Atascadero State Hospital v. Scanlon

473 U.S. 234 · Decided June 28, 1985 · Supreme Court of the United States

At a glance

Atascadero State Hospital v. Scanlon was decided on June 28, 1985 by a vote of 5–4. The Court reversed the lower court's decision. Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. wrote the opinion of the Court. SCDB classifies its main issue as “National supremacy, miscellaneous” in the Federalism area.

Read the opinion

• CourtListener (Free Law Project) — opinion text
• Library of Congress — official U.S. Reports scan

Case details

How the Justices voted

Full case caption

Atascadero State Hospital et al. v. Scanlon

SCDB identifiers: case 1984-154, docket 1984-154-01.

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Same Term, same area (Federalism)

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• Bennett v. New Jersey
  470 U.S. 632Decided March 19, 19856–2Sandra Day O'Connor
• Bennett v. Kentucky Department of Education
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Source: Supreme Court Database, 2026 Release 01 (data file dated September 8, 2026). Imported into CaseTrail November 5, 2026. Coverage: decisions from the 1946 through 2025 Terms. Methodology · Report an error