14 SCOTUS Cases Ap Gov

McCulloch v. Maryland

Key Principle: Supremacy Clause & Elastic Clause. Established supremacy of the U.S. Constitution and federal laws over state laws, and ruled that Congress has the right to establish a national bank.

United States v. Lopez

Key Principle: Commerce Clause. Ruled that Congress cannot use the Commerce Clause to make possession of a gun in a school zone a federal crime, limiting federal power.

Engel v. Vitale

Key Principle: Establishment Clause (1st Amendment). Struck down official state-sponsored prayer in public schools as a violation of the Establishment Clause.

Wisconsin v. Yoder

Key Principle: Free Exercise Clause (1st Amendment). Ruled that compelling Amish students to attend school past 8th grade violates the Free Exercise Clause.

Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District

Key Principle: Symbolic Speech (1st Amendment). Guaranteed students' right to wear black armbands in protest of the Vietnam War, establishing that students do not shed constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate.

New York Times Co. v. United States

Key Principle: Freedom of the Press / Prior Restraint (1st Amendment). Bolstered freedom of the press by establishing a heavy presumption against prior restraint, allowing publication of the Pentagon Papers.

Schenck v. United States

Key Principle: Clear and Present Danger / Free Speech (1st Amendment). Declared that speech creating a clear and present danger is not protected by the First Amendment.

Gideon v. Wainwright

Key Principle: Right to Counsel / 6th Amendment & 14th Amendment. Guaranteed the right to an attorney for indigent defendants in state felony cases through selective incorporation.

McDonald v. Chicago

Key Principle: 2nd Amendment & Selective Incorporation (14th Amendment). Incorporated the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms to state and local governments.

Brown v. Board of Education

Key Principle: Equal Protection Clause (14th Amendment). Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and ruled that race-based school segregation violates the Equal Protection Clause.

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

Key Principle: Free Speech / Campaign Finance (1st Amendment). Ruled that political spending by corporations and unions is a form of protected free speech, leading to the rise of Super PACs.

Baker v. Carr

Key Principle: Equal Protection Clause ('One Person, One Vote'). Established that redistricting challenges are justiciable in federal court, paving the way for the one person, one vote doctrine.

Shaw v. Reno

Key Principle: Equal Protection Clause / Gerrymandering. Ruled that majority-minority redistricting plans must comply with equal protection and cannot be drawn based solely on race.

Marbury v. Madison

Key Principle: Judicial Review & Article III. Established the principle of judicial review, empowering the Supreme Court to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional.