🦅 👩🏻‍⚖️ All Required SCOTUS Cases -- AP GOV

Learn the 14 required Supreme Court cases for your AP United States Government and Politics exam. Descriptions of cases are from the AP Government Course and Exam Description book.

Established judicial review, empowering the Supreme Court to declare a legislative or executive act unconstitutional

Marbury v Madison

In deciding this case about a national bank and state taxes, SCOTUS upheld the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution, ruling that federal laws superseded state laws

McCulloch v Maryland

Wartime ruling that speech creating a “clear and present danger” was unprotected by the First Amendment and could be limited

Schenck vs United States

Civil rights ruling that racial segregation in schools violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

Brown vs Board of Education

This redistricting case held that redistricting did not raise political questions (and was therefore justiciable, or in the jurisdiction of the courts), therefore allowing federal courts to hear other cases that challenge redistricting plans that may violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. Upheld the principle of “one person one vote” to address demographic changes and rural-urban discrepancies in Tennessee.

Baker v Carr

School sponsorship of religious activities (including school prayer) violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Engel v Vitale

A selective incorporation case extending the Sixth Amendment’s right to counsel and due process protections to felony defendants in state courts.

Gideon v Wainwright

In response to a public school prohibiting a student from wearing an anti Vietnam War armband, the Supreme Court ruled that students do not shed their free speech rights “at the schoolhouse gate” and that the school’s prohibition therefore violated the student’s First Amendment right to free speech.

Tinker v Des Moines

Bolstered First Amendment free press protections, establishing a “heavy presumption against prior restraint” even in cases involving national security. Known as the “Pentagon Papers” case.

New York Times v United States

Ruled that compelling Amish students to attend school past eighth grade violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.

Wisconsin v Yoder

Redistricting case. Ruled that majority-minority (racial minority) districts created under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 may be constitutionally challenged by voters if race is the only factor used in creating the district.

Shaw v Reno

Ruled that Congress exceeded its power under the Commerce Clause when it made possession of a firearm in a school zone a federal crime.

United States v Lopez

A selective incorporation case. Ruled that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms also applies to the states, and that states cannot restrict citizens from owning firearms.

McDonald v Chicago

Ruled that political spending by corporations, associations, and labor unions is a form of protected speech under the First Amendment, and limiting political spending is a “prior restraint on speech.”

Citizens United v Federal Election Commission