CLEP 20 Court Cases

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

Judicial review — established the Supreme Court's power to declare government actions unconstitutional.

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

Implied powers and federal supremacy — Congress has implied powers under the Necessary and Proper Clause, and states cannot interfere with valid federal actions.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Equal Protection — racial segregation in public schools violates the Fourteenth Amendment.

Baker v. Carr (1962)

Reapportionment — federal courts can hear challenges to legislative districting.

Mapp v. Ohio (1961)

Exclusionary rule — illegally obtained evidence generally cannot be used in state criminal trials.

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)

Right to counsel — states must provide an attorney to indigent defendants in serious criminal cases.

Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

Rights of the accused — police must inform people in custody of their right to remain silent and their right to an attorney.

Engel v. Vitale (1962)

Establishment Clause — government-sponsored prayer in public schools violates the First Amendment.

Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)

Student speech — students have First Amendment speech rights at school unless their expression substantially disrupts school activities.

New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964)

Freedom of the press — public officials generally must prove actual malice in defamation cases involving their official conduct.

New York Times Co. v. United States (1971)

Freedom of the press — the government faces a very high burden when trying to stop newspapers from publishing information.

United States v. Nixon (1974)

Presidential power — executive privilege is not absolute; the president must comply with a judicial subpoena in a criminal case.

Citizens United v. FEC (2010)

Campaign finance — corporations and unions have First Amendment protection for certain independent political expenditures.

National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012)

Affordable Care Act — upheld the individual mandate as a tax and limited Congress's ability to force states to expand Medicaid.

Shelby County v. Holder (2013)

Voting Rights Act — struck down the formula used to determine which jurisdictions were subject to federal preclearance.

Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)

Same-sex marriage — the Fourteenth Amendment requires states to license and recognize same-sex marriages.

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022)

Abortion — held that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion and overturned Roe v. Wade.

Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard / UNC (2023)

College admissions — held that the race-conscious admissions programs challenged in the cases violated Equal Protection principles.

Bush v. Gore (2000)

Election recount — the Court held that differing recount standards violated Equal Protection and stopped the Florida recount.

United States v. Lopez (1995)

Commerce Clause — limited Congress's Commerce Clause power by holding that the federal school-zone gun law exceeded that power.