AP Gov Required Docs + Cases

• Declaration of Independence

• July 4th, 1776

• main ideas:

  • people have rights

  • rights are from a creator, not the government

  • the government only exists if people have rights

  • we should change or abolish the government if it doesn’t protect/recognize our rights

• ties into limited government

Articles of Confederation

• main ideas:

  • first document outlining government

  • heavily restricted federal power, which made it difficult to coordinate trade between countries and other states

  • limited government

United States Constitution

Federalist 10

• “The Union as a Safeguard against Domestic Faction and Insurrection”

• written by James Madison in 1787

• main ideas:

  • said the main problem for the central government is the need to control factions

  • argues government cannot control the causes of factions because of the differences in opinion

• because people are driven by self-interest, government should control the effects of factions

Brutus 1

Federalist 51

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Federalist 70

Federalist 78

Bill of Rights

• Marbury v. Madison (1803)

core issue - judicial review

main constitutional principle - article III

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819

• SCOTUS ruled that the State of Maryland didn’t have the right to tax the National Bank and the Federal Government under the Supremacy Clause.

• gave Congress the right to create the National Bank, which they were able to do because of the Necessary and Proper Clause

core issue - federalism

main constitutional principle - necessary and proper clause, supremacy clause

Schenk v. U.S. (1919)

core issue - free speech limits

main constitutional principle - first amendment

• socialist activists distributed anti draft leaflets during WWI, which the Court ruled posed “clear and present danger” and was not protected

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

core issue - school segregation

main constitutional principle - equal protection clause

Baker v. Carr (1961)

core issue - redistricting

main constitutional principle - equal protection clause

Engel v. Vitale (1962?

core issue - school prayer

main constitutional principle - establishment clause

• government-sponsored prayer in public schools, even if non-denominational, violates the first amendment

Gideon v. Wainright (1963)

core issue - right to counsel

main constitutional principle - sixth amendment via 14th (selective incorporation)

• Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)

• ruled that banning armbands at school in protest of the Vietnam War violates the students’ First Amendment right to free speech

core issue - student free speech

main constitutional principle - first amendment

New York Times v. U.S. (1971)

• first time the court successfully ordered prior restraint (historically, considered the most serious form of censorship) of the Pentagon Papers

• SCOTUS ruled the prior restraint was unconstitutional

core issue - prior restraint

main constitutional principle - first amendment (freedom of press)

Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)

core issue - religious freedom

main constitutional principle - free exercise clause

• ruled that religious freedom outweighed the state’s interest in education

Roe v. Wade (1973)

core issue - racial gerrymandering

main constitutional principle - equal protection clause

Shaw v. Reno (1993)

core issue - commerce clause limits

main constitutional principle - tenth amendment, commerce clause

U.S. v. Lopez (1995)

• declared the Gun Free School Zones Act an unconstitutional overreach, marking the first time in half a century that the SCOTUS held Congress had overstepped its power under the Commerce Clause

core issue - gun rights

main constitutional principle - second amendment via 14th (selective incorporation)

McDonald v. Chicago (2010)

• incorporated the ruling of D.C. v. Heller (2008)

• SCOTUS struck down a similar gun ban in Chicago, incorporating the Second Amendment right to own guns for self-defense to state and local governments

• opened the door for Super PACs

core issue - campaign finance

main constitutional principle - first amendment (free speech)

Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission (2010)

• SCOTUS struck down federal limits on what organizations (including non-profits, unions, and for-profit corporations) may say during elections

• political spending is a form of protected speech under the First Amendment

• corporations and unions cannot give money directly campaigns, but they can persuade the electorate through other means (like ads, especially where these ads were not broadcasted previously)