United States v. Sperry Corporation et al.

Decided November 28, 1989. Byron Raymond White delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 88-952 · 493 U.S. 52 (1989) · Cited 321 times

Holding

Section 502 is not unconstitutional.

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 9–0.

“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.

• Massachusetts v. United States · 435 U.S. 444 (1978)
• Loretto v. Teleprompter Manhattan CATV Corp. · 458 U.S. 419 (1982)
• American Trucking Assns., Inc. v. Scheiner · 483 U.S. 266 (1987)
• Webb's Fabulous Pharmacies, Inc. v. Beckwith · 449 U.S. 155 (1980)
• Rinaldi v. Yeager · 384 U.S. 305 (1966)
• Dames & Moore v. Regan · 453 U.S. 654 (1981)
• Baker v. Carr · 369 U.S. 186 (1962)
• Bolling v. Sharpe · 347 U.S. 497 (1954)
• Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Chadha · 462 U.S. 919 (1983)
• Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Co. · 428 U.S. 1 (1976)
• United States Railroad Retirement Board v. Fritz · 449 U.S. 166 (1980)
• Keystone Bituminous Coal Assn. v. DeBenedictis · 480 U.S. 470 (1987)
• Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation v. RA Gray & Co. · 467 U.S. 717 (1984)
• Tyler Pipe Industries, Inc. v. Washington State Department of Revenue · 483 U.S. 232 (1987)
• Duquesne Light Co. v. Barasch · 488 U.S. 299 (1989)
• Federal Communications Commission v. Florida Power Corp. · 480 U.S. 245 (1987)
• City of Pittsburgh v. Alco Parking Corp. · 417 U.S. 369 (1974)

Cited by

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

• Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management Dist. · 570 U.S. 595 (2013)
• United States v. United States Shoe Corp. · 523 U.S. 360 (1998)
• Horne v. Department of Agriculture · 576 U.S. 351 (2015)
• Eastern Enterprises v. Apfel · 524 U.S. 498 (1998)
• Phillips v. Washington Legal Foundation · 524 U.S. 156 (1998)
• Dolan v. City of Tigard · 512 U.S. 374 (1994)
• McKesson Corp. v. Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, Fla. Dept. of Business Regulation · 496 U.S. 18 (1990)
• Brown v. Legal Foundation of Washington · 538 U.S. 216 (2003)
• Sullivan v. Everhart · 494 U.S. 83 (1990)
• FCC v. Consumers' Research · 606 U.S. 656 (2025)

Official text

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

Explore from here

Byron Raymond White’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1989). 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).