APUSH Supreme Court Cases

GAAAAH

MuCulloch v. Maryland

A case between whether Congress had the power to create a national bank and whether Maryland could tax it, which would interfere with congressional powers

• Supreme Court ruled Congress did have the power to establish a national bank under the Necessary and Proper Clause and the Supremacy Clause

• Expanded the power of Congress and established Federal law over State law

Plessy v Ferguson

Louisiana enacted the Separate Car Act, which required separate railway cars for blacks and whites. Home Plessy, who was 1/8th black, challenged the act. Plessy’s lawyers argued that the Separate Car Act violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments.

• Found to violate the 14th Amendment - Due process clause

• SCOTUS found that the law was constitutional. 14th Amendment intended to establish absolute equality for the races before the law. They found segregation did not in itself constitute unlawful discrimination

• Created Jim Crow Laws and “Separate but Equal”

Brown vs Board of Education

African American students had been denied admittance to certain public schools based on segregation for public schools. They argued that such segregation violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

• SCOTUS overturns the decision made in Plessy vs Ferguson. Declared separate but equal educational facilities for racial minorities are inherently unequal and violate the Equal Protection Clause. It created a sense of inferiority that was detrimental.

• Require integration at an “all deliberate speed,” which could mean very quickly, or very slowly

Tinker vs Des Moines

Students wore black armbands to show that they did not support the Vietnam War.

• SCOTUS ruled it did not violate the 1st Amendment. The students were not disrupting the normal operations of the school.

• Gave students more rights

• Freedom of Speech

NY Times vs US

New York Times and The Washington Post tried to publish the Pentagon Papers. However, the government tries to censor this based on prior restraint

• SCOTUS ruled in favor of NY and said NY Times’ First Amendment rights were being violated.

• Freedom of Press

Miranda vs Arizona

______ was arrested and brought to the police station where he was questioned by police officers in connection with a kidnapping and rape. The police officers admitted that they had not advised _______ of his right to have an attorney present during the interrogation. __________wrote a confession, which was used as evidence, and then found guilty.

• SCOTUS found this violated the 5th Amendment. The defendant has to be warned that they have the right to remain silent and that they have the right to an attorney. Known as _________Rights

Gideon v. Wainwright

Clarence Earl Gideon was charged with committing a robbery and entering and breaking. However, he could not afford a lawyer and requested that the court provide him with one. The court did not appoint him one as under Florida law, a lawyer is only provided in capital cases.

• The Supreme Court ruled in Gideon’s favor. States had to provide free legal assistance in serious trials. Under the 6th Amendment and 14th Amendment, states are required to provide assistance counsel.

• Sixth Amendment - Right to Counsel Clause

• 14th Amendment - Due Process Clause

• The effects of this case was that it gave proper defense to any American citizen. It had declared that legal assistance was fundamental and essential to a fair trial.

Roe v Wade

_______ was denied an abortion under a Texas law, which made abortion illegal.

• Freedom of Assembly, Secure in their persons, Elastic clause for individual rights, Due process clause

• SCOTUS ruled that the privacy of a woman fell under the 14th Amendment through the Due Process Clause. It also protects a woman’s choice to have an abortion or not. The decision to have an abortion is act of privacy between the woman and her doctor.

Marbury v Madison

Before Adams’ term ended, Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1801 (creating new courts, adding new judges). His appointments to these courts, however, were not valid until Jefferson’s Secretary of State delivered the appointed judges their commissions. Marbury was one of the judges appointed; however, his commission was not delivered. 

• Does the Court have the authority to order the delivery of commission, and if a federal judge could even bring the case to court?

• The Court ruled that although legally the commission should have been delivered, the clause of the Judiciary Act of 1789 which enabled Marbury to bring the case to court was unconstitutional.

• Establishes judicial review

Fletcher v. Peck (1810)

First case where the Supreme Court declared a state law unconstitutional; Georgia's rescinding of land grants violated the Constitution's Contract Clause.

Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)

Ruled that a charter is a contract protected by the Constitution; New Hampshire couldn't alter Dartmouth's charter without consent.

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

Reinforced federal power over interstate commerce; only Congress could regulate it, not states like New York.

Worcester v. Georgia (1832)

Declared that states could not impose laws on Native American lands; only federal government had authority.

Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1832)

Ruled tribes were 'domestic dependent nations'; lacked standing to sue, but had rights to their lands.

Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge (1837)

Charters should be interpreted narrowly; public interest takes precedence over corporate monopoly claims.

Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)

Dred Scott, a slave, was taken by his master from Missouri, a slave state, to Illinois, a free state, and then back to Missouri. Scott claimed his stay in Illinois made him a free man.

- Court ruling stated that blacks were property, that they did not become free when taken into a free state,
- Declared the Missouri Compromise, which had prohibited slavery in part of the Louisiana Territory, was unconstitutional.
- Slavery became legal in all U.S. territories.

Munn v. Illinois (1877)

Upheld state regulation of grain storage rates; allowed for intrastate commerce regulation.

Civil Rights Cases (1883)

Struck down Civil Rights Act of 1875; ruled private discrimination could not be prohibited by federal law.

Wabash RR v. Illinois (1886)

Limited states' ability to regulate interstate commerce; led to creation of Interstate Commerce Commission.

In Re Debs (1895)

Upheld federal authority to intervene in strikes that affect mail delivery and interstate commerce.

U.S. v. E.C. Knight Co. (1895)

Acting under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890), the U.S. prosecuted the American Sugar Refining Company as a monopoly.
The Supreme Court held that sugar refining, of itself, was manufacturing, not interstate commerce, and therefore not subject to interstate regulation.

• Limited Sherman Antitrust Act; ruled manufacturing wasn't interstate commerce and couldn't be regulated federally.The case limited the scope of the Sherman Antitrust Act by distinguishing between manufacturing and interstate commerce.

Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan and Trust Co. (1895)

Declared income tax unconstitutional; later overruled by 16th Amendment in 1913.

In 1894 the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act was passed. One of its provisions levied a 2% tax on incomes over $4000 per year.

• INITIALLY declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan and Trust Co.

  • Violated the constitutional provision that direct taxes be based solely on the size of the population.

In 1913 the 16th Amendment, the income tax amendment, was ratified. It gave Congress the right to tax income without regard to the size of the population.

Holden v. Hardy (1896)

Upheld law limiting miners’ working hours due to the dangerous nature of their job.

Cummins v. County Board of Education (1899)

Applied 'separate but equal' doctrine to public schools; reinforced racial segregation in education.

Northern Securities Case (1904)

Ordered breakup of railroad monopoly; reinforced Sherman Antitrust Act.

Lochner v. New York (1905)

Struck down law limiting bakers’ hours; emphasized freedom of contract under 14th Amendment.

Muller v. Oregon (1908)

Upheld law limiting women’s work hours

Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918)

Declared federal child labor law unconstitutional; overruled later by Fair Labor Standards Act.

Abrahms v. U.S. (1919)

Upheld Sedition Act; Holmes dissented

Schenck v. U.S. (1919)

Under the Espionage Act of 1917 persons who interfered with the war effort by making speeches or writing articles encouraging violating of draft laws were subject to imprisonment.

• Court sustained the constitutionality of the Espionage Act arguing freedom of speech and press may be limited when there is a “clear and present danger” to the nation.

Adkins v. Children’s Hospital (1923)

Struck down minimum wage for women; said it violated due process under 5th Amendment.

Schecter v. U.S. (1935)

Struck down NIRA; ruled it unconstitutionally delegated legislative powers to executive.

Also known as the Schecter Poultry case and the “Sick Chicken Case.” The Schecter Poultry Company violated the code for the industry established under the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933.

• The U.S. Supreme Court declared the NIRA unconstitutional

  • Gave excessive legislative powers, such as the writing of industrial codes of fair competition, to the executive branch

Codes also regulated intrastate as well as interstate industries.

Korematsu v. U.S. (1944)

Upheld internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII; later widely discredited.

Dennis et al. V. U.S. (1951)

The Smith Act passed in 1940 made it a crime to teach or advocate the overthrow of the U.S. government by force or violence. It also required the fingerprinting and registration of all aliens.

In 1947 eleven American Communist Party members were successfully prosecuted and jailed under this act.

• Upheld Smith Act convictions of Communist leaders; limited free speech in face of national threat.

Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952)

Limited presidential power; Truman couldn't seize steel mills without congressional approval.

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)

Guaranteed right to counsel in all criminal trials

United States v. Nixon (1974)

Nixon was required to hand over tapes and documents relating to conversations and meetings between the President and others.

• The President refused to comply, claiming “executive privilege.”
  

The Supreme Court ruled that unless important military or diplomatic secrets affecting national security were involved, this DOES NOT apply.

• The need to insure a fair trial outweighs the doctrine of executive privilege.

• Limited executive privilege; required Nixon to turn over Watergate tapes.

Bakke v. University of California (1978)

Banned racial quotas in college admissions; upheld affirmative action as a factor in admissions.