Gov cases and rulings

Marbury vs. Madison

(Art. 3) Whether or not Marbury had a right to receive his commission, and whether SCOTUS had the authority to order the delivery of Marbury's commission

McCulloch vs. Maryland

necessary and proper clause - whether Congress had the right to charter the 2nd Bank of USA and whether the Maryland law that imposed taxes on the Bank, unconstitutionally interfered w/ Congressional powers

Gibbons vs. Ogden

commerce clause (Art 1, Sec 8); whether or not the Commerce Clause gave Congress authority over insterstate navigation; Federal Coastal Commission required use of a license to operate a ferry from NJ to NY

Barron vs. Baltimore

eminent domain (5th Amendment); whether the 5th Amendment denied STATES the right to take private property without justly compensating the owner (due process)

Plessy vs. Ferguson

14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause; whether the Separate Car Act violated Equal Protection Clause of 14th Amendment

Schenck vs. United States

1st Amendment right to free speech; whether Schenck's conviction under the Espionage Act for criticizing the draft violated his 1st Amend right to free speech

Gitlow vs. New York

1st Amendment right to free speech; whether the 1st Amendment prevented a STATE from punishing political speech that DIRECTLY advocates gov's violent overthrow

Powell vs. Alabama

6th Amendment right to counsel in capital cases; 14th Amendment Due Process Clause; whether the trials of the Scotsboro Boys in Alabama violated the Due Process Clause and 6th Amendment right to counsel in capital cases

Brown vs. Board of Education

14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause; whether the segregation of public education based solely on race violated the Equal Protection Clause

Mapp vs. Ohio

4th Amendment (search and seizure); 14th Amendment Due Process Clause; whether the obscene materials illegally seized from Mapp's home were protected from seizure by 4th Amendment

Baker vs. Carr

14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause; district sizes and malapportionement in Tennessee

Engel vs. Vitale

1st Amendment Establishment Clause; whether or not the reading of a nondenominational prayer at the start of the school day violated the Establishment Clause

Gideon vs. Wainwright

14th Amendment Due Process Clause and 6th Amendment right to counsel; whether or not 6th Amendment right to counsel in criminal cases extended to felony defendants in STATE courts

Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc vs. United States

commerce clause and accomodations clause of 1964 Civil Rights Act; whether or not Congress, in passing Accomodation Clause (Title II) of 1964 Civil Rights Act, exceeded its commerce clause powers by depriving places of public accomodation of the right to choose their own customers

Griswold vs. Conneticut

14th Amendment Due Process Clause and 9th Amendment (unenumerated rights); whether the Constitution protected the right or marital privacy against state restrictions on a couple's ability to be counseled in the use of contraceptives (birth control pill)

Miranda vs. Arizona

14th Amendment Due Process Clause, 6th Amendment right to counsel and 5th Amendment protection against self-incrimination; wherher 5th Amendment protection against self-incrimination (Section 3) extends to police investigations of a suspect

Tinker vs. Des Moines

1st amendment freedom of speech; whether forbidding students from wearing an armband in public school (as a form of symbolic protest), violated their First Amendment freedom of speech; do students have the same rights within school as they do outside?

Lemon vs Kurtzman

1st Amendment Free Exercise Clause AND Establishment Clause; whether statutes that provide funding for non-public, non-secular schools violates the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause

New York Times vs. United States

1st amendment freedom of the press; whether the Nixon administration's efforts to prevent the publication of what is called "classified info" (Pentagon Papers) violated Freedom of Press

Wisconsin vs. Yoder

1st amendment free exercise clause; whether Wisconsin's requirement that all parents send their children to school at least until 16 years old violated 1st amendment Free Execise Clause by criminalizing the conduct of parents who refused to send their kids to school for religious reasons

Roe vs. Wade

14th amendment Due Process Clause and 9th Amendment unenumerated rights; whether the Constitution recognizes a woman's right to abortion

Miller vs. California

1st Amendment freedom of speech; whether the sale and distribution of obsecene materials by mail was protected under the 1st Amendment's freedom of speech

Buckley vs. Valeo

1st amendment freedom of speech; whether the limits placed on electoral expenditures (individual contributions to OWN campaign) by the Federal Elction Campaign Act of 1971 violated 1st Amend Freedom of Speech

Regents of Univ. of California vs. Bakke

14th amendment Equal Protection Clause and Civil Rights Act of 1964; whether the Univ of CA violated Equal Protection Clause and Civil Rights Act of 1964 by practicing an affirmative action policy that resulted in the repeated rejection of Bakke's application for admission to its medical school

New Jersey vs. TLO

4th amendment search and seizure (in a school setting); whether the exclusionary rule applies to searches conducted by school officials in public schools and whether TLO's 4th amendment rights had been violated

Texas vs. Johnson

1st amendment freedom of speech; whether the desecration of an American flag, by burning or otherwise, is a form of speech protected by the 1st Amendment

Planned Parenthood vs. Casey

14th amendment Due Process Clause; whether a state can require women who want an abortion to obtain informed consent, wait 24 hours, inform father of the unborn, and (if a minor), obtain parental consent, without violating their right to abortion guaranteed by Roe vs. Wade

Shaw vs. Reno

14th amendment Equal Protection Clause; whether the North Carolina residents' claim, that the state created a racially gerrymandered district, raised a valid constitutional issue under Equal Protection Clause

United State vs. Lopez

Commerce Clause; whether the 1990 Gun-Free School Zones Act, which forbade individuals from knowingly carrying a gun in a school zone, was unconstitutional because it exceeded the power of Congress to legislate under Commerce Clause

McDonald vs. Chicago

2nd amendment right to bear arms; whether the 2nd Amendment is applicable to states and their political subdivisions

Citizens United vs. Federal Elections Commissions

1st amendment freedom of speech; does a GROUP have the same free speech rights as an INDIVIDUAL; whether Citizens United's film, critical of a political candidate, could be defined as an electioneering communication under the 2002 McCain-Feingold Act

Obergefell vs. Hodges

14th amendment Equal Protection Clause and Due Process Clause; whether the 14th Amendment required a state to license a marriage between 2 ppl of same gender

Dobbs vs. Jackson Whole Women's Health Organization

14th amendment Due Process Clause; whether the Constitution recognizes a woman's right to abortion