Major Court Cases American Government CLEP

Marbury v. Madison
(1803)

Established Judicial Review; "midnight judges"; John Marshall; power of the Supreme Court.

McCulloch v. Maryland
(1819)

Established national supremacy; established implied powers; use of elastic clause; state unable to tax fed. Institution; John Marshall; "the power to tax the power to destroy."

Gibbons v. Ogden
(1824)

Established a broad interpretation of the Commerce Clause; determined Congress' power encompassed virtually every form of commercial activity.

Plessy v. Ferguson
(1896)

Established "separate but equal." Gave Supreme Court approval of Jim Crow laws.

Weeks v. U.S.
(1914)

Established the "Exclusionary Rule" at the federal level; illegally obtained evidence cannot be used in court.

Schenck v. U.S.
(1919)

Clear and present danger test; shouting "fire" in a crowded theater; limits on speech, especially in wartime.

Gitlow v. New York
(1925)

Established precedent of federalizing Bill of Rights (applying them to the states); states cannot deny freedom of speech, protected through due process clause of Amendment 14.

Near v. Minnesota
(1931)

Held that the 1st Amendment protects newspaper from prior restraint.

Palko v. Connecticut
(1937)

Provided test for determining which parts of the Bill of Rights should be federalized, those which are implicitly or explicitly necessary for liberty to exist.

Korematsu v. U.S.
(1944)

Upheld as constitutional the internment of Americans with Japanese descent during WWII.

Brown v. Board, 1st
(1954)

School segregation unconstitutional; segregation psychologically damaging to blacks; overturned "separate but equal"; use of 14th Amendment.

Brown v. Board, 2nd
(1955)

Ordered schools to desegregate "with all due and deliberate speed."

Roth v. United States
(1957)

Established that "obscenity is not within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press."

Mapp v. Ohio
(1961)

Established the "Exclusionary Rule" at the state level; illegally obtained evidence cannot be used in court.

Engel v. Vitale
(1962)

Prohibited state-sponsored recitation of prayer in public schools by virtue of the 1st Amendment's establishment clause and the 14th Amendments's due process clause.

Baker v. Carr
(1962)

"one man, one vote"; ordered state legislative districts to be as near equal as possible in population; reapportionment.

Abbington v. Schempp
(1963)

Prohibited devotional Bible reading in public schools by virtue of the 1st Amendment's Establishment Clause and the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause.

Gideon v. Wainwright
(1963)

Ordered states to provide lawyers for those unable to afford them in criminal proceedings; nationalized the 6th Amendment via the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Wesberry v. Sanders
(1963)

Ordered House of Representative legislative districts to be as near in population as possible.

NY Times v. Sullivan
(1964)

Requires proof of "malicious intent to harm" in order to prove libel against news organizations.

Griswald v. Connecticut
(1965)

Established right of privacy through 4th and 9th Amendments; Connecticut law banning contraceptives; set a precedent for Roe v. Wade.

Miranda v. Arizona
(1966)

Established Miranda warnings of counsel and silence; must be given before questioning suspect.

Lemon v. Kurtzman
(1971)

Established three part test to determine if Establishment Clause is violated: non-secular purpose, advances/inhibits religion, or excessive entanglement with government.

Miller v. California
(1973)

Established that community standards be used in determining whether material is obscene in terms of appealing to "prurient interest," being "patently offensive," and lacking in value.

Roe v. Wade
(1973)

Established national abortion guidelines; trimester guidelines: no state interference in 1st trimester, state may regulate to protect health of mother in 2nd trimester, state may regulate to protect health of unborn child in 3rd trimester; inferred from right to privacy established in Griswald v. Connecticut.

U.S. v. Nixon
(1974)

Allowed for executive privilege, but not in criminal cases; "Even the President is not above the law"; Watergate.

Buckley v. Valeo
(1976)

1st Amendment protects campaign spending; legislature can limit contributions, but not how much a person spends of his/her own money on their own campaign.

Greg v. Georgia
(1976)

Upholds the constitutionality of capital punishment; death penalty does not constitute cruel & unusual punishment; overturned Furman v. Georgia.

U.C. Regents v. Bakke
(1978)

Alan Bakke and UC Davis Med School; strict quotas (affirmative action) ruled unconstitutional in this instance, but states may allow race to be taken into account as ONE of several factors in admissions decisions.

Texas v. Johnson
(1989)

Struck down a law banning the burning of the American flag on grounds that such action was symbolic speech protected by the 1st Amendment.

Planned Parenthood v. Casey
(1992)

States can regulate abortion, but not with regulations that impose "undue burden" upon women; did not overturn Roe v. Wade, 1973, but gave states more leeway in regulating abortion (e.g., 24 hour waiting period, parental consent for minors).

Shaw v. Reno
(1993)

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

U.S. v. Lopez
(1995)

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

Clinton v. NY
(1998)

Banned presidential use of line item veto.

Bush v. Gore
(2000)

Use of 14th Amendment's equal protection clause to stop the Florida recount in the election of 2000; example of Supreme Court dealing with a "political question".

Zelman v. Simmons-Harris
(2002)

Public money can be used to send disadvantaged children to religious schools in tuition voucher programs.

Ashcroft v. ACLU
(2002)

Struck down a federal ban on "virtual" child pornography.

Lawrence v. Texas
(2003)

Using right of privacy, struck down Texas law banning sodomy.

Gratz v. Bollinger
(2003)

Struck down the University of Michigan's heavy use of "bonus points" for race in undergraduate admissions.

Grutter v. Bollinger
(2003)

Allowed the use of race as a general factor in law school admissions at University of Michigan.

Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)

upheld the constitutionality of a Georgia law criminalizing sodomy, specifically between two consenting adult men in the privacy of their own home.

California v. Bakke

Racial quotas in college admissions are unconstitutional, but race can be considered as one factor among others to promote diversity.

Betts v. Brady

dealt with the right to legal counsel under the 14th Amendment and Due Process Clause — and ultimately limited that right.

Jim Crow Laws

Were established to set not only laws separating Blacks, and Whites, but set a separation of social statues between Black males, and white. A few were such as a black man not being allowed to shake a white man's hand and drink from the same water fountain.