AP Gov 37 Court Cases

Engel v. Vitale(1962) - SCOTUS

Amendment: 1st, establishment

Holding: unconstitutional for state officials to compose an official school prayer.

Background: New York state's Board of Regents wrote and authorized a voluntary nondenominational prayer that could be recited by students at the beginning of each school day.

Lemon v. Kurtzman(1971) - SCOTUS

Amendment: 1st Establishment.

Holding: found that the passing of any state laws that establish a religious body is a direct violation of the United States Constitution.

Background: Pennsylvania and Rhode Island's statutes provided funding for teacher's salaries and materials that taught secular subjects in on puplic schools.

Wisconsin v. Yoder(1972) - SCOTUS

Amendment: 1st, free exercise

Holding: unconstitutional because the statute is in direct conflict with Amish beliefs. The Amish may teach themselves.

Background: Amish people refused to send their children to school past the 8th grade when the state required public schooling for all children until age 16.

Schenck v. US(1919) - SCOTUS

Amendment: 1st, freedom of speech

Holding: Government could only regulate when the words pose a clear and present danger to society.

Background: conviction of a socialist who had urged young men to resist the draft during WW1 because of the Espionage Act.

Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District(1969) - SCOTUS

Amendment: 1st, freedom of speech

Holding: unconstitutional, because students don't lose their 1st amendment rights unless there is "substantial interference".

Background: Students at a school were wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam war and those students were sent home because of it and the parents sued.

New York Times Company v. U.S. (1971) - SCOTUS

Amendment: 1st, freedom of press

Holding: unconstitutional, because since publication would not cause an inevitable, direct, and immediate event imperiling the safety of American forces, prior restraint was unjustified

Background: the Nixon Administration attempted to prevent the New York Times and Washington Post from publishing materials belonging to a classified Defense Department study regarding the history of United States activities in Vietnam.

Morse v Frederick(2007) - SCOTUS

Amendment: 1st, freedom of speech

Holding: constitutional, because school officials can prohibit students from displaying messages that promote illegal drug use.

Background: Joseph Frederick held up a banner with the message "Bong Hits 4 Jesus," a slang reference to marijuana smoking. Principal Deborah Morse took away the banner and suspended Frederick for ten days.

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) - SCOTUS

Amendment: 6th, right to a fair trial.

Holding: unconstitutional, because The Sixth Amendment guarantees the accused the right to the assistance of counsel in all criminal prosecutions.

Background: Clarence Earl Gideon was charged in Florida state court. When he appeared in court without a lawyer, Gideon requested that the court appoint one for him, but they didn't. He was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison.

Mapp v. Ohio (1961) - SCOTUS

Amendment: 4th, protection from searches.

Holding: unconstitutional because evidence obtained by searches and seizures in violation of the Fourth Amendment is inadmissible in a state court.

Background: Dollree Mapp was convicted of possessing obscene materials after an admittedly illegal police search of her home for a fugitive. She appealed her conviction on the basis of freedom of expression.

Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) - SCOTUS

Holding: unconstituitional because the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 9th amendments imply a Right to privacy.

Background: Connecticut passed a law that banned contraceptives. Medicine, C. Lee Buxton, opened a birth control clinic in New Haven and was arrested and convicted of violating the law.

Roe v. Wade (1973) - SCOTUS

Holding: unconstitutional A state law that broadly prohibits abortion without respect to the stage of pregnancy or other interests violates the right to privacy.

Background: Jane Roe filed a lawsuit challenging a Texas law making abortion illegal. In her lawsuit, Roe alleged that the state laws were unconstitutionally vague and abridged her right to personal privacy.

Gitlow v. New York (1925) - SCOTUS

Amendment: 1st, freedom of speech

Holding: Although the law was constitutional, Gitlow did not present a "clear and present danger", thus should not be punished.

Background: Gitlow was arrested for promoting socialism under New York's Criminal Anarchy Law. At his trial, Gitlow argued that there was no resulting action flowing from the manifesto's publication.

McDonald v. Chicago (2010) - SCOTUS

Amendment: 2nd, right to bear arms

Holding: the Fourteenth Amendment makes the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense applicable to the states

Background: Suits were filed against Chicago and Oak Park in Illinois's gun bans. Guns bans were already unconstitutional on the federal level after District of Columbia v. Heller, but the plaintiffs wanted the same on the state level.

New Jersey v TLO(1984) - SCOTUS

Amendment: 4th, searches and seizures

Holding: constitutional because the Court held that the search of T.L.O.'s purse was reasonable under the circumstances.

Background: School officials searched a student's purse for cigarettes and discovered a small amount of marijuana then she was charged and found guilty.

Miranda v Arizona(1966) - SCOTUS

Amendment: 5th, right to an attorney

Holding: unconstitutional, because A defendant was required to be told that he had the right to an attorney.

Background: Ernesto Miranda was interrogated because of a connection with a kidnapping and rape. The police obtained a confession that was used as evidence, but the police officers did not advise Miranda of his right to have an attorney.

West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette

1st Amendment, freedom of speech

1943, forcing students to salute the flag is a violation of 1st amendment free speech, and is therefore unconstitutional.

Brandenburg v. Ohio

1st Amendment, freedom of speech

Gov't can't punish or prohibit inflammatory speech unless it is likely to incite imminent lawless action.

Texas v. Johnson

1st Amendment, freedom of speech

flag burning is protected by the First Amendment

Citizens United v. FEC

1st Amendment, freedom of speech

corporate funding of independent political broadcasts can't be limited

DC v. Heller

2nd Amendment

Court ruled that a DC law banning hand guns was unconstitutional

Plessy v. Ferguson

14th Amendment, Equal protection

"separate but equal" doctrine supreme court upheld the constitutionally of jim crow laws

Brown v. Board of Education 1

14th Amendment, equal protection

1954 - The Supreme Court overruled Plessy v. Ferguson, declared that racially segregated facilities are inherently unequal and ordered all public schools desegregated.

Brown v. Board of Education 2

14th Amendment, equal protection

(1955) Enforced Brown v. Board of Education 1 and stated that that all schools should quickly apply the ruling.

Heart of Atlanta Motel v. US

14th Amendment, equal protection

1964, Businesses can't discriminate against blacks or women when providing goods and services.

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke

14th Amendment, equal protection

A 1978 Supreme Court decision holding that a state university could not admit less qualified individuals solely because of their race.

Lawrence v. Texas

14th Amendment, equal protection

state law may not ban sexual relations between same-sex partners

Obergefell v. Hodges

14th Amendment, equal protection

States obligated to recognize same-sex marriage from other states.

Planned Parenthood v. Casey

Right to Privacy

Reaffirmed Roe v. Wade but upheld certain limits on its use

Baker v. Carr

Redistricting

one man one vote. this decision created guidelines for drawing up congresional districts and guaranteed a more equitable system of representation to the citizens of each state

Shaw v. Reno

Redistricting

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

Korematsu v. US

California was right to intern Japanese-Americans in camps during crisis of World War II, because it was a war time crisis.

U.S v. Nixon

Holds that executive privilege does not extend to criminal cases

Buckley v. Valeo

Candidates can use as much of their own money on their own campaigns.

McCulloch v. Maryland

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

US v. Lopez

Gun Free School Zones Act exceeded Congress' authority to regulate interstate commerce.

Marbury v. Madison

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

Bush v. Gore

Use of 14th Amendment's equal protection clause to stop the Florida recount in the election of 2000.

Dred Scott v. Sanford

1857 Supreme Court decision that stated slaves were not citizens: slaves were property no matter where they were living and the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional