Victoria Buckley, Secretary of State of Colorado v. American Constitutional Law Foundation, Inc., et al.

Decided January 12, 1999. Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 97-930 · 525 U.S. 182 (1999) · Cited 528 times

Holding

The Warsaw Convention precludes a passenger from maintaining an action for personal injury damages under local law when her claim does not satisfy the conditions for liability under the Convention.

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 6–3.

“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.

• Buckley v. Valeo · 424 U.S. 1 (1976)
• Meyer v. Grant · 486 U.S. 414 (1988)
• Burdick v. Takushi · 504 U.S. 428 (1992)
• McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission · 514 U.S. 334 (1995)
• Timmons v. Twin Cities Area New Party · 520 U.S. 351 (1997)
• Storer v. Brown · 415 U.S. 724 (1974)
• Riley v. National Federation of Blind of North Carolina, Inc. · 487 U.S. 781 (1988)
• Martin v. City of Struthers · 319 U.S. 141 (1943)
• Anderson v. Celebrezze · 460 U.S. 780 (1983)
• First Nat. Bank of Boston v. Bellotti · 435 U.S. 765 (1978)
• Rosario v. Rockefeller · 410 U.S. 752 (1973)
• Citizens Against Rent Control/Coalition for Fair Housing v. City of Berkeley · 454 U.S. 290 (1981)
• Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee v. Federal Election Commission · 518 U.S. 604 (1996)
• Grosjean v. American Press Co. · 297 U.S. 233 (1936)
• Eu v. San Francisco County Democratic Central Committee · 489 U.S. 214 (1989)
• Norman v. Reed · 502 U.S. 279 (1992)
• Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission · 512 U.S. 622 (1994)
• Boos v. Barry · 485 U.S. 312 (1988)
• Village of Schaumburg v. Citizens for a Better Environment · 444 U.S. 620 (1980)
• Burson v. Freeman · 504 U.S. 191 (1992)
• Tashjian v. Republican Party of Connecticut · 479 U.S. 208 (1986)
• Brown v. Hartlage · 456 U.S. 45 (1982)

Cited by

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

• Barr v. American Assn. of Political Consultants, Inc. · 591 U.S. 610 (2020)
• Nixon v. Shrink Missouri Government PAC · 528 U.S. 377 (2000)
• Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York, Inc. v. Village of Stratton · 536 U.S. 150 (2002)
• City of Austin v. Reagan National Advertising of Austin, LLC · 596 U.S. 61 (2022)

Official text

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

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1999). 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).