Landmark Supreme Court cases

** page under construction **

Short list of Landmark Supreme Court cases

• cases as generally recommended for core study for the AP Gov exam
• review of additional cases will yield greater student comprehension and analysis

Case	Date	Court	Big Ideas/ Court Doctrine	Constitutional Issues	Issues / Background / Description / Opinion / Dissent	Related Cases
Baker v. Carr	1961	Warren	- "One person one vote" standard - Political Question doctrine	Equal protection clause (14th amendment) Judicial review	ruled that the state of Tennessee had ignored a 1901 state law that required redistricting to be adjusted according to census results the state had not drawn new districts since 1901, resulting in overrepresentation of rural over urban citizens held that challenges to state districting (gerrymandering) issues were not merely "political questions" and thus subject to Court review the Court was split on the case and the case had to be re-argued dissents: Justice Brennan argued that redistricting is a political question and should be left up to the states Justice Frankfurter held that the decision was "judicial overreach"	Reynolds v. Sims (1964) Shaw v. Reno , 1993)
Brown v. Board of Education	1954	Warren	equal protection	Equal protection clause (14th amendment)	unanimous ruling held that segregated schools were "inherently unequal" and thus violated the 14th amendment's equal protection clause regarding public school segregation the ruling did not completely overturn Plessy, as Brown applied only to public education, but it became the primary precedent for further challenges to de jure (in law) segregation subsequent cases also addressed de facto (in fact or practice) segregation	Cooper v. Aaron (1958: affirmed Brown and enforced desegregation) Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971: busing to promote racial integration in schools) Milliken v. Bradley (1974: "busing"; distinguished between de jure and de facto segregation)
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission	2010	Roberts	campaign finance law	Free speech clause (1st amendment)	held that "political spending" by organizations is protected speech the case regarded advertising of a movie during a primary election season that was critical of Hillary Clinton and that violated a 2002 law, Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act that prohibited "electioneering communication" by corporations, non-profits or unions withing 30 days of a primary or 60 days of an election; the law was invalidated by the case	McCutcheon v. FEC (2014: expanded campaign finance limits but did not end them)
Engel v. Vitale	1962	Warren	- prayer in public school - "separation of Church and State" doctrine	Establishment clause (1st amendment)	ruled that official public school prayer (i.e., school-sponsored) violated the 1st amendment prohibition of government sponsored religion the ruling affirmed the "wall of separation between Church and State," which is from a published letter by President Thomas Jefferson in 1802 dissent: Justice Stewart's argued that the Establishment clause prohibited creation of a state- (government) sponsored church and not the non-mandatory practice of religion within a public school	Abington School District v. Schempp (1963: banned public school-sponsored Bible reading) Wallace v. Jaffree (1985: banned school-sponsored prayer but allowed for school-sponsored moment of silence for individual meditation)
Gideon v. Wainwright	1963	Warren	- public counsel - incorporation case	Right to counsel (6th amendment)	Gideon requested but was denied a public attorney (Florida only allowed it for capital offenses) the unanimous decision held that a state must provide counsel for criminal defendants who can not afford an attorney or who are otherwise incapable of representing themselves (incompetency or illiteracy) Gideon is an incorporation case, as the 6th amendment right to counsel was applied state law via the 14th amendment's Due Process clause	Powell v. Alabama (1932: required state-sponsored counsel in capital crimes; it importantly incorporated the 6th amendment right via the 14th amendment's "due process" clause) for similar cases regarding criminal protections: Massiah v. United States (1964: prohibited use of statements by criminals who had counsel without that attorney present) Miranda v. Arizona (1966: self-incrimination protections; incorporation of 5th amendment; see also Berghuis v. Thompkins 2010)
Marbury v. Madison	1803	Marshall	Judicial supremacy	Judicial review Original jurisdiction (Article III, Section 2) "legal remedy" concept	unanimous decision that settled a dispute between outgoing Adams and incoming Jefferson administrations over Adams' "midnight appointments", including one to Marbury ruled that Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1793 was illegal under the Constitution, thus establishing "judicial review" created the power of the Courts to invalidate statutory laws based upon their "constitutionality" - Marbury lost his case, as the Court ruled that any legal remedy due to him was from an invalid law Marshall quoted Federalist No. 78 by Hamilton, "... that an act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution, is void." note that Marshall's appointment to the Court as Chief Justice was one of Adams' final appointments after having lost the election of 1800	Hylton v. United States (1796)
McColluch v. Maryland	1819	Marshall	implied powers	Supremacy clause (Article VI) Necessary and proper clause	Maryland tried to stop the Baltimore branch of the Second National Bank by taxing it the Court ruled that the National Bank was legitimate and superseded (was over) state law, thus Maryland could not tax it the Court ruled that if the National Bank was legal (constitutional) measures to implement it were also Constitutional via the "necessary and proper clause" additionally, if a federal law was legal it is also "supreme" (Article VI) over state law Marshall's ruling denied 10th amendment reservations of unexpressed powers
McDonald v. Chicago	2010	Roberts	- right to "keep and bear arms - incorporation case	Second amendment right to bear arms	in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) the Court affirmed the 2nd amendment right to "keep and bear arms" as an individual right by declaring a gun control law of the District of Columbia (DC) law unconstitutional. Since Heller regarded a DC law, which is a federal territory, the ruling was not immediately applicable to state law McDonald applied Heller it to state law via the Due Process clause of the 14th amendment	Heller v. District of Columbia (2008) People v. Aguilar (2013: upheld individual right to keep and bear arms)
New York Times v. United States	1971	Burger	- prior restraint - freedom of the press	Freedom of the press (1st amendment)	the New York Times (NYT) newspaper published the leaked "Pentagon Papers," which were secret reports by the Pentagon regarding the U.S. intervention in Vietnam; the government fought to stop their publication based on national security grounds and that the possession of them by the NYT was illegal the government was asking for "prior restraint" of further publication of the Papers (there were 7,000 pages, so the NYT started printing selections, upon which time the Government ordered the NYT to halt publication ("prior restraint" = to stop criminal behavior before it is actually done) the Court ruled that the government's need to keep certain secrets (i.e., classified information) was subordinate (less important than) to constitutional protections of the press, even if those secrets were unlawfully released (leaked) the ruling stated that when balanced against the freedom of the press, the government's position for prior restraint "carries a heavy burden of showing justification for the imposition of such a restraint" the Court created a standard for testing the importance of keeping state secrets to the "grave and irreparable danger" standard other issues include, censorship, prior restraint, injunction
Roe v. Wade	1973	Burger	right to privacy	due process (14th amendment 9th amendment reservation of the rights of the people	the court ruled that the Fourteenth amendment's "Due Process" clause creates a "right to privacy" the court reasoned that the "due process" clause provides protection against excessive government restrictions of "personal liberty" the ruling struck down laws that banned abortion but still allowed some regulation of abortion, such as time limits on the age of the fetus and its "viability" for birth (which it deemed was in the 3rd trimester and so allowed for bans on abortion on it). dissent: Justice White argued that the Court has no standing to choose between a mother and an unborn child and said that in the decision the Court had exceeded it's powers of judicial review; he felt it was a political and not judicial question Justice Rehnquist argued that the Court had invented a right that the writers of the 14th Amendment had not intended, as when it was adopted in 1868 there were 36 state or territory laws limiting abortion	Griswold v. Connecticut (1965: held that laws banning contraception violated the right to marital privacy (in marriages) and that that right to privacy was implicit in the 1st, 3rd, 4th & 5th amendments) Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992: held that laws restricting abortion, such as mandatory waiting periods, spousal or parental notice, etc. had to meet the "undue burden standard" of creating undue or burdensome restrictions on individual rights) Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (pending as of April 2022)
Schenck v. United States	1919	Hughes
Shaw v. Reno	1993
Tinker v. Des Moines	1969
United States v. Lopez	1995
Wisconsin v. Yoder	1972

Major "Courts" (Chief Justices)

Marshall (John), 1801-1835

• early Republic period
• established judicial review and federal supremacy

Taney (Roger)

• prior to the Civil War, Taney defended slave states
• most important decision: Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

List of Fourteenth Amendment "Incorporation Cases"

14th Amendment incorporation cases

• the 14th amendment explicitly applied itself to the states
• thus its "due process" and "equal protection" clauses also apply to the states
• "incorporation" ("putting into the body") means applying the Bill of Rights and other constitutional protections to state law via the 14th amendment

Selective Incorporation

• Duncan v. Louisiana (1968) created the

List of Court Doctrines & Tests

• a "doctrine" is a judicial ruling that services as precedent for other cases
• "legal test" is a standard that a court may develop in a ruling that is used to decide if a case or action fits in or not to a certain legal category or type of case

Legal Tests & Rules

• "Grave and irreparable danger standard "(NY Times v. US, 1971)
  • updated from the "grave and probable danger" rule (Dennis v. US, 1951)
  • the government must show "irreparable" (unfixable) danger in order to justify "prior restraint"
    • "prior restraint" = stopping an action or behavior before it happens, usually referring to halting the publication of something that might pose a harm to national security
• Undue burden standard
  • a law must not create an "undue" (unnecessary) or overly burdensome or that is overly restrictive of fundamental rights