AP United States Government and Politics Required Court Cases and Required Documents Study Guide

Question 1

Key Principle: The Supremacy Clause

Summary: 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.

Holding: Established supremacy of the US Constitution and federal laws over state laws

Answer 1

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

Question 2

Key Principle: The Commerce Clause

Summary: Gun-Free School Zones Act exceeded Congress’ authority to regulate interstate commerce. The Court ruled that Congress did not have the authority under the Commerce Clause to outlaw guns near schools.

Holding: Congress may not use the commerce clause to make possession of a gun in a school
zone a federal crime

Answer 2

United States v. Lopez (1995)

Question 3

Key Principle: Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment

Summary: Decided that redistricting (attempts to change the way voting districts are delineated) issues present justiciable questions, thus enabling federal courts to intervene in and to decide redistricting cases. Ordered
state legislative districts to be as equal as possible.

Holding: Established “one man, one vote” and opens door to courts to reviewing redistricting challenges

Answer 3

Baker v. Carr (1962)

Question 4

Key Principle: Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment

Summary: A case involving gerrymandering, redistricting based on race must be held to a standard of strict scrutiny under the equal protection clause - No racial gerrymandering. Race cannot be the sole or predominant factor in redrawing legislative boundaries. Majority-Minority districts.

Holding: Legislative redistricting must be conscious of race.

Answer 4

Shaw v. Reno (1993)

Question 5

Key Principle: Article III- Judicial review

Summary: 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.

Holding: The Supreme Court is allowed to nullify an act of the legislative or executive branch that violates the constitution

Answer 5

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

Question 6

Key Principle: The 1st amendment’s Establishment Clause

Summary: Struck down state-sponsored prayer in public school. Ruled that this was an unconstitutional violation of the Establishment Clause.

Holding: Schools cannot sponsor religious activities. No state-sponsored prayer

Answer 6

Engle v. Vitale (1962)

Question 7

Key Principle: The 1st amendment-Establishment Clause

Summary: Dealt with the Amish community’s desire to pull their children from public school before the age of 16 so that they could help with farm and domestic work. The Court sided with the Amish and held that the parent’s fundamental right to freedom of religion was determined to outweigh the state’s interest in educating its children

Holding: Compelling Amish students to attend school last the eighth grade is illegal.

Answer 7

Wisconson v. Yoder (1972)

Question 8

Key Principle: 1st Amendment- Freedom of Speech
(Symbolic Speech)

Summary: 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. Schools forbidding the wearing of armbands is a violation
of symbolic speech

Holding: Public school students have the right to wear black armbands in school to protest the Vietnam War because it does not cause a disruption.

Answer 8

Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)

Question 9

Key Principle: 1st Amendment – Free Speech

Summary: The defendant who handed out anti-draft pamphlets during World War I was not protected under the First Amendment because it created a “clear and present danger.” Established the “clear and present danger” test to define conditions under which public authorities can limit free speech.

Holding: Speech creating a “clear and present danger” is not protected

Answer 9

Schenck v. United States (1919)

Question 10

Key Principle: 1st Amendment – Freedom of Press

Summary: The government can almost never use prior restraint. Protections for the press were established here. The ruling made it possible for newspapers to publish the then-classified Pentagon Papers without risk of government censorship or punishment. The court held that executive efforts to prevent the publication violated the 1st Amendment

Holding: Establishes a “heavy presumption against prior
restraint” even in cases involving national security.

Answer 10

New York Times v. U.S. (1971)

Question 11

Key Principle: 14th Amendment due process clause, Privileges and Immunities Clause, 2nd amendment

Summary: The Court held that the right of an individual to “keep and bear arms” protected by the 2nd Amendment is incorporated by the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment and applies to the states. The decision cleared up the uncertainty left in the wake of the District of Columbia v. Heller as to the scope of gun rights in the states.

Holding: The right to keep and bear arms for self-defense applies to the states

Answer 11

McDonald v. Chicago (2010)

Question 12

Key Principle: 6th Amendment - Right to Counsel

Summary: 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.

Holding: Guarantee of an attorney for the poor or
indigent

Answer 12

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)

Question 13

Key Principle: 14th Amendment Due Process Clause and 9th Amendment implied right to privacy (established through Griswold v. CT), 4th Amendment

Summary: Ruled that the decision to obtain an abortion is protected by the right to privacy implied by the Bill of Rights.

Holding: Protects the right of a woman to have an abortion

Answer 13

Roe v. Wade (1973)

Question 14

Key Principle: 14th Amendment - Equal Protection Clause

Summary: Ruled that racially segregated schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment: Reversed the principle of “separate but equal” established in Plessy v. Ferguson. Desegregated schools.

Holding: Raced-based segregation is illegal.

Answer 14

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Question 15

Key Principle: 1st Amendment - Free Speech

Summary: Struck down the restrictions on independent
expenditures as a violation of the 1st Amendment. Overturned the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold), which banned soft money. This led to record spending in the 2010 election cycle by corporations and special interests.

Holding: Political spending by corporations, associations, and labor unions is protected and cannot be limited by law; Money=Speech

Answer 15

Citizens United v. F.E.C. (2010)

Question 16

All people created equal (Natural Rights of Life, Liberty, Property)

Governments are created to protect these rights

If Gov’t does not protect these rights, then the People have the duty to change/destroy

Imperfect governments should not be destroyed, only ones
that seek to subject the People to Tyranny (destruction of Natural Rights)

BIG IDEA: A balance between governmental power and
individual rights have been a hallmark of American political
development.

Answer 16

The Declaration Of Independence

Question 17

Confederation of states, with an extremely limited central
government.

limitations placed upon the central government rendered
it ineffective at governing the continually growing American states

Each state remains sovereign

A unicameral legislature, each state has one vote

No President, No Judiciary

Could not force taxation; No standing Army

BIG IDEA: A weak national government, states
had more power

Answer 17

Articles of Confederation

Question 18

A strong, united republic would be more effective than the individual states at controlling “factions”

A large republic will help control
factions because when more
representatives are elected, there will be a greater number of opinions. Therefore, it is far less likely that there will be one majority oppressing the rest of the people

Answer 18

Federalist 10

Question 19

An Antifederalist series of essays designed to encourage New Yorkers to reject the proposed
Constitution

the immense power of the federal government requires the people to sacrifice their liberties

A bill of rights was necessary to protect the people from
the government

Congress possesses far too much power: taxation, standing army, taxes, Elastic Clause

A free republic cannot exist in such a large territory as
the United States

The judicial authority will broaden the federal government’s power (thus, tyranny)

Answer 19

Brutus I

Question 20

Outline of federal gov’t structure, powers, and limits to those powers

Three branches (L, E, J) [Sep. of P’s] that can limit each other [Ch & B’s]

Federal system of government

Constitution as Supreme Law

Bill of Rights
○ 1-8: Individual Rights
○ 9: Rights not listed are NOT denied to the People
○ 10: Powers not given to Federal Gov’t nor denied to the
states are State Powers

Other Amendments
○ Generally, amendments are expansions of Peoples’ rights(13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 22, 24, 26)

BIG IDEA: The Constitution emerged from the debate about the weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation as a blueprint for limited government.

Answer 20

Constitution+bill of rights and other amendments

Question 21

Proposes a government broken into three branches: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial.

Each branch should be self-sufficient, but each should have some kind of power over the other for them to keep each other from taking over the government.

The Legislative branch needs to be split further into the House of Representatives and the Senate because it’s the most powerful branch, and members of the Judicial branch need to be chosen by the President with the Senate’s approval because they want qualified candidates for a position that lasts for life.

This style of government also helps keep down the power of factions, a recurring theme from Federalist 10.

BIG IDEA: The Constitution created a competitive policy-making process to ensure the people’s will is accurately represented and that freedom is preserved.

Answer 21

Federalist 51

Question 22

Argues that unity in the executive branch is a main ingredient for both energy and safety. Energy arises from the proceedings of a single person, characterized by, “decision, activity, secrecy, and dispatch,” while safety arises from the unitary executive’s unconcealed accountability to the people.

Justifies executive strength by claiming that the slow-moving Congress, a body designed for deliberation,
will be best balanced by a quick and decisive executive.

Also maintains that governmental balance can only be achieved if each branch of government (including
the executive branch) has enough autonomous power such that tyranny of one branch over the others
cannot occur.

Makes the case for the duration, meaning a presidential term long enough to promote stability in the government.

Support can be defined as a presidential salary, which insulates government officials from corruption by attracting capable, honest men to office.

Support can be defined as a presidential salary, which insulates government officials from corruption by attracting capable, honest men to office.

BIG IDEA: The presidency has been enhanced beyond its expressed constitutional powers.

Answer 22

Federalist 70

Question 23

As “the weakest of the three departments of power,” the
The judiciary needs strengthening.

Without an independent judiciary, any rights reserved to the people by the Constitution “would amount to nothing,” since the legislature cannot be relied upon to police itself.

Lifetime appointments, guaranteed “during good behavior” to insure that judges can resist encroachments from the legislature (to which presumably they would be vulnerable by means of bribes or threats)

BIG IDEA: The design of the judicial branch protects the
Supreme Court’s independence as a branch of government, and the emergence and use of judicial review remains a powerful judicial practice.

Answer 23

Federalist 78

Question 24

King argues that he and his fellow demonstrators have a duty to fight for justice.

It is up to the oppressed to take charge and demand equality.

Segregation is used to debase one population (blacks) while uplifting another (whites), which makes it
immoral in the eyes of God. Immoral laws are laws that are neither just nor fair. According to St.
Augustine’s logic, unjust laws aren’t actually laws, so they don’t have to be followed. King believes people
are under a moral obligation to oppose segregation by refusing to abide by the so-called laws that govern
the practice.

White Americans who say they agree with the notion of desegregation but criticize the manner in which
civil rights activists go about achieving it are the biggest obstacles standing in the way of racial equality.
The demeaning and “paternalistic” attitude of white moderates shows a lack of real understanding of
the realities of segregation. It is this group that perpetuates the notion that time, not human intervention,
will be the great equalizer—which discourages others from joining the campaign for civil rights.

The civil rights movement will ultimately be successful because “the goal of America is freedom.”

BIG IDEA: The Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause as well as other constitutional
provisions have often been used to support the advancement of equality.

Answer 24

Letter from Birmingham jail