Key Cases To Know
Marbury v. Madison (1803) | Established judicial review; “midnight judges;” John Marshall; power of the Supreme Court. |
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) | Established national supremacy; established implied powers; use of elastic clause; state unable to tax fed. institution; John Marshall; “the power to tax involves the power to destroy.” |
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) | Court struck down Ogden’s New York steamboat monopoly. Signaled Court’s broad interpretation of the Commerce Clause as encompassing all types of commercial activity. |
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) | Established separate but equal doctrine. |
Schenck v. US (1919) | Oliver Wendell Holmes; clear and present danger test; shouting “fire” in a crowded theater; limits on speech, esp. in wartime (urging men to resist the draft, war warrants abridgement of speech). |
Gitlow v. New York (1925) | Anarchist calling for the overthrow of the government. Established precedent of federalizing Bill of Rights (applying them to States); States cannot deny freedom of speech – protected through due process clause of Amendment 14 |
Palko v. Connecticut (1937) | Provided a test for determining which parts of Bill of Rights should be federalized – those which are implicitly or explicitly necessary for liberty to exist. |
Brown v. Board, 1st (1954) | School segregation unconstitutional; segregation psychologically damaging to blacks; overturned separate but equal; use of 14th Amendment; judicial activism of Warren Court; unanimous decision. |
Brown v. Board, 2nd (1955) | Ordered schools to desegregate “with all due and deliberate speed.” |
Mapp v. Ohio (1961) | Established exclusionary rule; illegally obtained evidence cannot be used in court; Warren Court’s judicial activism. |
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. |
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. |
Abington v. Schempp (1963) | Prohibited devotional Bible reading in public schools by virtue of establishment clause and due process clause. Warren Court’s judicial activism |
Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) | Ordered states to provide lawyers for those unable to afford them in criminal proceedings. Warren Court’s judicial activism in criminal rights. |
Wesberry v. Sanders (1963) | Ordered House districts to be as near equal in population as possible (extension of Baker v. Carr to Congressional districts). |
Escobedo v. Illinois (1964) | Established right of accused to invoke 6th amendment at any time during police questioning to exercise right to counsel |
Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) | Established right of privacy implied in 4th and 9th Amendments; set a precedent for Roe v. Wade. |
Miranda v. Arizona (1966) | Established Miranda warnings of counsel and silence. Must be given before questioning. Warren Court’s judicial activism in criminal rights. |
Epperson v. Arkansas (1968) | Prohibited states from banning the teaching of evolution. |