston v. Lee · 470 U.S. 753 (1985)
• Terry v. Ohio · 392 U.S. 1 (1968)
• Dunaway v. New York · 442 U.S. 200 (1979)
• United States v. Montoya De Hernandez · 473 U.S. 531 (1985)
• Coolidge v. New Hampshire · 403 U.S. 443 (1971)
• Delaware v. Prouse · 440 U.S. 648 (1979)
• United States v. Place · 462 U.S. 696 (1983)
• Marshall v. Barlow's, Inc. · 436 U.S. 307 (1978)
• United States v. Dionisio · 410 U.S. 1 (1973)
• South Dakota v. Neville · 459 U.S. 553 (1983)
• Breithaupt v. Abram · 352 U.S. 432 (1957)
• Cupp v. Murphy · 412 U.S. 291 (1973)
• Katz v. United States · 389 U.S. 347 (1967)
• Bell v. Wolfish · 441 U.S. 520 (1979)
• United States v. Brignoni-Ponce · 422 U.S. 873 (1975)
• United States v. Sharpe · 470 U.S. 675 (1985)
• United States v. Chadwick · 433 U.S. 1 (1977)
• Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Delgado · 466 U.S. 210 (1984)
• Colorado v. Bertine · 479 U.S. 367 (1987)
• Michigan v. Tyler · 436 U.S. 499 (1978)
• Donovan v. Dewey · 452 U.S. 594 (1981)
• Michigan v. Clifford · 464 U.S. 287 (1984)

Cited by

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

• Vernonia School District 47J v. Acton · 515 U.S. 646 (1995)
• Birchfield v. N. Dakota. William Robert Bernard · 579 U.S. 438 (2016)
• Chandler v. Miller · 520 U.S. 305 (1997)
• Ferguson v. City of Charleston · 532 U.S. 67 (2001)
• Maryland v. King · 569 U.S. 435 (2013)
• Missouri v. McNeely · 569 U.S. 141 (2013)
• Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 of Pottawatomie County v. Earls · 536 U.S. 822 (2002)
• Mitchell v. Wisconsin · 588 U.S. 840 (2019)
• City of L. A. v. Patel · 576 U.S. 409 (2015)
• Consolidated Rail Corporation v. Railway Labor Executives' Assn. · 491 U.S. 299 (1989)
• Maryland v. Buie · 494 U.S. 325 (1990)
• Atwater v. City of Lago Vista · 532 U.S. 318 (2001)
• City of Indianapolis v. Edmond · 531 U.S. 32 (2000)
• United States v. James Daniel Good Real Property · 510 U.S. 43 (1993)
• Samson v. California · 547 U.S. 843 (2006)
• United States v. Sokolow · 490 U.S. 1 (1989)
• Illinois v. Rodriguez · 497 U.S. 177 (1990)
• California v. Acevedo · 500 U.S. 565 (1991)
• Michigan Department of State Police v. Sitz · 496 U.S. 444 (1990)
• Georgia v. Randolph · 547 U.S. 103 (2006)
• County of Allegheny v. American Civil Liberties Union · 492 U.S. 573 (1989)
• Safford Unified School District 1 v. Redding · 557 U.S. 364 (2009)
• Immigration & Naturalization Service v. National Center for Immigrants' Rights, Inc. · 502 U.S. 183 (1991)
• Smith v. Ohio · 494 U.S. 541 (1990)

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).