15 Must Know Court Cases

APGOV

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

This case establishes the Supreme Court's power of Judicial Review

McCulloch v. Maryland

Maryland was trying to tax the national bank and Supreme Court ruled that federal law was stronger than the state law asserting federal supremacy.

Schenck v. United States (1919)

Speech may be punished if it creates a clear-and-present-danger test of illegal acts

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Overrules Plessy v. Ferguson (no stare decisis). Racial segregation violates 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause ("separate is inherently unequal")

Engel v. Vitale (1962)

Prohibited state-sponsored recitation of prayer in public schools by virtue of 1st Amendment's establishment clause and the 14th Amendment's due process clause; Warren Court's judicial activism.

Baker v. Carr (1962)

Established the principle of "one person, one vote" and made such patterns of representation illegal. The Court asserted that the federal courts had the right to tell states to reapportion their districts for more equal representation.

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)

Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that a defendant in a felony trial must be provided a lawyer free of charge if the defendant cannot afford one.

Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969)

held that speech is not limited to verbal expression but it also applies to individual forms of expression which are protected by the 1st amend freedom speech clause.

New York Times Co. v. United States (1971)

The President argues that the publication of the Pentagon Papers is in violation of executive privilege. Result: The barring of the publication of these papers is in violation of the 1st A. Publication does not imperial the public.

Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)

The Court ruled that Wisconsin could not require Amish parents to send their children to public school beyond the eighth grade because it would violate long-held religious beliefs.

Shaw v. Reno (1993)

NO racial gerrymandering; race cannot be the sole or predominant factor in redrawing legislative boundaries; majority-minority districts.

United States v. Lopez (1995)

Commerce clause of Constitution does not give Congress the power to regulate g*ns near state-operated schools

McDonald v. Chicago (2010)

The Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for self-defense is applicable to the states

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

A 2010 landmark Supreme Court case that ruled that individuals, corporations, and unions could donate unlimited amounts of money to groups that make independent political expenditures.

Roe vs. Wade

1972 made abortion legal in the United States.