Cort v. Ash

Cort v. Ash
Argued March 18, 1975
Decided June 17, 1975
Full case nameCort, et al. v. Ash
Citations422 U.S. 66 (more)
95 S. Ct. 2080; 45 L. Ed. 2d 26; 1975 U.S. LEXIS 143
Case history
PriorOn writ of certiorari from the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Holding
18 U.S.C. § 610 does not create a private cause of action.
Court membership
Chief Justice
Warren E. Burger
Associate Justices
William O. Douglas · William J. Brennan Jr.
Potter Stewart · Byron White
Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun
Lewis F. Powell Jr. · William Rehnquist
Case opinion
MajorityBrennan, joined by unanimous
Laws applied
18 U.S.C. § 610

Cort v. Ash, 422 U.S. 66 (1975), was a case in which Justice William J. Brennan writing for a unanimous United States Supreme Court articulated a four factor test for federal courts to apply when deciding whether the implication doctrine allows a cause of action to be inferred from a federal statute that does not clearly state a civil remedy.

The Cort criteria were applied by some lower federal courts as a restrictive standard to test applications of the implication doctrine, including a 7th Circuit decision, later reversed by the Supreme Court, which held no private right of action exists under Title IX to challenge a denial of admission to medical school as gender-based discrimination.