| A | B |
|---|
| Marbury v. Madison 1803 | Established the principle of judicial review; strengthened the power of the judicial branch by giving the Supreme Court the authority to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional; Classic Marshall Cases |
| McCullough v. Maryland 1819 | Confirmed the right of Congress to utilize implied powers to carry out its expressed powers; validated the supremacy of the national government over the states by declaring that states cannot interfere with or tax the legitimate activities of the federal government; Classic Marshall Cases |
| Gibbons v Ogden 1824 | Strengthened the power of the federal government to regulate interstate commerce; established the commerce clause's role as a key vehicle for the expansion of federal power; Classic Marshall Cases |
| Barron v. Baltimore 1833 | Ruled that the Bill of Rights cannot be applied to the states; Fourteenth Amendment: Selective Incorporation |
| Dred Scott v. Sandford 1857 | Ruled that African Americans were not citizens and therefore could not petition the Supreme Court; overturned by the Fourteenth Amendment |
| Reynolds v. US 1879 | Banned polygamy; distinguished between religious beliefs that are protected by the Free Exercise Clause and religious practices that may be restricted; ruled that religious practices cannot make an act legal that would otherwise be illegal |
| Plessy v. Ferguson 1896 | Upheld Jim Crow segregation by approving "separate but equal" public facilities for African Americans; Fourteenth Amendment: Equal Protection |
| Weeks v. United States 1914 | Established the exclusionary rule in federal cases; prohibited evidence obtained by illegal searches and seizures from being admitted in court; Fourteenth Amendment: Due Process |
| Schenck v. U.S. 1918 | The character of every act depends on the circumstances. "The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent." During wartime, utterances tolerable in peacetime can be punished; First Amendment: Free Speech |
| Gitlow v. New York 1925 | Established precedent for the doctrine of selective incorporation, thus extending most of the requirements of the Bill of Rights to the States; Fourteenth Amendment: Selective Incorporation |
| Korematsu v. United States 1944 | Upheld the constitutionality of the relocation of Japanese Americans as a wartime necessity; viewed by contemporary scholars as a flagrant violation of civil liberties |
| Roth v. US 1951 | Ruled that obscenity is not constitutionally protected free speech; created the "prevailing community standards" rule requiring a consideration of the work as a whole; First Amendment: Free Speech |
| Mapp v. Ohio 1961 | Extended the exclusionary rule to the states; illustrated the process of selective incorporation through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; Fourteenth Amendment: Due Process |
| Baker v. Carr 1962 | Ruled that the judicial branch of government can rule on matters of legislative apportionment, used the principle of "one person, one vote", ordered state legislative districts to be as equal as possible; Apportionment |
| Engel v. Vitale 1962 | Stuck down state-sponsored prayer in public schools; ruled that the Regents' prayer was an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause |
| Gideon v. Wainwright 1963 | Ruled that the Sixth Amendment right-to-counsel provision applies to those accused of major crimes under state laws; illustrated the process of incorporation by which the Sixth Amendment was applied to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment |
| Wesberry v. Sanders 1963 | Established the principle of "one person, one vote" in drawing congressional districts; triggered widespread redistricting that gave cities and suburbs greater representation in Congress; Apportionment |
| Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka 1964 | Ruled that African Americans racially segregated schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; reversed the principle of "separate but equal" established in Plessy v. Ferguson |
| New York Times v. Sullivan 1964 | Ruled that public officials cannot win a suit for defamation unless the statement is made with "actual malice"; established the "actual malice" standard to promote "uninhibited, robust, and wide-open" public debate; First Amendment: Free Speech |
| Griswold v. Connecticut 1965 | Ruled that a Connecticut law criminalizing the use of contraceptives violated the right to marital privacy; established an important precedent for Roe v. Wade; Right to Privacy |
| Miranda v. Arizona 1966 | Ruled that the police must inform criminal suspects of their constitutional rights before questioning suspects after arrest; required police to read these rights to criminal suspects; Fourteenth Amendment: Due Process |
| Tinker v. Des Moines 1969 | Protected some forms of symbolic speech; ruled that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate" |
| Lemon v. Kurtzman 1971 | Stuck down state funding for private religious schools; ruled that state aid to church-related schools must meet three tests: a) purpose of the aid must be clearly secular, b) government's action must neither advance nor inhibit religion, and c) government's action must not foster an "excessive entanglement" between government and religion; First Amendment: Establishment Clause |
| Roe v. Wade 1973 | Ruled that the decision to obtain an abortion is protected by the right to privacy implied by the Bill of Rights |
| United States v. Nixon 1974 | Ruled that there is no constitutional guarantee of unqualified executive privilege |
| Buckley v Valeo 1976 | Upheld federal limits on campaign contributions; struck down the portion of the Federal Election Campaign Act limiting the amount of money individuals can contribute to their own campaign; ruled that spending money on one's own campaign is a form of constitutionality protected free speech; complicated congressional efforts to enact significant campaign finance reform |
| Regents of the University of California v Bakke 1978 | Ordered the medical school to admit Bakke; ruled that the medical school's strict quota system denied Bakke the equal protection guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment; ruled that race could be used as one factor among others in the competition for available places; Fourteenth Amendment: Equal Protection |
| Texas v. Johnson 1989 | Ruled that flag burning is a form of symbolic speech protected by the First Amendment; First Amendment: Free Speech |
| Oregon v. Smith 1990 | Banned the use of illegal drugs in religious ceremonies; ruled that the government can act when religious practices violate criminal laws; First Amendment: Free Exercise Clause |
| Grutter v. Bollinger 2003 | Upheld the affirmative action policy of the University of Michigan Law School; upheld the Bakke ruling that race could be a consideration in admissions policy but that quotas are illegal; ; Fourteenth Amendment: Equal Protection |
