Important Supreme Court Cases (semester 1)

Marbury v. Madison (1803) → Judicial Review

Dartmouth v. Woodward (1819) → Contract clause

  • State legislature cannot interfere w/ contracts between private parties

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) → Implied powers, elastic clause

  • Just because Supreme Court makes decision, doesn’t mean that it will always stay that way

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) → Interstate commerce, supremacy clause

  • Once it crosses state lines, can become federal issue (steamers & who regulates that)

Worcester v. Georgia (1832) → Cherokee Nation

  • State act cannot interfere w/ federal govt. authority to “regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes”

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) → Slaves are property & not citizens

  • Basically said Missouri Compromise (1820) was unconstitutional

  • African Americans not citizens of U.S.

    • Didn’t have right to sue in federal court

    • Property

  • Any law depriving slave owner of property (slaves) is unconstitutional

Plessy v. Fergucon (1896) → Separate is equal