supreme court cases 19-35

Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District

Group of students wears black armbands to school to protest the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Parents sued the school district (after students get in trouble) for violating students' right of expression. Does a prohibition against the wearing of armbands in public school, as a form of symbolic protest, violate the students' freedom of speech protections guaranteed by the First Amendment? Yes, students' First Amendment rights do not end when they enter the school building.

Lemon v. Kurtzman

The Supreme Court created a three-part test for examining the constitutionality of religious establishment issues.

New York Times Co. v. United States

Supreme Court decision that the U.S. government could not block the publication of secret Department of Defense documents illegally furnished to the Times by anti-war activists. Also called the Pentagon Papers case.

Wisconsin v. Yoder

Supreme Court ruling that a state compulsory school attendance law violated the free exercise clause as it applied to the Amish, who believed education beyond the eighth grade was harmful to their children who they did not want to be further exposed to the influences outside their insular community.

Roe v. Wade

Supreme Court ruling that found that a woman's right to an abortion was protected by the right to privacy that could be implied from specific guarantees found in the Bill of Rights applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.

U.S. v. Nixon

Supreme Court ruling on power of the president; holds that no absolute constitutional executive privilege allows a president to refuse to comply with a court order to produce information needed in a criminal trial.

Buckley v. Valeo

Restrictions on individual contributions to political campaigns did not violate the 1st Amendment Legislatures can limit contributions, but not how much one spends of his own money on campaigns

Gregg v. Georgia

Supreme Court decision that found Georgia's new statutory requirements specifying a range of crimes that could be considered for possible death sentences to be acceptable.

Texas v. Johnson

Struck down a Texas law that banned flag burning, which the Court declared was protected by the 1st Amendment. The fact that an audience takes offense to certain ideas or expression, the Court found, does not justify prohibitions of speech

Shaw v. Reno

Supreme Court ruled that while race can be considered in drawing district lines, it cannot be the overriding reason.

U.S. v. Lopez

Gun Free School Zones exceeded Congress' authority to regulate interstate commerce Possession of a gun in a local school zone is not an economic activity that might through repetition elsewhere, have a substantial effect on interstate commerce Bringing a gun into school zones is criminal violation, not commerce

Zelman v. Simmons-Harris

Ohio's Pilot Project Scholarship Program provides tuition aid in the form of vouchers for certain students in the Cleveland City School District to attend participating public or private schools of their parent's choosing. Does Ohio's school voucher program violate the Establishment Clause? No, program does not violate Establishment Clause

Gratz v. Bollinger

Does the University of Michigan's use of racial preferences in undergraduate admissions violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment or Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964? The Court held that the University of Michigan's use of racial preferences in undergraduate admissions violates both the Equal Protection Clause and Title VI. The point system used to by the university was unfair, cannot only award "points" to underrepresented groups

Citizens United v. FEC

Supreme Court ruling that enabled corporations and unions to have the same political speech rights as individuals under the First Amendment. As part of this ruling, the Supreme Court found that the government may not prohibit corporations or unions from using their general treasury funds to support or denounce political candidates in elections.

McDonald v. Chicago

Supreme Court decision that the Second Amendment, which guarantees a citizen's right to "keep and bear arms," applies to state and local governments.

Obergefell v. Hodges

Supreme Court ruling that held that same-sex couples have a fundamental right to marry under the Constitution.

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

In 2018, Mississippi passed a law called the "Gestational Age Act," which prohibits all abortions, with few exceptions, after 15 weeks' gestational age. Is Mississippi's law banning nearly abortions after 15 weeks unconstitutional? No. The Constitution does not require a right to abortion. Roe v. Wade overturned