Court Cases

Question 1

Established judicial review; “midnight judges;” John Marshall; power of the Supreme Court

Answer 1

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

Question 2

Established national supremacy; established implied powers; use of elastic clause; state unable to tax federal institution; John Marshall; “the power to tax involves the power to destroy.”

Answer 2

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

Question 3

Congress can legislate and regulate all matters of interstate commerce as long as there is some commercial connection with another state.

Answer 3

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

Question 4

Congress has a right to regulate individual businesses in the interest of promoting interstate travel.

Answer 4

Heart of Atlanta Motel v. U.S. (1964)

Question 5

Gun Free School Zones Act exceeded Congress’ authority to regulate interstate commerce.

Answer 5

U.S. v. Lopez (1995)

Question 6

1st Amendment protects campaign spending; legislatures can limit contributions, but not how much one spends of his own money on campaigns.

Answer 6

Buckley v. Valeo (1976)

Question 7

A provision of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act prohibiting unions, corporations and not-for-profit organizations from broadcasting electioneering communications within 60 days of a general election or 30 days of a primary election violates the free speech clause of the First Amendment.

Answer 7

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)

Question 8

“One man, one vote.” Ordered state legislative districts to be as near equal as possible in population; Warren Court’s political judicial activism

Answer 8

Baker v. Carr (1962)

Question 9

Ordered House districts to be as near equal in population as possible.

Answer 9

Wesberry v. Sanders (1963)

Question 10

No racial gerrymandering; race cannot be the sole or predominant factor in redrawing legislative boundaries; majority-minority districts okay if race isn’t sole factor.

Answer 10

Shaw v. Reno (1993)

Question 11

Established the actual malice standard, which has to be met before press reports about public officials can be considered to be defamation and libel; and hence allowed free reporting of the civil rights campaigns

Answer 11

New York Times v. Sullivan (1964)

Question 12

Publication of information cannot be restrained by the government unless the information to be released jeopardizes national security. Reaffirmed freedom of the press.

Answer 12

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

Question 13

Executive privilege is a recognized constitutional right held by Presidents, but it is not immune from judicial review.

Answer 13

U.S. v. Nixon (1974)

Question 14

Separate but equal schools is inherently unequal and a violation of the 14th amendment equal protection clause. Schools must desegregate with all deliberate speed.

Answer 14

Brown v. Board of Education I and II (1954 and 1955)

Question 15

School sponsored prayer is a violation of the 1st amendment establishment clause.

Answer 15

Engel v. Vitale (1962)

Question 16

States must provide an attorney to indigent defendants regardless of the crime for which they are charged.

Answer 16

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)

Question 17

By virtue of the liberty protected by due process that no state shall deny (14th Amendment), states cannot restrict free speech unless such speech creates a dangerous tendency.

Answer 17

Gitlow v. New York (1925)

Question 18

Though the Constitution does not explicitly protect a general right to privacy, the various guarantees within the Bill of Rights create penumbras, or zones, that establish a right to privacy. Together, the First, Third, Fourth, and Ninth Amendments, create a new constitutional right, the right to privacy in marital relations.

Answer 18

Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)

Question 19

Compulsory exclusion, though constitutionally suspect, is justified during circumstances of “emergency and peril.”

Answer 19

Korematsu v. U.S. (1944)

Question 20

The Court held that a statute must pass a three-pronged test in order to avoid violating the Establishment Clause of the 1st amendment. The statute must have a secular legislative purpose, its principal or primary effect must be one that neither promotes nor inhibits religion, and it must not foster “excessive government entanglement with religion.”

Answer 20

Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971)

Question 21

“All evidence obtained by searches and seizures in violation of the Constitution is, by [the Fourth Amendment], inadmissible in a state court.” Mapp had been convicted on the basis of illegally obtained evidence. This was an historic – and controversial – decision. It placed the requirement of excluding illegally obtained evidence from court at all levels of the government. The decision launched the Court on a troubled course of determining how and when to apply the exclusionary rule.

Answer 21

Mapp v. Ohio (1962)

Question 22

The Supreme Court held that the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination is available in all settings. Therefore, prosecution may not use statements arising from a custodial interrogation of a suspect unless certain procedural safeguards were in place. Such safeguards include proof that the suspect was aware of his right to be silent, that any statement he makes may be used against him, that he has the right to have an attorney present, that he has the right to have an attorney appointed to him, that he may waive these rights if he does so voluntarily, and that if at any points he requests an attorney there will be no further questioning until the attorney arrives.

Answer 22

Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

Question 23

Separate but equal accommodations for blacks and whites is not a violation of the 14th amendment

Answer 23

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Question 24

The Court held that a woman’s right to an abortion fell within the right to privacy (recognized in Griswold v. Connecticut) protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision gave a woman total autonomy over the pregnancy during the first trimester and defined different levels of state interest for the second and third trimesters.

Answer 24

Roe v. Wade (1973)

Question 25

“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.

Answer 25

Schenck v. U.S. (1919)

Question 26

The use of race was permissible as one of several admission criteria. So, the Court managed to minimize white opposition to the goal of equality (by finding for Bakke) while extending gains for racial minorities through affirmative action.

Answer 26

University of California Regents v. Bakke (1978)

Question 27

Symbolic speech that is not disruptive is a protected form of speech

Answer 27

Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)

Question 28

The Court held that 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.

Answer 28

Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)

Question 29

The Supreme Court reversed the Seventh Circuit, holding that the Fourteenth Amendment makes the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense applicable to the states.

Answer 29

McDonald v. Chicago (2010)