| A | B |
|---|
| Adkins v. Childrens' Hospital | 1923: Invalidated minimum wage laws for women, turning back progressive gains made earlier. |
| Bakke Decision | 1978: Validated the concept of reverse discrimination when the Court upheld the claim that a white male's application to medical school had been turned down in part because of an admissions process that favored minorities. |
| Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas | 1954: Repealed Plessy v. Ferguson which had established a century earlier that separate but equal facilities were constitutional. In the Brown v. Board decision, separate but equal school facilities were deemed inherently unequal and unconstitutional. |
| Cohens v. Virginia | 1821: Established the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court over state courts, including state supreme courts |
| Commonwealth v. Hunt | 1842: Ruled that labor unions were not "illegal conspiracies," giving fledging unions validity in uncertain times. |
| Dartmouth College v. Woodward | 1819: Affirmed the Constitutional protections of the validity of contracts over state encroachments. |
| Ex Parte Milligan | 1866: Prohibited military tribunals (courts) from trying civilians neither in peacetime nor wartime, in areas where the civil courts were open. |
| Fletcher v. Peck | 1810: Gave the Supreme Court the authority to invalidate state laws that conflict with the federal Constitution when it ruled that a contract between the state of Georgia and private speculators was valid |
| Gibbons v. Ogden | 1842: In a dispute that originally centered on the ability of a state to grant a private company a monopoly on a waterway between New Jersey and New York, the Marshall court established the federal government's sole power over interstate commerce. |
| Gideon v. Wainwright | 1963: Landmark criminal rights case during the Warren Court, requires that any person who cannot afford an attorney in a criminal proceeding must be given one at state cost. |
| McCulloch v. Maryland | 1819: In his famous "power to tax involves the power to destroy" analogy, John Marshall and the Court established that the federal government has implied powers (also establishing the theory of loose construction of the Constitution) and that states cannot tax a federal bank. |
| Marbury v. Madison | 1803: The most significant case for the Supreme Court, it established the power of judicial review when the Court ruled that section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 was unconstitutional. |
| Martin v. Wilks and Ward's Cove v. Antonia | 1989: These cases made it difficult for employees to prove racial discrimination in hiring and made it easier for white males to sue for "reverse discrimination" against employers who practiced affirmative action policies. |
| Miranda v. Arizona | 1966: Landmark criminal rights case during the Warren Court, requires all peace officers to inform suspects of their rights under the federal Constitution at their time of arrest. |
| Plessy v. Ferguson | 1896: Established the "separate but equal" doctrine. This case was later nullified under Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954 |
| Roe v. Wade | 1973: Established the reproductive right of women, allowing women to terminate a pregnancy with minimal limitations by state legislatures. |
| Wabash Railroad Decision | 1886: Affirmed the federal power to regulate interstate commerce when Midwestern legislatures passed legislation that attempted to limit the growing powers of railroad monopolies. |
| Webster v. Reproductive Health Services | 1989: Severely weakened Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that affirmed women’s reproductive rights by allowing state laws restricting abortions in certain circumstances to stand. |
