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American Gov.
Court Cases To Know
| Court Cases | Description |
|---|---|
| Marbury v. Madison (1803) | Established judicial review; "midnight judges;" John Marshall; power of the Supreme Court |
| McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) | Established national supremacy; established implied powers; use of elastic clause; state unable to tax federal institution; John Marshall; "the power to tax involves the power to destroy" |
| Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) | Established a broad interpretation of the Commerce Clause; determined Congress' power encompassed virtually ever form of commercial activity. The Commerce Clause has been the constitutional basis for much of Congress' regulation of the economy |
| Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) | Established separate but equal. Gave Supreme Court approval to Jim Crow laws |
| Weeks v. U.S. (1914) | Established the 'Exclusionary Rule' at federal level; illegally obtained evidence cannot be used in court |
| Schenck v. U.S. (1919) | Oliver Wendell Holmes; clear and present danger test; shouting 'fire' in a crowded theatre; limits on speech, esp. in wartime |
| Gitlow v. New York (1925) | Established precedent of federalizing Bill of Rights (applying them to the states); states cannot deny freedom of speech-protected through due process clause of Amendment 14 |
| Near v. Minnesota (1931) | Held that the 1st Amendment protest newspapers from prior restraint |
| Palko v. Connecticut (1937) | Provided test for determining which parts of Bill of Rights should be federalized; those which are implicitly or explicitly necessary for liberty to exist |
| Korematsu v. U.S. (1944) | Upheld as constitutional the internment of Americans with Japanese descent during WWII |
| Brown v. Board, 1st (1954) | School segregation unconstitutional; segregation psychologically damaging to blacks; overturned separate but equal; use of 14th Amendment; judicial activism of Warren Court; unanimous decision |
| Brown v. Board, 2nd (1955) | Ordered schools to desegregate "with all due and deliberate speed" |
| Roth v. United States (1957) | Established that :obscenity is not within the ares of constitutionally protected speech or press" |
| Mapp v. Ohio (1961) | Established exclusionary rule; illegally obtained evidence cannot be used in court; Warren Court's judicial activism in criminal rights |
| Engel v. Vitale (1962) | Prohibited state-sponsored recitation of prayer in public schools by virtue of the 1st Amendment's establishment clause and the 14th Amendment's due process clause; Warren Court's judicial activism |
| Baker v. Carr (1962) | "One man, one vote." Ordered state legislative districts to be as near equal as possible in population; Warren Court's political judicial activism |
| Abbington v. Schempp (1963) | Prohibited devotional Bible reading in public schools by virtue of establishment clause & 14th Amendment's due process clause. Warren Court's judicial activism |
| Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) | Ordered House districts to be as near equal in population as possible |
| NY Times v. Sullivan (1964) | Held that statements about public figures re libelous only if made with malice and reckless disregard for the truth |
| Griswald v. Connecticut (1965) | Establishment right of privacy through 4th and 9th Amendments. Set a precedent for Roe v. Wade |
| Miranda v. Arizona (1965) | Established Miranda warning of counsel and silence. Must be given before questioning. Warren Court's judicial activism in criminal rights |
| Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971) | Established 3-part test to determine if establishment clause is violated: nonsecular purpose, advances/inhibits religion, excessive entanglement with government. |
| Miller v. California (1973) | Established that community standards be used in determining whether material is obscene in terms of appealing to 'prurient interest,' being 'patently offensive, and lacking in value |
| Roe v. Wade (1973) | Established nat'l abortion guidelines; trimester guidelines; no state interference in 1st; state may regulate to protect health of mother in 2nd; state may regulate to protect health of unborn child in 3rd. Infer'd from rt of priv. est'd in Griswald v. CT |
| U.S. v. Nixon (1974) | Allowed for executive privilege, but not in criminal cases; 'Even the President is not above the law;' Watergate |
| Buckley v. Valeo (1976) | 1st Amend. protects campaign spending; legi's can limit contributions, not how much one spends own $ on cam's. The decision opened the door of PACs to spend unlimited amts of $ for cam'g acts as long as they're indirectly coordinated w/ particular cam'n |
| Gregg v. Georgia (1976) | Upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty; death penalty does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment; overturned Furman v. Georgia (1972) |
| U.C. Regents v. Bakke (1978) | Bakke & UC Davis Med School; declared strict quotas unconstitutional but states may allow race to be taken into account as ONE factor in admissions decisions. Bakke was admitted; affirmative action |
| Texas v. Johnson (1989) | Struck down a law banning the burning of the American flag on the grounds that such action was symbolic speech protected by the 1st Amendment |
| Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) | States can regulate abortion, but not with regulations that impose "undue burden" upon women; did NOT overturn Roe, but gave state more leeway in regulating abortion (e.g., 24-hour waiting period, parental consent for minors) |
| Shaw v. Reno (1993) | No racial gerrymandering; race cannot be the sole or predominant factor in redrawing legislative boundaries; majority-minority districts |
| U.S. v. Lopez (1995) | Gun Free School Zones Act exceed Congress' authority to regulate interstate commerce. The first case to begin reigning in Congress' authority under the Commerce Clause |
| Clinton v. NY (1998) | Banned presidential use of line item veto |
| Bush v. Gore (2000) | Use of 14th Amendment's equal protection clause to stop Florida recount in the 2000 election |
| Zelman v. Simmons-Haris (2002) | Public money can be used to send disadvantaged children to religious schools in tuition voucher programs |
| Ashcroft v. ACLU (2002) | struck down a federal ban on 'virtual' child pornography |
| Lawrence v. Texas (2003) | Using right of privacy, struck down Texas law banning sodomy |
| Gratz v. Bollinger (2003) | Struck down use of "bonus points" for race in undergrad admissions at University of Michigan; affirmative action |
| Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) | Allowed the use of race as a general factor in law school admissions at University of Michigan; affirmative action |