Court Cases

Question 0

Grutter v. Bollinger

Answer 0

Reinforced the Bakke case, specifically in graduate and law school. Race can be one criteria in selection of students, but not the only criteria.

Question 1

Dred Scott v. Sandford

Answer 1

Ruled that African-Americans were not citizens and therefore could not petition the Supreme Court.

Question 2

Korematsu v. United States

Answer 2

Upheld the constitutionality of internment camps during World War II.

Question 3

Plessy v. Ferguson

Answer 3

Upheld Jim Crow segregation by approving “separate but equal” public faculties for African-Americans.

Question 4

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke

Answer 4

Ruled that race could only be used as one factor among others in the competition of college admissions/jobs and that a quota system was unconstitutional.

Question 5

Marbury v. Madison

Answer 5

Established judicial review, which gave the courts the power to rule laws unconstitutional.

Question 6

Gibbons v. Ogden

Answer 6

Established congressional authority in the area of interstate commerce.

Question 7

United States v. Lopez

Answer 7

Ruled that the Gun Free Zone Act, which prohibited anyone fro possessing a gun within 1000 feet of a school, was unconstitutional because it violated the Tenth Amendment’s reserve power clause. The court ruled that the act had nothing to do with interstate commerce and the authority to pass such legislation rested with the states.

Question 8

Engle v. Vitale

Answer 8

Ruled that schools could not include a daily prayer as part of a formal daily activity because it violated the First Amendment’s separation of church and state.

Question 9

Lemon v. Kurtzman

Answer 9

Ruled that states could not provide aid to parochial schools. Also established the three-prong test for determining whether the establishment clause has been violated:

1. Purpose of the legislation must be secular, not religious.
2. Primary effect of the legislation must neither advance nor inhibit religion.
3. The legislation must avoid an excessive entanglement of government with religion.

Question 10

Reynolds v. United States

Answer 10

Ruled that outlawing polygamy was not a violation of the free exercise clause.

Question 11

Gitlow v New York

Answer 11

Created the “dangerous tendency” test and ruled that the First Amendment applied to the states by virtue of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This was the first time selective incorporation was used by the courts.

Question 12

Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire

Answer 12

Ruled that words that can inflict injury or cause a breach of the peace can be regulated.

Question 13

Schenck v. United States

Answer 13

Created the “clear and present danger” test, which allows the arrest and conviction of anybody who is creating a clear and present danger through actions or speech.

Question 14

Tinker v. Des Moines

Answer 14

Ruled that symbolic speech, such as wearing a black armband, was protected under the First Amendment. Also protected the rights of students in school unless there was a “material and substantial” disruption of the school environment.

Question 15

Texas v. Johnson

Answer 15

Ruled that burning the flag for the purpose of political protest was symbolic speech and constitutional.

Question 16

New York Times v. United States

Answer 16

Ruled that newspapers had the right to publish leaked government papers and that the government misused its authority of “prior restraint” when it asked the courts to censor the publications.

Question 17

District of Columbia v. Heller

Answer 17

Overturned a ban on guns in the District of Columbia and ruled that the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the right to bear arms was protected by federal laws.

Question 18

McDonald v. Chicago

Answer 18

Extended the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms to state laws. Also ruled that federal and state governments could still pass gun control legislation such as outlawing certain types of weapons and ammunition.

Question 19

Wolf v. Colorado

Answer 19

Made the Fourth Amendment applicable to the states through the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and allowed illegally obtained evidence to be used in state courts.

Question 20

Mapp v. Ohio

Answer 20

Overturned Wolf v. Colorado and established the Exclusionary Rule, which stated that illegally obtained evidence could not be used in court.

Question 21

Griswold v. Connecticut

Answer 21

Ruled that a law prohibiting obtaining information about birth control was illegal under the Fourth Amendment. Also stated that there was an inferred privacy right given to people in the Fourth Amendment.

Question 22

Roe v. Wade

Answer 22

Ruled that women had the constitutional right under the Fourth Amendment to an abortion.

Question 23

Planned Parenthood v. Casey

Answer 23

Upheld Roe v. Wade while also upholding a law requiring women seeking abortions had to wait 24 hours and requiring minors to get parental consent. It also ruled struck down a law requiring married women to inform their spouse that they were getting an abortion.

Question 24

Miranda v. Arizona

Answer 24

Ruled that police had to inform an individual at the time of their arrest the rights from the Fifth Amendment.

Question 25

Gideon v. Wainwright

Answer 25

Guaranteed that those accused of a crime would have the right to an attorney.

Question 26

Gregg v. Georgia

Answer 26

Ruled that the death penalty was not a cruel and unusual punishment.

Question 27

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas

Answer 27

Ruled that “separate but equal was inherently unequal” and ordered an end to school segregation.

Question 28

United States v. Virginia

Answer 28

Ruled that a school’s male only admissions policy was discriminatory towards women and that women had to be accepted. The decision broadened the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause.