US Supreme Court Cases

Marbury v. Madison

Year: 1803

Decision: First time the right of the Supreme Court to determine the meaning of the Constitution was asserted.

Impact: Established power of judicial review.

McCulloch v. Maryland

Year: 1819

Decision: Ruled that the State of Maryland cannot tax the National Bank.

Impact: Established the supremacy of the national government over state governments through the Necessary and Proper Clause.

Barron v. Baltimore

Year: 1833

Decision: Upheld that the Bill of Rights restrained only national government, not states and cities.

Impact: States have more power, until more and more amendments were directly applied to the states in future decisions.

Scott v. Sandford

Year: 1857

Decision: Ruled that a slave who had escaped to a free state had no rights as a citizen and that Congress had no authority to ban slavery in territories.

Impact: Invalidated the Missouri Compromise and a big step on the road to the Civil War.

Plessy v. Ferguson

Year: 1896

Decision: Segregation is constitutional and established "separate but equal" concept.

Impact: Legalized segregation and discrimination.

Schenck v. US

Year: 1919

Decision: Upheld the conviction of a socialist who urged young men to resist the draft in WWI and decided that the First Amendment Rights had not been violated.

Impact: "Clear and present danger" restriction declared by Justice Holmes.

Gitlow v. New York

Year: 1925

Decision: Holds that freedoms of press and speech are "fundamental personal rights and liberties protected by the Fourteenth Amendment from impairment by the states" and federal government.

Impact: Somewhat reversed Barron v. Baltimore; reasoning came from Due Process Clause and established the "Incorporation Doctrine".

Near v. Minnesota

Year: 1931

Decision: Upheld that the First Amendment protects newspapers from prior restraint.

Impact: Freedom of Expression, and set a precedent for future censorship cases.

Schechter Poultry Corporation v. US

Year: 1935

Decision: Declared FDR's National Industry Recovery Act unconstitutional because it regulated local business that didn't affect interstate commerce.

Impact: It was one of many FDR's policies that was declared unconstitutional.

Korematsu v. US

Year: 1944

Decision: Upheld that the internment of over 100,000 Japanese Americans during WWII as constitutional.

Impact: Highly controversial Supreme Court decision.

Brown v. Board of Education

Year: 1954

Decision: School segregation is unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Impact: End of legal segregation in the US, however, de facto segregation was continued.

Hernandez v. Texas

Year: 1954

Decision: Extended protection against discrimination to Hispanics.

Impact: Gave more equal rights to Hispanics.

Roth v. US

Year: 1957

Decision: Ruled that "obscenity is not within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press".

Impact: First Amendment precedent and questions on the definition of obscenity.

NAACP v. Alabama

Year: 1958

Decision: Decided that the NAACP did not have to reveal its membership list and, thus, subject its members to harassment.

Impact: Protected the Right to Assemble.

Mapp v. Ohio

Year: 1961

Decision: Ruled that the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures must be extended to the states as well as the federal government.

Impact: Enforced and upheld the Exclusionary Rule.

Engel v. Vitale

Year: 1962

Decision: State officials violated the First Amendment when they wrote a prayer to be recited by New York school children.

Impact: Establishment Clause precedent and strengthened the separation of Church and State.

School District of Abbington Township, Pennsylvania v. Schempp

Year: 1963

Decision: Decided that a Pennsylvania law requiring Bible reading in schools violated the First Amendment.

Impact: Establishment Clause precedent.

Gideon v. Wainwright

Year: 1963

Decision: Held that anyone accused of a felony where imprisonment may be imposed, however poor he/she may be, has a right to a lawyer.

Impact: Sixth Amendment, the Government pays for lawyer if you can't afford one.

New York Times v. Sullivan

Year: 1964

Decision: Established guidelines for determining whether public officials and public figures could win damage suits for libel. Have to prove defamatory statements were made with disregard for the truth.

Impact: People have the "freedom to hate".

Griswold v. Connecticut

Year: 1965

Decision: Birth control, rules that married couples must get counseling in order to obtain contraception.

Impact: Ninth Amendment, a right to privacy.

Miranda v. Arizona

Year: 1966

Decision: Held there was a wrongful conviction because suspect was not informed of their right to an attorney.

Impact: Requires police to inform accused persons of rights against self-incrimination and their right to counsel.

In re Gault

Year: 1967

Decision: Juveniles have rights

Impact: The Due Process Clause applies to juveniles.

Loving v. Virginia

Year: 1967

Decision: Invalidated laws prohibiting interracial marriage.

Impact: Interracial marriage is legal.

McClesky v. Kemp

Year: 1967

Decision: Decision that the death penalty didn't violate the Fourteenth Amendment Equal protection clause.

Impact: Was not enough proof that courts are discriminatory against blacks.

Tinker v. Des Moines

Year: 1969

Decision: Tinker has the First Amendment right to wear the black armband to school as a form of symbolic speech.

Impact: Set a standard that students do not shed their constitutional rights when they enter school.

Red Lion Broadcasting Company v. FCC

Year: 1969

Decision: Upheld restrictions on radio and TV broadcasting.

Impact: Reasoned that restrictions were stricter than for print media because there were only a limited number of broadcasting frequencies available.

Lemon v. Kurtzman

Year: 1971

Decision: Established that church-related schools must 1) have a secular legislative purpose, 2) have a primary effect that neither advances nor inhibits religion, 3) not foster an excessive government entanglement with religion.

Impact: Used Establishment Clause for reasoning as well as creating the "Lemon Test" and "Wall of separation".

Reed v. Reed

Year: 1971

Decision: Court ruled that any "arbitrary" gender-based classification violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Impact: First time the Court declared any law on the basis of gender discrimination.

Furman v. Georgia

Year: 1972

Decision: Invalidated the death penalty for rape and other restrictions on the death penalty.

Impact: Eighth Amendment and reversed Gregg v. Georgia

Miller v. California

Year: 1973

Decision: Materials are obscene if 1) the work, taken as a whole, appealed to a "prurient interest in sex," 2) work showed "patently offensive" sexual conduct that was specifically defined by an obscenity law, and 3) the work, as a whole, lacked serious artistic, political, literary, or scientific value.

Impact: I know it when I see it" -definition of obscenity and attempts to further explain obscenity. This became known as the "Miller Test".

Roe v. Wade

Year: 1973

Decision: Held that a state ban on all abortions was unconstitutional. Limits on restrictions states could have on abortions.

Impact: States: 1st trimester- no control, 2nd trimester- can limit to protect mother's health, 3rd trimester- can limit to protect the fetus

Miami Herald Publishing Company v. Tornilllo

Year: 1974

Decision: Held that a state could not force a newspaper to print replies from candidates it criticized.

Impact: Demonstrates limits government has on restricting media, First Amendment

US v. Nixon

Year: 1974

Decision: Held that executive privileges could not be extended to protect documents relevant to criminal prosecutions. Unanimous decision.

Impact: Hastened Nixon's resignation.

Craig v. Boren

Year: 1976

Decision: Established the "medium scrutiny" standard for determining gender discrimination.

Impact: Easier to prove than racial discrimination, but harder to prove than other discrimination.

Gregg v. Georgia

Year: 1976

Decision: Upheld constitutionality of the death penalty, stating, "It is an extreme sanction, suitable to the most extreme of crimes."

Impact: Eighth Amendment, state power and death penalty, reversed by Furman v. Georgia.

Collins v. Smith

Year: 1978

Decision: Upheld that city of Skokie, Illinois could not stop Nazi-group from marching through city.

Impact: First Amendment -have a "right to hate".

Zurcher v. Stanford Daily

Year: 1978

Decision: Held that a proper search warrant could be applied to a newspaper, as well as to anyone else, without necessarily violating the First Amendment.

Impact: Limited the Freedom of Expression.

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke

Year: 1978

Decision: A state university could not admit less qualified individuals solely on the basis of race.

Impact: Furthered confusion on what's legal and illegal with Affirmative Action.

Plyler v. Doe

Year: 1982

Decision: Illegal aliens and their children are afforded Fourteenth Amendment protections.

Impact: States cannot deny public education to undocumented workers' children.

US v. Leon

Year: 1984

Decision: Decision that if law enforcement officials acted in "good faith," evidence obtained without specifically requesting for it in a warrant is not protected by the Fourth Amendment.

Impact: Established the Good Faith doctrine to be considered along with the Exclusionary Rule, Fourth Amendment.

US v. Hernandez

Year: 1985

Decision: Court held that there was reasonable suspicion to search Hernandez, reversed lower court decision that her Fourth Amendment Rights were violated.

Impact: Fourth Amendment and Reasonable Suspicion.

New Jersey v. TLO

Year: 1985

Decision: School staff continued a search into a bag even after finding what they were looking for (cigarettes due to smoking). This was deemed reasonable.

Impact: Set standard for searches in school and what defines "reasonable suspicion", Fourth Amendment

Bowers v. Hardwick

Year: 1986

Decision: States have power to ban sodomy.

Impact: Overturned by Lawrence v. Texas, Right to Privacy.

Bethel v. Fraser

Year: 1986

Decision: Fraser was suspended after making sexual innuendos in a nomination speech in school. This was found to be constitutional.

Impact: The First Amendment did not prohibit schools from banning vulgar and lewd speech.

Thompson v. Oklahoma

Year: 1988

Decision: It was deemed unconstitutional for states to sentence sixteen year olds to death.

Impact: Eight Amendment ruling.

Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier

Year: 1988

Decision: Debated the rights of school principals to delete pages from a school newspaper with the possibility of offending some students. Schools were allowed to censor material if need be.

Impact: School press rights were limited.

Texas v. Johnson

Year: 1989

Decision: Struck down a law banning the burning of the US flag on the grounds that such an action was symbolic speech (which is protected by the First Amendment).

Impact: Expansion on definition of "freedom of speech" and coined "Symbolic Speech".

Planned Parenthood v. Casey

Year: 1992

Decision: The Court loosened 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 allows considerably more regulation

Impact: Having to notify the father of the child before abortion is an "undue burden" on the mother. This was a more conservative decision than Roe v. Wade.

US v. Lopez

Year: 1995

Decision: The possession of a gun in a local school zone is not an economic activity that might have a substantial effect on interstate commerce.

Impact: Second Amendment Ruling.

Adarand Constructors v. Pena

Year: 1995

Decision: Federal programs that classify people by race, even for an ostensibly benign purpose such as expanding minority opportunities, should be presumed unconstitutional.

Impact: Limits the impacts of affirmative action.

Faragher v. City of Boca Raton

Year: 1998

Decision: Determined circumstances where employers can be held liable for preventing and eliminating workplace sexual harassment.

Impact: The employer is liable for actionable discrimination caused by a supervisor.

Bush v. Gore

Year: 2000

Decision: Florida's Supreme Court's scheme for recounting ballots was unconstitutional due to different standards applied from ballot to ballot, precinct to precinct, and county to county.

Impact: Declared George Bush the rightful president even with ballot discrepancies in Florida.

Zelman v. Simmons-Harris

Year: 2002

Decision: Upheld that a state providing families with vouchers that could be used to pay for tuition can be used at religious schools.

Impact: Reasoning with the Establishment Clause.

Lawrence v. Texas

Year: 2003

Decision: Texas laws prohibiting sodomy are unconstitutional.

Impact: Strengthened the Due Process Clause and the Right to Privacy.

Roper v. Simmons

Year: 2005

Decision: The Supreme Court said that it was unconstitutional for states to sentence minors to the death.

Impact: Reversed Thompson v. Oklahoma, Eighth Amendment.

Hamdan v. Rumsfield

Year: 2006

Decision: Held that procedures President Bush approved for trying prisoners at Guantanamo Bay lacked Congressional authorization and violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice and Geneva Conventions.

Impact: Sixth Amendment -since detainees not allowed to appeal on reason for detainment.
Eighth Amendment- cruel and unusual punishments used?

Morse v. Frederick

Year: 2007

Decision: School officials can prohibit students from displaying messages that promote illegal drug use, "Bong hits 4 Jesus".

Impact: Limited the Freedom of Speech.

DC v. Heller

Year: 2008

Decision: Individuals have the right to bear arms even if unconnected to military service.

Impact: Gave a new interpretation to the 2nd Amendment.

US v. Windsor

Year: 2013

Decision: The Defense of Marriage Act deprived same-sex couples who were legally married under state laws of their Fifth Amendment rights to equal protection under federal law.

Impact: Struck down a major part of Defense of Marriage Act and reinforced the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses.