WGU C963 - Supreme Court Cases

· Miller v. Johnson: a United States Supreme Court case concerning "affirmative gerrymandering/racial gerrymandering", where racial minority-majority electoral districts are created during redistricting to increase minority Congressional representation

· Buckley v. Valeo: a landmark court case that ruled that spending money in an election was essentially equivalent to free speech; the case also upheld hard-money donation limits to candidates (that is, money donated to a candidate's campaign); the judgment also allowed candidates to spend an unlimited amount of their own money

· Marbury v. Madison: established the Supreme Court’s power of judicial review. Judicial review allows the Supreme Court to overturn laws if those laws conflict with the Constitution

· McCulloch v. Maryland: the Supreme Court used the Necessary and Proper Clause and the Supremacy Clause to expand the power of the federal government, ruled that a national bank would allow the national government to carry out several of its enumerated powers, such as regulating interstate commerce, collecting taxes, and borrowing money

· Gibbons v. Ogden: the Court had to interpret the Commerce Clause of Article I, Section 8 to decide whether the federal government had the sole authority to regulate the licensing of steamboats operating between New York and New Jersey. When the case reached the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Marshall delivered a ruling in favor of Gibbons that strengthened the power of the national government

· Citizens United v. FEC: the Supreme Court ruled that corporations and unions have free speech rights themselves, and under those rights, they are entitled to spend as much money as they like on their own interests, as long as they do not coordinate their activities directly with a candidate, reversing the restrictions of the McCain-Feingold Act

· Obergefell v. Hodges: a landmark 2015 Supreme Court case that legalized same-sex marriage; this case had many amicus briefs filed in its support

· McDonald v. City of Chicago: the Supreme Court, using the principle of selective incorporation, applied this interpretation of the Second Amendment to the states,

preventing states from interfering with the ownership of firearms for the purpose of self-defense

· Lemon v. Kurtzman: the Supreme Court established the Lemon test for deciding whether a law or other government action that might promote a particular religious practice should be upheld

· Sherbert v. Verner: the Court said that for a law to be allowed to limit or burden a religious practice, the government must meet two criteria. It must demonstrate a compelling governmental interest in limiting that practice, and that the restriction must be narrowly tailored

· Burwell v. Hobby Lobby: this case addressed whether owners in companies would be required to provide free contraception if they had religious objections

· Carson v. Makin: the Court argued that if a state chooses to fund private education, it could not exclude religious schools simply because of their religious status

· Texas v. Johnson: burning the flag was a form of symbolic speech protected by the First Amendment and found the law, as applied to flag desecration, to be unconstitutional

· Tinker v. Des Moines: the Supreme Court decided that the rule against armbands and the suspensions violated the free speech rights of the students and the symbolic political speech that this protest represented

· Cohen v. California: involved an arrest and conviction for disturbing the peace for wearing a jacket expressing opposition to the draft (and the Vietnam War). Cohen intentionally wore the jacket to express his adamant opposition to the war and to the draft that forced people to serve in that war. Since his actions were silent and he made no attempt to otherwise disturb the peace, his conviction was not necessary. The case provided another demonstration of the importance that the Court gave to freedom of expression issues

· Miller v. California: the Supreme Court established the Miller test for deciding whether something is obscene

· Plessy v. Ferguson: the Supreme Court ruled that segregation was not a violation of the 14th Amendment, this allowed states to regulate what people of color could do in public spaces and how they could get there. Examples include mandating that people of color ride in the back of any mode of public transport

· Gideon v. Wainwright: this Supreme Court case set the precedent that defendants with low incomes must be provided legal counsel in felony cases

· Mapp v. Ohio: the Supreme Court rule that evidence obtained without a warrant and that does not fall under any exclusionary rule is inadmissible in court

· United States v. Miller: the Supreme Court rule that Congress could regulate firearms that are not regularly used by the military because of an interpretation of the Second Amendment clause regarding a "well-regulated militia"

· Griswold v. Connecticut: this Supreme Court case held that married couples have the right to use birth control

· Brandenburg v. Ohio: case involved a challenge by the white nationalist Ku Klux Klan (KKK) organization to a state law that prohibited speech advocating for various illegal activities

· Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka: this Supreme Court case challenged the “separate but equal” doctrine of racial segregation that had been established the precedent since the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson court case

· Branzburg v. Hayes: this case limited the right of journalists to withhold the names of sources