Thomas C. Horne, Superintendent, Arizona Public Instruction v. Miriam Flores et al.

Decided June 25, 2009. Samuel A. Alito Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 08-289 · 557 U.S. 433 (2009) · Cited 617 times

Holding

The admission of the certificates violated petitioner’s Sixth Amendment right to confront the witnesses against him.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 5–4.

“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.

• Rufo v. Inmates of Suffolk County Jail · 502 U.S. 367 (1992)
• Frew Ex Rel. Frew v. Hawkins · 540 U.S. 431 (2004)
• Milliken v. Bradley · 433 U.S. 267 (1977)
• Board of Ed. of Oklahoma City Public Schools v. Dowell · 498 U.S. 237 (1991)
• Missouri v. Jenkins · 515 U.S. 70 (1995)
• Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife · 504 U.S. 555 (1992)
• System Federation No. 91 v. Wright · 364 U.S. 642 (1961)
• Warth v. Seldin · 422 U.S. 490 (1975)
• Universal Camera Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board · 340 U.S. 474 (1951)
• Goldberg v. Kelly · 397 U.S. 254 (1970)
• Browder v. Director, Dept. of Corrections of Ill. · 434 U.S. 257 (1978)
• Alexander v. Sandoval · 532 U.S. 275 (2001)
• City of Boerne v. Flores · 521 U.S. 507 (1997)
• Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp. · 429 U.S. 252 (1977)
• Brown v. Board of Education · 347 U.S. 483 (1954)
• United States v. Lopez · 514 U.S. 549 (1995)
• Summers v. Earth Island Institute · 555 U.S. 488 (2009)
• Hutto v. Finney · 437 U.S. 678 (1978)
• National Hockey League v. Metropolitan Hockey Club, Inc. · 427 U.S. 639 (1976)
• Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education · 402 U.S. 1 (1971)
• Agostini v. Felton · 521 U.S. 203 (1997)
• Kimel v. Florida Board of Regents · 528 U.S. 62 (2000)
• Calderon v. Thompson · 523 U.S. 538 (1998)
• New York v. United States · 505 U.S. 144 (1992)
• United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co. · 200 U.S. 321 (1906)
• United States v. Swift & Co. · 286 U.S. 106 (1932)
• Graver Tank & Mfg. Co. v. Linde Air Products Co. · 336 U.S. 271 (1949)
• Lau v. Nichols · 414 U.S. 563 (1974)
• Duignan v. United States · 274 U.S. 195 (1927)

Cited by

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

• Monsanto Co. v. Geertson Seed Farms · 561 U.S. 139 (2010)
• Brown v. Plata · 563 U.S. 493 (2011)
• Salazar v. Buono · 559 U.S. 700 (2010)
• United States v. Tsarnaev · 595 U.S. 302 (2022)

Official text

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

Explore from here

Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (2009). 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).