Court Cases to know

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

This case establishes the Supreme Court's power of Judicial Review

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

the Supreme Court upheld the power of the national government and denied the right of a state to tax the federal bank using the Constitution's supremacy clause. The Court's broad interpretation of the necessary and proper clause paved the way for later rulings upholding expansive federal powers

United States v. Lopez (1995)

Commerce clause of Constitution does not give Congress the power to regulate guns near state-operated schools

Engel v. Vitale (1962)

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

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)

Extends to the defendant the right of counsel in all state and federal criminal trials regardless of their ability to pay.

Schenck v. United States (1919)

Speech may be punished if it creates a clear-and-present-danger test of illegal acts

Tinker v. Des Moines School District (1969)

Public school students retain 1st amendment freedom of speech/expression while on campus, as long as it doesn't "disrupt the learning environment"

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

Affirmed the 1st amendment guarantee of a free press and limited "prior restraint" of the press

Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)

Dealt with the Amish community's desire to pull their children from public school before the age of 16 so that they could help with farm and domestic work. The Court sided with the Amish and held that parents may remove children from public school for religious reasons

McDonald v. Chicago (2010)

The Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for self-defense is applicable to the states

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)

the First Amendment prohibits the government from limiting corporations' and unions' ability to make independent political expenditures, effectively allowing unlimited spending from these entities in elections.

Baker v. Carr (1962)

"One man, one vote." Ordered state legislative districts to be as near equal as possible in population; Warren Court's judicial activism.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

The Supreme Court overruled Plessy v. Ferguson, declared that racially segregated facilities are inherently unequal, and ordered all public schools to be desegregated.

Shaw v. Reno (1993)

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

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

(Overturned Roe v. Wade) ended the federal right to abortion and gave states the power to make their own abortion laws.

Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)

Established that there is an implied right to privacy in the U.S. Constitution

Roe v. Wade (1973)

The court legalized abortion by ruling that state laws could not restrict it during the first three months of pregnancy. Based on 4th Amendment rights of a person to be secure in their persons.