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Supreme Court · Decisions

Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings v. Davis

145 S. Ct. 1608 · No. 24-304 · 2024 term · Roberts Court

Decided Jun 5, 2025 · argued Apr 29, 2025

Judicial power · No merits: writ improvidently granted

The voteMajorityDissent

8–18 in the majority, 1 in dissent

1 dissent (8–1)

Petition denied or appeal dismissed. Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings lost.

What this ruling means

Dismissed: after hearing the case the Supreme Court declined to decide it, so the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit stands.

Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings was the petitioner, the side that asked the Supreme Court to review the case. “Lost” means the Court did not give that side the result it asked for.

From the Supreme Court Database. A justice who agreed with the result but not the reasoning counts in the majority.

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Summary

The opening of the case’s Wikipedia article: what the case was about and what the Court held.

No summary is on file for this case. Search Wikipedia for it.

Data notes

The text is Wikipedia’s (CC BY-SA 4.0), matched to the case by its citation, docket number or name and year, and is not checked against the opinion. The site keeps the article’s opening section, ending on its last full sentence. The one-sentence summary under the title is the Decisions list’s: Wikipedia’s own ruling sentence, or, tagged “AI-written”, one Claude wrote from this opening.

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How the justices voted

Each justice who took part, placed by their Martin–Quinn ideology score for the 2024 term. Filled: the 8 in the majority. Hollow: the 1 in dissent. Colour is the party of the president who appointed them.

More liberalMore conservativeMedianSotomayorK. JacksonKaganJ. RobertsBarrettKavanaughGorsuchAlitoThomas

Majority(8)

Dissent(1)

Data notes

Each justice’s vote and what they wrote are from the justice-centered file of the Supreme Court Database. “Wrote a concurrence” means the justice sided with the majority and wrote separately; a justice who dissented in part is counted on the side they took overall. A justice who wrote nothing is listed as joining their side.

Positions are each justice’s Martin–Quinn score for the case’s term, the same scores as the Ideology page: negative is more liberal, positive more conservative. A score sums up a justice’s votes across the whole term, so it says where they usually sit, not why they voted as they did here. The median line is the Court’s median justice that term.

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The parties

Who brought the case to the Court, who answered it, and how it got there.

Petitioner
Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings
Respondent
Davis
Reached the Court by
Certiorari (the Court chose to hear it)
Data notes

The names are the two sides of the case’s title. The description under each is the Supreme Court Database’s category for that party, in its own wording. The petitioner is the side that asked the Supreme Court to review the decision below. “Why it was taken” appears only when the majority opinion says lower courts disagreed or were unsure about the question; reasons that would fit any case (“to resolve the question presented”, “an important question”) are left out.

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The law at issue

The record codes no legal provision for this case.

Data notes

The Supreme Court Database codes the main constitutional provision, statute or court rule each case turned on, and the basis of the decision: judicial review of a federal or state law, interpreting a statute, supervising the lower courts, and so on. A case can rest on more than one. “Overruled” counts only where the majority opinion says so.

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Timeline

What happened at the Court and how the case got there, newest first.

  1. Jun 5, 2025DecidedDecided · Decided 8–1: petition denied or appeal dismissed. Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings lost.
  2. Apr 29, 2025ArguedArgued · Oral argument before the Court.
  3. Not datedTaken upTaken up · The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case (certiorari).
  4. Not datedCourt belowCourt below · Decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
Data notes

From the Supreme Court Database: the court the case began in, the court whose decision the Supreme Court reviewed and what that court did, how the case came to the Court, and the dates of argument and decision. The database does not date the steps in the lower courts. Court names are the database’s.

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Other decisions on the same issue

104 other argued cases since 1946 on no merits: writ improvidently granted, newest first.

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  97. Joseph et al. v. Indiana.359 U.S. 117Mar 23, 1959 · 359 U.S. 117Judicial power9–0Unanimous band
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  99. Triplett v. Iowa.357 U.S. 217Jun 16, 1958 · 357 U.S. 217Judicial power9–0Unanimous band
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  104. Stembridge v. Georgia343 U.S. 541May 26, 1952 · 343 U.S. 541Judicial power6–36–3 band
Data notes

Every other orally argued case with a clear vote, from the 1946 term on, that the Supreme Court Database files under the same issue as this one. The database gives each case one issue from a list of about 270 (abortion, search and seizure of vehicles, the death penalty, and so on), whatever law it turned on.

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Official record

Read the argument audio on Oyez and Wikipedia. Case data from the Supreme Court Database, Version 2026 Release 01, through the 2025 term.