April 2, 1970
Massachusetts enacted a law which stipulated that except for an emergency, no inhabitant of Massachusetts inducted into or serving in the armed forces shall be required to serve abroad in an armed hostility that had not been declared a war by Congress under Article I, Section 8, clause 11 of the US Constitution. The Mass. attorney general referred the issue to the Supreme Court as a matter of original jurisdiction; they refused to hear the case by a vote of 6-3.
