cases Flashcards
brown v board
background: Black students in Kansas were denied admittance to certain public schools based on laws allowing public schools to be segregated by race
question: Does segregation in schools violate the 14th amendment’s equal protection clause?
ruling: yes
reason: Separate but equal education facilities for racial minorities is inherently unequal, violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
gideon v wainwright
Background: Gideon was arrested for Felony Breaking and Entering, he requested the state of Florida provide him with an attorney for his trial, but Florida law did not require this.
Question: Does the 6th Amendment’s right to counsel in criminal cases extend to felony defendants in state courts?
Decision: yes, an attorney is needed
Reasoning: The court held that it is consistent with the Constitution to require state courts to appoint attorneys for defendants who could not afford to retain counsel on their own.
tinker v des moines
Background: A few students in Des Moines, Iowa, decided that they wanted to protest against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War in school—they came in wearing black armbands to protest the war—the students challenged the school’s decision after they got suspended.
Question: Does the school’s policy violate the First Amendment Free Speech clause?
Decision: Yes, it violated the First Amendment
Reasoning: Armbands were speech and therefore protected under the First Amendment. Students in public schools do not lose their right to free speech under the First Amendment just because they go to school. Schools can only ban speech if it would “materially” and “substantially interfere” with the operation of the school.
Schenck v US
Background: Charles Schenck and Elizabeth Baer distributed leaflets declaring that the draft violated the Thirteenth Amendment prohibition against involuntary servitude; the leaflets urged the public to disobey the draft, but advised only peaceful action—Schenck was charged with conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act of 1917 by attempting to cause insubordination in the military and to obstruct recruitment
Question: Did the Espionge Act violate the First Amendment - is it unconstitutional?
Decision: It doesn’t, the first amendment does not protect speech that approaches creating a clear and present danger of a significant evil that Congress has power to prevent
Reasoning: Holmes reasoned that the widespread dissemination of the leaflets was sufficiently likely to disrupt the conscription process
mcdonald v chicago
Background: Chicago banned handguns, in the 2000s. Several people challenged this law by claiming their rights were being violated
Question: Does the Second Amendment apply to the states because it should be incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process clause?
Decision: Yes
Reasoning: The court reasoned that rights that are “fundamental to the Nation’s scheme of ordered liberty” or that are “deeply rooted in this NAtion’s history and tradition” are appropriately applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment
- theright to self-defense was one such “fundamental” and “deeply rooted” right
engel v vitale
Background: The New York State Board of Regents authorized a short, voluntary prayer for recitation at the start of each school day (free establishment)
Constitutional question: Does the reading of a nondenominational prayer at the start of the school day violate the “establishment of religion” clause of the First Amendment?
Decision: Ruled for Engel, the state cannot hold prayers in public schools
Reasoning: The policy breached the constitutional wall of separation between church and state. The government had no business drafting formal prayers for any segment of its population to repeat in a government-sponsored religious program
wisconsin v yoder
Background: Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller who were members of the Old Order Amish and Adin Yutzy, who was a Mennonite wanted to pull their children out of school after 8th grade. Both religious groups challenged the statute that required their children to attend school until age 16. They believed that keeping their children in school would cause substantial harm to their way of life—it violated their freedom exercise of religion
Constitutional question: Did the statute violate their freedom exercise of religion?
Decision: yes, individual’s interests in the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment outweighed the State’s interests in compelling school attendance beyond the eighth grade
Reasoning: Determined that in order to rule for the state, state interests had to override religious interests and that there must be no other way for state interests to be met other than to impinge upon religious freedom
NYT v US
Background: a DoD worker, Daniel Ellsburg, released a Pentagon Study on the US involvement in Vietnam to NYT and Washington Post. It revealed lies, the bombing of Cambodia in secret, and massive blunders by the US in Vietnam; Government requested prior restraint
Question: Did the Nixon administration’s efforts to prevent the publication (prior restraint) of what it termed “classified information” violate the First Amendment, freedom of the press?
Decision: Ruled in favor of the NYT and allowed publishing of papers.
Reasoning: Vague “security” threat not enough for the government to use prior restraint. Government would have to prove Publication would have inevitable, direct, and immediate threat to American forces
