Constitutional Amendments

Reynolds v. United States

Banned polygamy; Distinguished between religious beliefs that are protected by the Free exercise Clause and religious practices that may be restricted; Ruled that religious practices cannot make an act legal that would otherwise be illegal; 1879

McCulloch v. Maryland

Confirmed the right of Congress to utilize implied powers to carry out expressed powers; Validated the supremacy of the national government over the states by declaring that states cannot interfere with or tax the legitimate activities of the federal government; 1819

Gitlow v. New York

Established precedent for the doctrine of selective incorporation, thus extending most of the requirements of the Bill of Rights to the states; 1925

Marbury v. Madison

Established the principle of judicial review; Strengthened the power of the judicial branch by giving the Supreme court the authority to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional; 1803

Bakke v. Regents of the University of California

Ordered the Medical School at the University of California at Davis to admit a student; Ruled that the medical school's quota system denied a student the equal protection guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment; Ruled that race could be used as one factor among others in the competition for available places; 1978

Tinker v. Des Moines

Protected some forms of symbolic speech; Ruled that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."; 1969

Griswold v. Connecticutt

Ruled that a Connecticut law criminalizing the use of contraceptives violated the right to marital privacy; Established an important precedent for Roe v. Wade; 1965

Dred Scott

Ruled that African Americans were not citizens and therefore could not petition the Supreme Court; Overturned by the Fourteenth Amendment; 1857

Texas v. Johnson

Ruled that flag burning is a form of symbolic speech protected by the First Amendment; 1989

Schenk v. United States

Ruled that free speech could be limited when it presents a "clear and present danger…."; Established the "clear and danger" test to define conditions under which public authorities can limit free speech; 1919

Roth v. United States

Ruled that obscenity is not constitutionally protected free speech; Created the "prevailing community standards" rule requiring a consideration of the work as a whole; 1951

Brown v. Board of Education

Ruled that racially segregated schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Reversed the principle of "separate but equal" established in Plessy v. Ferguson; 1954

Barron v. Baltimore

Ruled that the Bill of Rights cannot be applied to the states; 1833

Roe v. Wade

Ruled that the decision to obtain an abortion is protected by the right to privacy implied by the Bill of Rights; 1973

Baker v. Carr

Ruled that the judicial branch of government can rule on matters of legislative apportionment; Use the principle of "one person, one vote."; Ordered state legislative districts to be as equal as possible; 1962

Miranda v. Arizona

Ruled that the police must inform criminal suspects of their constitutional rights before questioning suspects after arrest; Required police to read the rules to criminal suspects; 1966

Gideon v. Wainwright

Ruled that the Sixth Amendment right-to-counsel provision applies to those accused of major crimes under state laws; Illustrated the process of incorporation by which the Sixth Amendment was applied to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; 1963

Nixon v. US

Ruled that there is no constitutional guarantee of unqualified executive privilege; 1974

Gibbons v. Ogden

Strengthened the power of the federal government to regulate interstate commerce; Established the commerce clause's role as a key vehicle for the expansion of federal power; 1824

Engel v. Vitale

Struck down state-sponsored prayer in public schools; Ruled that the Regents' prayer was an unconstitutional violation of the establishment clause; 1962

Buckley v. Valeo

Upheld federal limits on campaign contributions; Struck down the portion of the Federal Election Campaign Act limiting the amount of money individuals can contribute to their own campaign; Ruled that spending money on one's own campaign is a form of constitutionally protected free speech; Complicated congressional efforts to enact significant campaign finance reform; 1976

Korematsu v. United States

Upheld the constitutionality of the relocation of Japanese Americans as a wartime necessity; Viewed by contemporary scholars as a flagrant violation of civil liberties; 1944

Wisconsin v. Yoder

Ruled that Amish interests in the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment outweighed the State's interests in compelling school attendance beyond the eighth grade; 1972

NY Times v. United States

Ruled the government would have to overcome the "heavy presumption against" prior restraint of the press in cases dealing with national security; 1971

Lawrence v. Texas

Held that state statutes making it a crime for two persons of the same sex to engage in certain intimate sexual conduct violates the Due Process Clause; 2003

Citizen's United v. FEC

Held that under the First Amendment corporate funding of independent political broadcasts in candidate elections cannot be limited and political speech is indispensable to a democracy, which is no less true because the speech comes from a corporation; 2010

US v. Lopez

Ruled that the possession of a gun in a local school zone is not an economic activity that might have a substantial effect on interstate commerce; this was the first time that the Court had restricted interstate commerce since the 1910's; 1995

Obergefell v. Hodges

Ruled that state bans on gay marriage were unconstitutional under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment; 2015.

Shaw v. Reno

Ruled that race could not be used as the sole determining factor when redistricting occurs, 1993

McDonald v. Chicago

Ruled that the city's effective ban on firearms was unconstitutional due to the incorporation of the fourteenth amendment, 2010