Download Supreme Court Cases List

Mr. Call – AP U.S. Government and Politics - VHS
Name _____________________________________________________________ Period _____
SUPREME COURT CASES LIST
1. Marbury v. Madison: Judicial review was established in this 1803 Supreme Court case.
2. McCulloch v. Maryland: the 1819 Supreme Court case, which established the supremacy of
the national government over the states, included both enumerated and implied powers of
Congress.
3. In Barron v. Baltimore (1833), the Supreme Court ruled that the Bill of Rights restrained
only the national government and not states and cities.
4. Reynolds. V. United States (1879) a unanimous court, held that the state can punish
criminal activity without regard to religious belief. The First Amendment protects religious
belief, but it does not protect religious practices that are judged to be criminal such as
bigamy.
5. In Gitlowv New York, the Court announced that freedoms of speech and press “were
fundamental personal rights and liberties protected by the due process clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment from impairment by the states.”
6. Gibbons v. Ogden: the 1824 Supreme Court case which further expanded Congress’ power
to regulate interstate and international commerce by defining commerce very broadly to
incorporate every form of commercial activity.
7. The Supreme Court provided constitutional justification for segregation in Plessy v.
Ferguson (1896) when it held that segregation in public facilities was not unconstitutional as
long as the facilities were substantially equal “separate but equal.”
8. In Schenck v. United States (1919), Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes declared that
government can limit speech if it provokes a clear and present danger of “substantive evils.”
9. The Court has generally struck down prior restraint of speech and press (censorship that
prevents publication), although the writer or speaker could be punished for violating a law or
someone’s rights after publication (Near v. Minnesota, 1931).
10. In 1932, the Supreme Court ordered states to provide an attorney for indigent defendants
accused of a capital crime (Powell v. Alabama), and in 1963, the Court extended the same
right to everyone accused of a felony (Gideon v. Wainwright).
11. Abington Township, Pennsylvania v. Schempp). In both cases, the Court observed that “the
place of religion in our society is an exalted one, but in the relationship between man and
religion, the State is firmly committed to a position of neutrality.”
Mr. Call – AP U.S. Government and Politics - VHS
12. The Supreme Court upheld the internment as constitutional in Korematsu v. United States
(1944), but Congress later provided benefits for the former internees (which still have not
been distributed).
13. In Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Supreme Court held that school segregation was
unconstitutional.
14. In Mapp v. Ohio (1961), the Supreme Court incorporated the exclusionary rule within the
rights that restrict the states as well as the federal government.
15. Baker v. Carr (1962), the Supreme Court ruled that redistricting was a justiciable issue,
meaning that courts have jurisdiction over redistricting. The court also ruled that “as nearly
as practicable, one man’s vote would be equal to another’s.”
16. In 1962 and 1963, the Court ruled that voluntary recitations of prayers or Bible passages,
when done as part of classroom exercises in public schools, violated the establishment clause
(Engel v. Vitale)
17. Libel (the publication of statements known to be false that tend to damage a person’s
reputation) and slander (spoken defamation) are not protected by the First Amendment, but
the Court has held that statements about public figures are libelous only if made with malice
and reckless disregard for the truth (New York Times v. Sullivan, 1964) The right to criticize
the government (which the Supreme Court termed “the central meaning of the First
Amendment”) is not libel or slander.
18. Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States (1964) was a landmark United States Supreme
Court case holding that the U.S. Congress could use the Constitution's Commerce Clause
power to force private businesses to abide by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
19. The Supreme Court first referred to the idea that the Constitution guarantees a right to
privacy in a 1965 case involving a Connecticut law that forbade contraceptives (Griswold v.
Connecticut).
20. Miranda v. Arizona (1966) set guidelines for police questioning of suspects, whereby
suspects must be informed of their constitutional rights. The more conservative Rehnquist
Court made some exceptions to the Miranda rulings but the Court in Dickerson v. U.S.
(2000) made clear its continued support for the Miranda ruling.
21. Tinker v. Des Moines School District (1969) was a decision by the United States Supreme
Court that defined the constitutional rights of students in U.S. public schools, especially
students 1st Amendment rights.
22. New York Times v. United States (Pentagon Papers Case) (1971) a landmark decision by
the United States Supreme Court on the First Amendment. The ruling made it possible for the
New York Times and Washington Post newspapers to publish the then-classified Pentagon
Papers without risk of government censorship or punishment.
Mr. Call – AP U.S. Government and Politics - VHS
23. In 1971, the Supreme Court declared that aid to church-related schools must have a secular
legislative purpose, cannot be used to advance or inhibit religion, and should avoid excessive
government “entanglement” with religion (Lemon v. Kurtzman).
24. The Supreme Court has consistently maintained that people have an absolute right to believe
what they want, but the courts have been more cautious about the right to practice a belief
(but in Wisconsin v. Yoder, 1972, the Court did allow Amish parents to take their children
out of school after the eighth grade).
25. In Furman v. Georgia (1972), the Court first confronted the question of whether the death
penalty is inherently cruel and unusual punishment. A divided Court overturned Georgia’s
death penalty law because its imposition was “freakish” and “random” in the way it was
arbitrarily applied (particularly with regard to factors such as race and income).
26. Justice Harry Blackmun’s majority opinion in Roe v. Wade (1973) followed the practice of
medical authorities in dividing pregnancy into three equal trimesters. The decision forbade
any state control of abortions during the first trimester; permitted states to allow regulated
abortions to protect the mother’s health in the second trimester; and allowed the states to ban
abortion during the third trimester except when the mother’s life was in danger.
27. Gregg v. Georgia (1976) - found that the death penalty is “an extreme sanction, suitable to
the most extreme of crimes.
28. Buckley v. Valeo (1976) was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States upheld
a federal law which set limits on campaign contributions. The court also ruled candidates can
give unlimited amounts of money to their own campaigns.
29. In Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), the Supreme Court rejected a
plan at the University of California at Davis that set aside 16 out of a total of 100 places in
the entering class for “disadvantaged groups.” The Court objected to the use of a quota of
positions for particular groups, but the Court said that a university could use race or ethnic
background as one component in the admissions procedure.
30. Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1987) was a landmark decision by the Supreme
Court of the United States, which held that public school curricular student newspapers that
have not been established as forums for student expression are subject to a lower level of
First Amendment protection than independent student expression or newspapers established
(by policy or practice) as forums for student expression.
31. When Gregory Johnson set a flag on fire at the 1984 Republican National Convention in
Dallas to protest nuclear arms buildup, the Supreme Court decided that the state law
prohibiting flag desecration violated the First Amendment (Texas v. Johnson, 1989).
Mr. Call – AP U.S. Government and Politics - VHS
32. In 1989, a clinic in St. Louis challenged the constitutionality of a Missouri law that forbade
the use of state funds or state employees to perform abortions, but the Court upheld the law
in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989).
33. Oregon v. Smith (1990) is a United States Supreme Court case that determined that the state
could deny unemployment benefits to a person fired for violating a state prohibition on the
use of peyote, even though the use of the drug was part of a religious ritual. Although states
have the power to accommodate otherwise illegal acts done in pursuit of religious beliefs,
they are not required to do so.
34. In 1992, the Court changed its standard for evaluating restrictions on abortion from one of
“strict scrutiny” of any restraints on a “fundamental right” to one of “undue burden” that
permits considerably more regulation (Planned Parenthood v. Casey).
35. United States v. Lopez (1995) In a 5–4 decision, the Supreme Court affirmed the decision of
the Court of Appeals. It held that while Congress had broad lawmaking authority under the
Commerce Clause, the power was limited, and did not extend so far from "commerce" as to
authorize the regulation of the carrying of handguns, especially when there was no evidence
that carrying them affected the economy on a massive scale.
36. In 1996, Congress passed the Communications Decency Act, banning obscene material and
criminalizing the transmission of indecent speech or images to anyone under 18 years of age.
The new law made no exception for material that has serious literary, artistic, political, or
scientific merit as outlined in Miller v. California. In 1997, the Supreme Court overturned
this law as being overly broad and vague and a violation of free speech.
37. In Gratz v. Bollinger (2003), the Court struck down the University of Michigan’s system of
undergraduate admissions in which every applicant from an underrepresented racial or ethnic
minority group was automatically awarded 20 points of the 100 needed to guarantee
admission.
38. Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2004) case in which the Court reversed the dismissal of a habeas
corpus petition brought on behalf of Yaser Esam Hamdi, a U.S. citizen being detained
indefinitely as an "illegal enemy combatant." The Court recognized the power of the
government to detain enemy combatants, but ruled that detainees who are U.S. citizens must
have the ability to challenge their enemy combatant status before an impartial judge.
39. District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) was a landmark case in which the Supreme Court of
the United States held that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects
an individual's right to possess a firearm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as selfdefense within the home and within federal enclaves.
40. Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) a landmark United States Supreme
Court case in which the Court held that the First Amendment prohibited the government from
restricting independent political expenditures by corporations and unions.
Mr. Call – AP U.S. Government and Politics - VHS
41. McDonald v. Chicago, (2010), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United
States that determined whether the Second Amendment applies to the individual states. The
Court held that the right of an individual to "keep and bear arms" protected by the Second
Amendment is incorporated by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and
applies to the states. The decision cleared up the uncertainty left in the wake of District of
Columbia v. Heller as to the scope of gun rights in regard to the states.