AP US Government and Politics Supreme Court Cases
Order by
40 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Marbury v. Madison (1803) | This case established the Supreme Court's power of Judicial Review. |
| McCullough v. Maryland (1819) | In establishing a national bank, Congress was legally applying the "necessary and proper clause" of the Constitution, thus exercising powers not specifically delegated to Congress but implied by its enumerated powers. |
| Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) | Regulating interstate commerce is a power reserved to the federal government. Established the importance of Congress' Commerce Clause. |
| Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) | Outlawed Missouri Compromise. Denial of slavery was a 5th amendment property violation. Because African-Americans were NOT considered citizens, they were not protected. |
| Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) | Although not phrased as such in the ruling, this case established the "separate but equal" principle as being constitutional and in line with the 14th Amendment. It determined that segregation did not constitute unlawful discrimination. |
| Schenck v. U.S. (1919) | Congress has the right to prohibit speech that causes a "clear and present danger." During wartime, utterances tolerable in peacetime can be punished. |
| Korematsu v. U.S. (1944) | The court ruled that the ordering of Japanese-Americans into internment camps was constitutional and justified due to circumstances of "emergency and peril." |
| Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, KA (1954) | Segregation in SCHOOLS is a violation of the 14th amendment, because separate is inherently unequal. This was the beginning of the end for all forms of state-maintained racial separation. |
| Mapp v. Ohio (1961) | Applied the exclusionary rule (evidence seized illegally cannot be used in court) to the state courts. |
| Engel v. Vitale (1962) | All school-sanctioned prayer (in public schools) is unconstitutional because it violates the establishment clause of the 1st Amendment. |
| Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) | The Sixth Amendment 's guarantee of counsel is a fundamental right, and through the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment, this made it applicable to states, which now had to provide an attorney if a defendant couldn't afford one. |
| Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) | The court determined that although the Constitution does not explicitly protect a general right to privacy, collectively the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 9th Amendments create a penumbras that do imply a protected right to privacy in the U.S. Constitution. |
| Miranda v. Arizona (1966) | Provided for the accused to be notified of their rights (right to counsel, right to an attorney, right to remain silent) before being interrogated by the police. |
| Tinker v. Des Moines (1969) | In response to a black armbands worn by students to school protesting the Vietnam, the court ruled that while student rights t can be restricted, "students do not leave their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse door." |
| Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971) | This established a three-part test by which governments can determine if their actions violate the Establishment Clause of the constitution: is the Law clearly secular, does neither prohibit nor inhibit religion, and is there excessive gov't. entanglement. |
| Roe v. Wade (1973) | Abortion rights fall within the privacy implied in the 14th amendment; established the three trimester standard for abortion procedures. |
| U.S. v. Nixon (1974) | "Executive privilege" is not absolute and is subject to judicial review. |
| Gregg v. Georgia (1976) | Death penalty is not "cruel and unusual punishment" in extreme cases such as murder. |
| Regents of California v. Bakke (1978) | Ruled that giving minorities preferential treatment based solely on race was reverse-discrimination and as such was unconstitutional. Race can be a contributing factor but not be the only factor in determining college admissions - there can be no quotas. |
| Texas v. Johnson (1984) | Flag burning is protected speech. |
| Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989) | States can place restrictions on abortions (viability tests, no use of public facilities for abortions, no counseling to have abortions) but cannot outlaw them. |
| Reno v. ACLU (1996) | Federal law designed to prohibit "indecency" on the internet was unconstitutional. |
| Clinton v. New York City (1997) | Ruled that the law granting the president the line item-veto was unconstitutional. |
| Bush v. Gore (2001) | Hand-counting in Florida was a violation of Equal Protection clause, made George W. Bush the winner of the 2000 election |
| Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) | Race can be used as a factor for admission into a public law school as long as the policy is "narrowly tailored" |
| Kelo v. New London (2005) | "Eminent Domain" may be used to take private property for the public good even if this means giving it to private developers. |
| Wesberry v. Sanders (1964) | Reaffirmed the "one person, one vote" decision of the 1962 case of Baker v. Carr when redistricting for federal elections. Each congressional district must be approximately the same in constituent size. |
| Buckley v. Valeo (1976) | Candidates can use as much of their own money as they want to support their own campaigns. |
| New York Times v. Sullivan (1964) | Libel case-writer did it with intent to defame-knew it was false-wrote it with malicious intent. Public officials/figures have less privacy rights. |
| Printz v. United States (1997) | Using the Necessary and Proper Clause of Article I as justification, Congress CAN NOT require state officials to regulate handgun purchases by performing those duties called for by the Brady Bill's handgun applicant background-checks? |
| United States v. Morrison (2000) | Congress DOES NOT have the authority to enact the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 under either the Commerce Clause or the Fourteenth Amendment. |
| Smith v. Allright (1944) | Outlawed all white primaries. |
| Near v.Minnesota (1931) | Supreme Court decision holding that the first amendment protects newspapers from prior restraint. |
| Miller v. California (1973) | Ruled that obscene materials did not enjoy First Amendment protection. Modified the test for obscenity, holding that "[t]he basic guidelines for the trier of fact must be: (a) whether 'the average person, applying contemporary community standards' would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest. . . (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value." |
| Palko v. Connecticut (1937) | Provided test for determining which parts of Bill of Rights should be applicable to the states - those which are fundamentally necessary for liberty to exist. |
| Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1987) | More leeway for states in regulation abortion, although it DID NOT overturn Roe v. Wade. Upholds MO law prohibiting abortion in public hospitals; shift in composition of court. (Later cases allow 24-hour waiting periods, parental consent for minors, etc.) |
| Shaw v. Reno (1993) | NO racial gerrymandering; race cannot be the sole or predominant factor in redrawing legislative boundaries; majority-minority districts. |
| U.S. v. Lopez (1995) | Gun Free School Zones Act exceeded Congress' authority to regulate interstate commerce. The law is a criminal statute that has nothing to do with "commerce" or any sort of economic activity. |
| Barron v. Baltimore (1833) | The Bill of Rights was NOT applicable to the states (this was prior to the 14th Amendment and the subsequent incorporation doctrine). |
| Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) | By a 5-to-4 vote along ideological lines, the majority held that under the First Amendment corporate funding of independent political broadcasts in candidate elections cannot be limited. |
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