The Lacuna Project

lacuna (n.) a gap in a record where something should be

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Court

U.S. Supreme Court

Findings that rest on exhibits naming this entity

  • DEF-2.3: The Defense Department's Vietnam study, commissioned by Secretary McNamara in 1967 and presented to Secretary Clifford on 15 January 1969, reached the press in June 1971. On 30 June 1971 the Supreme Court held that the government had not met its burden of justifying a prior restraint on publication, and in 2011 the National Archives released the complete report, of which about 34 percent had never been available.
  • INF-4.8: Texas and Florida enacted laws in 2021 limiting platforms' removal decisions. In Moody v. NetChoice (1 July 2024) the Supreme Court vacated both judgments on facial-challenge grounds and wrote that a state may not interfere with private actors' speech to advance its own vision of ideological balance.
  • REL-4.2: The Church Audit Procedures Act of 1984 (26 U.S.C. ยง 7611) permits the IRS to begin a church tax inquiry only on a written reasonable belief held by an appropriate high-level Treasury official and written notice to the church, and requires written approval of regional counsel before a revocation, deficiency notice or assessment. Congress enacted it after a 1983 Senate hearing at which the chairman cited constitutional entanglement and the harm of extended examinations to small congregations.
  • AGR-5.14: The Supreme Court held unanimously in Bowman v. Monsanto (2013) that patent exhaustion does not let a farmer reproduce patented seed by planting and harvesting without the patent holder's permission. The FTC and five states sued Deere in January 2025 alleging it withheld repair tools, and in July 2026 filed a proposed settlement requiring Deere to give farmers and independent repair shops the repair resources it gives dealers for ten years.
  • POL-5.1: In Citizens United (2010) the Supreme Court held, 5 to 4, that independent expenditures by corporations do not give rise to corruption or its appearance, and held, 8 to 1, that the disclaimer and disclosure requirements of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act are constitutional. In SpeechNow.org v. FEC (D.C. Circuit, en banc, 26 March 2010) the court held that contributions to groups making only independent expenditures cannot be limited and upheld the registration and reporting requirements for those groups.
  • POL-5.14: In NAACP v. Alabama (1958) the Supreme Court unanimously held compelled production of the NAACP's membership lists unconstitutional on an uncontroverted showing of reprisals against members. In Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta (2021) the Court held, 6 to 3 on the judgment, that California's collection of charities' Schedule B donor lists was not narrowly tailored; Bonta concerned state collection from 501(c)(3) charities and did not concern federal campaign disclosure.
  • POL-6.16: On 11 August 2025 a federal district court preliminarily enjoined the withholding of $95 million of NED's fiscal 2025 appropriation and found the stated reason for it not plausible. The State Department obligated NED's full $315 million fiscal 2026 appropriation in March 2026, and the government's motion to dismiss the suit as moot was pending on 9 October 2026. Executive Order 14169 paused new obligations of foreign development assistance for 90 days on 20 January 2025, and on 26 September 2025 the Supreme Court stayed an order to obligate about $10.5 billion of expiring aid without deciding the merits.

Exhibits naming this entity

  • Exhibit 382 30 June 1971. U.S. Supreme Court (per curiam): New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713
  • Exhibit 417 4 May 1970. Supreme Court of the United States: Walz v. Tax Commission of the City of New York, 397 U.S. 664
  • Exhibit 418 24 May 1983. Supreme Court of the United States: Bob Jones University v. United States, 461 U.S. 574
  • Exhibit 469 4 May 1970. U.S. Supreme Court: Walz v. Tax Commission, 397 U.S. 664
  • Exhibit 637 13 May 2013. Supreme Court of the United States (Kagan, J., unanimous): Bowman v. Monsanto Co., 569 U.S. 278 (2013), No. 11-796
  • Exhibit 845 26 September 2025. U.S. Supreme Court: Department of State v. AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, No. 25A269, order on application for stay, 606 U.S. 1055
  • Exhibit 894 21 January 2010. U.S. Supreme Court: Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310
  • Exhibit 895 21 January 2010. U.S. Supreme Court: Citizens United v. FEC, independent expenditures and corruption
  • Exhibit 914 30 June 1958. U.S. Supreme Court: NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson, 357 U.S. 449
  • Exhibit 915 30 June 1958. U.S. Supreme Court: NAACP v. Alabama, showing of reprisal
  • Exhibit 916 1 July 2021. U.S. Supreme Court: Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta, 594 U.S. ___ (No. 19-251)
  • Exhibit 917 1 July 2021. U.S. Supreme Court: Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta, Sotomayor dissent
  • Exhibit 1124 1 July 2024. Supreme Court of the United States (Justice Kagan for the Court): Moody v. NetChoice, LLC, 603 U.S. 707 (2024) (Nos. 22-277 and 22-555)
  • Exhibit 1239 31 May 2005. Supreme Court of the United States (opinion of Chief Justice Rehnquist, unanimous): Arthur Andersen LLP v. United States, 544 U.S. 696
  • Exhibit 1306 25 June 2025 to 25 June 2026. Supreme Court of the United States: Monsanto Co. v. Durnell, No. 24-1068, docket