Also known as: usurps · usurped · usurping · usurpatio · usurpation
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The improper assumption or exercise of authority, power, or an opportunity that belongs to another person, institution, or branch of government. The action occurs when one actor takes for itself a function or benefit that the law reserves to another.
The President ordered federal seizure of privately owned steel mills to avert a strike during wartime. Congress had not authorized the seizure and had in fact rejected similar measures. The Court held the action invalid because the President had acted contrary to congressional will and thereby usurped legislative authority over domestic industry.
A state statute banned the use of contraceptives by married couples and authorized prosecution of physicians who provided advice. The Court struck down the law as invading a protected zone of privacy. The decision prevented the state from usurping individual liberty interests that the Constitution reserves from state control.
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A state court entered a personal judgment against a nonresident who had never been served within the state and owned no property there. The Supreme Court held the judgment void. The state tribunal had attempted to usurp the judicial authority of the state where the defendant was domiciled.
State officials refused marriage licenses to same-sex couples under statutes limiting marriage to opposite-sex pairs. The Court held the statutes unconstitutional. The decision rejected the claim that judicial recognition of the right usurped the people's authority to define marriage through legislation.
Federal agents conducted an unreasonable search of a citizen's home without a warrant. The victim sued for damages even though Congress had not created a statutory cause of action. Dissenting justices argued that recognizing an implied remedy would usurp Congress's legislative role in fashioning remedies for constitutional violations.
Maryland imposed a tax on the Bank of the United States, a federally chartered institution. The state defended the tax as an exercise of its sovereign taxing power. The Court held that the tax usurped federal authority by interfering with a means Congress had chosen to execute its enumerated powers.
A delegation is valid when Congress supplies an intelligible principle and the tasks assigned do not undermine the receiving branch's integrity or take over functions the Constitution reserves to another branch. Usurpation occurs when one branch assumes core functions belonging to another without authorization.
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Modern evidence rules permit expert opinions that embrace ultimate issues provided the testimony is otherwise admissible. The older view that such opinions usurp the jury has been rejected. The jury remains free to accept or reject the expert's conclusion.
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A general partner usurps an opportunity when partnership resources are used to identify or evaluate the deal and the partner then takes the opportunity personally without disclosure or consent. Independent financing does not cure the breach if partnership assets facilitated discovery of the opportunity.
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A trial judge may call and examine witnesses on its own initiative to clarify the record or develop incomplete evidence. The authority does not usurp party functions provided the questioning remains neutral and the parties retain full rights of cross-examination.
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…570 U. S., at (dissenting opinion) (slip op., at 8–10) (citations and footnotes omitted). III Today’s decision usurps the constitutional right of the people to decide whether to keep or alter the traditional understanding of marriage. The decision will also have other important consequences. It will be…