Supreme Court Cases

Korematsu vs. United States

In this landmark Supreme Court case the court decided that Executive Order 9066, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II was constitutionally acceptable.

Gregg vs. Georgia

This Supreme Court case reaffirmed the United States Supreme Court's acceptance of the use of the death penalty

Bush vs. Gore

The Supreme Court case that settled the dispute of the 2000 presidential election

Gonzales vs. Raich

In this case, the US Supreme Court ruled that under the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution, Congress may criminalize the production and use of homegrown cannabis even if states approve its use for medicinal purposes.

Miranda vs. Arizona

This Supreme Court case held that statements made during an interrogation will be admissible at trial only if the prosecution can show that the defendant was informed of the right to consult with an attorney before and during questioning and of the right against self-incrimination before police questioning, and that the defendant not only understood these rights, but voluntarily waived them.

Brown vs. Board of Education

This landmark case determined that state laws establishing separate public schools for black students unconstitutional

Engel vs. Vitale

This landmark United States Supreme Court case that ruled it is unconstitutional for state officials to compose an official school prayer and encourage its recitation in public schools.

California vs. Acevedo

In this case, the Court stated, "police may search an automobile and the containers within it where they have probable cause to believe contraband or evidence is contained."

Dred Scott vs. Sandford

This case held that "a negro, whose ancestors were imported into the U.S., and sold as slaves"whether enslaved or free, could not be an American citizen and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court

California vs. Greenwood

In this case the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Fourth Amendment does not prohibit the warrantless search and seizure of garbage left for collection outside the home.

Dennis vs. United States

In this case the Court ruled that nobody has the right under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution to exercise free speech, publication and assembly, if the exercise involved the creation of a plot to overthrow the government.

Roe vs. Wade

This Supreme Court held that the right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment extended to a woman's decision to have an abortion

New York Times vs. United States

In this landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the First Amendment, the court ruled that newspapers could publish the then-classified Pentagon Papers without risk of government censorship or punishment.

Schenck vs. United States

This Supreme Court case concluded that defendants who distributed leaflets to draft-age men, urging resistance to entering World War I, could be convicted of a criminal offense for obstructing the draft.

Tinker vs. Des Moines

This Supreme Court decision held that the First Amendment applied to public schools and that students wearing armbands protesting Vietnam did not cause disruption and held that their activity represented constitutionally protected symbolic speech.

Plessy vs. Ferguson

In this landmark constitutional law case, the US Supreme Court upheld that state racial segregation laws for public facilities were legal under the doctrine of "separate but equal".

Excobedo vs. Illinois

In this United States Supreme Court case, it was determined that criminal suspects have a right to counsel during police interrogations under the Sixth Amendment.

Hazelwood School District vs. Kuhlmeier

In this landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States it was determined that public school curricular student newspapers that have not been established as forums for student expression are subject to a lower level of First Amendment protection than independent student expression or newspapers established (by policy or practice) as forums for student expression.

Katz vs. United States

In this United States Supreme Court case it was determined that conversations had in a private phone booth were protected from search and seizure. Regardless of the location, a conversation is protected from unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment.

Sheppard vs. Maxwell

This United States Supreme Court case examined the rights of freedom of the press as outlined in the 1st Amendment when weighed against a defendant's right to a fair trial as required by the 6th Amendment and the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. In particular, the court sought to determine whether or not the defendant was denied fair trial for the second-degree murder of his wife, of which he was convicted, because of the trial judge's failure to protect the defendant sufficiently from the massive, pervasive, and prejudicial publicity that attended his prosecution. They ruled that he did not receive a fair trial and overturned the conviction.

Powell vs. Alabama

In this case, the United States Supreme Court reversed the convictions of nine young black men for allegedly raping two white women on a freight train near Scottsboro, Alabama. The majority of the Court reasoned that the right to retain and be represented by a lawyer was fundamental to a fair trial and that at least in some circumstances, the trial judge must inform a defendant of this right.

Masterpiece Bakeshop vs. Colorado Civil Rights Commission

In this Supreme Court case the court determined that owners of businesses that accomodate the public can refuse services based on first amendment rights of free speech and freedom of religion and are therefore granted exemption from non-discrimination legislation.

U.S. v. Alvarez

In this case the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Stolen Valor Act of 2005 was unconstitutional. The Stolen Valor Act of 2005 was a federal law that criminalized false statements about having a military medal. A 6-3 majority of the Supreme Court agreed that the law was unconstitutional and violated the free speech protections under the First Amendment.

D.C. v. Heller

In this landmark decision of the US Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects an individual's right to keep and bear arms, unconnected with service in a militia, and that the District of Columbia's handgun ban and requirement that lawfully owned rifles and shotguns be kept "unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock" violated this guarantee. It was the first Supreme Court case to decide whether the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense or if the right was intended for state militias.

Buck v. Bell

In this Supreme Court case, the Court ruled that a state statute permitting compulsory sterilization of the unfit, including the intellectually disabled, "for the protection and health of the state" did not violate the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Despite the changing attitudes in the coming decades regarding sterilization, the Supreme Court has never expressly overturned this case

Atkins v. Virginia

In this case, The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that executing people with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments, but states can define who has an intellectual disability.