Massachusetts v. Laird

Supreme Court of the United States

Decided November 9, 1970

Full case name

Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Plaintiff v. Melvin R. Laird, Secretary of Defense

Citations

400 U.S. 886 (more)

91 S. Ct. 128; 27 L. Ed. 2d 130; 1970 U.S. LEXIS 514

Holding

Declined to hear the case.

Court membership

Chief Justice Warren E. Burger

Associate Justices Hugo Black · William O. Douglas John M. Harlan II · William J. Brennan, Jr Potter Stewart · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun

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Massachusetts v. Laird

Massachusetts v. Laird, 400 U.S. 886 (1970), was a case dealing with the conscription aspect of the Vietnam War that the Supreme Court of the United States declined to hear by a 6-3 vote.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts challenged the constitutionality of the war. It passed a law stating that no resident of Massachusetts "shall be required to serve" in the military abroad if the armed hostility has not been declared a war by Congress. The attorney general of Massachusetts asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its case to test the legality of the Vietnam War.

The United States Supreme Court decline hearing the case due to a lack of jurisdiction.

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