Required Supreme Court Cases

Question 1

What Supreme Court case established the principle of Judicial Review?

Answer 1

Marbury v Madison

Question 2

Why is the power of judicial review important?

Answer 2

Because it allows the Supreme Court to declare things as constitutional or unconstitutional

Question 3

Which Supreme Court Case ruled that the National Bank was one of Congress’s implied powers?

Answer 3

McCulloch v Maryland

Question 4

What’s the Supreme Court case McCulloch v Maryland about?

Answer 4

Whether a state bank was able to tax a federal bank.

Question 5

What was the ruling in McCulloch v Maryland?

Answer 5

That the power to tax is the power to destroy. That the National Bank was one of Congress’s implied powers and that states could not tax the National Bank.

Question 6

What was the Supreme Court Case Schenck v U.S. about?

Answer 6

Two citizens during World War 1 were passing out papers convincing people to resist the military draft.

They were found guilty of violating the Espionage Act.

Question 7

What was the final ruling in Schenck v United States?

Answer 7

The Supreme Court upheld the guilty verdict, saying their speech constituted “clear and present danger”.

The Supreme Court no longer uses this case as stare decisis, and instead, use the Brandenburg v Ohio ruling.

So in other words, you need to know the outcome of the case and know that it’s not used anymore by the courts.

Question 8

What Supreme Court case said that the segregation of Public Schools was unconstitutional?

Answer 8

Brown v Board of Education

Question 9

What Supreme Court case did Brown v Board of Education overturn?

Answer 9

Plessy v Furguson.

That Supreme Court case established racial segregation throughout the USA, by saying segregated facilities for non-whites were “separate, but equal” to those of white people.

Question 10

What is the important thing to remember about Brown v Board of Education?

Answer 10

This case wouldn’t end all segregation in all aspects of society, but it was an important first step in dismantling Jim Crow White Supremacy throughout the USA.

Many wealthier white people, after the ruling from the Supreme Court, especially in the South, began to take their kids out of public schools and move them into private schools where the only non-whites were of the wealthy variety.

Question 11

What was Baker v Carr about?

Answer 11

It said that the courts could hear cases that had to deal with how a state redrew its political maps after the census.

Before this case, many courts had previously ruled that the redrawing of political maps after the census was a “political question” and thus, could not be ruled on by the courts. But Baker v Carr changed that and said they absolutely could, especially if the maps violated the “equal protection” clause of the 14th amendment

Question 12

What was Engle v Vitale about?

Answer 12

It was the Supreme Court case that ruled prayer in public schools was a government endorsement of religion, and therefore unconstitutional. It also stated that separating religion from the government was important, found in the 1st amendment.

Question 13

What was Gideon v Wainwright about?

Answer 13

A Flordia court refused to provide a free lawyer to Clarence Gideon, who did not have the money to buy one.

Clarence sued and the Supreme Court ruled that the sixth amendment of the constitution, which guarantees your right in federal court to a lawyer, should also be applied to all of the states, due to the incorporation doctrine of the 14th amendment

Question 14

What is the incorporation doctrine of the 14th Amendment?

Answer 14

Words of the 14th amendment: “Nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”

Basically, that part of the 14th amendment says that all of the Bill of Rights apply to the states, just like they apply to the federal government.

But rather than incorporating the first 8 amendments all at once, the Supreme Court is selective about which rights it incorporates through the 14th amendment.

That’s why we say the Supreme Court uses “Selective Incorporation”.

Question 15

What was Tinker v Des Moines about?

Answer 15

Three students had worn black armbands to school, in order to protest the Vietnam War.

They got punished for wearing them, but the court ruled that the school district was doing something unconstitutional by silencing the student’s symbolic speech.

Question 16

What was New York Times vs United States about?

Answer 16

It was about how Nixon was trying to stop a newspaper called the New York Times from publishing a report showing all the shady dealing that the US had done in Vietnam over the course of like 20 years.

The court ruled in favor of the New York Times, and said that Nixon’s attempted actions were violating the first amendment right of freedom of the press.

Question 17

What was Wisconsin v Yoder about?

Answer 17

It was about how Amish kids were being forced to attend school by the state of Wisconsin. State law required the kids to be in school until age 16.

The Supreme Court ruled against the state of Wisconsin, saying that forcing Amish kids to attend school until the age of 16 was a violation of their free exercise of religion.

Question 18

What is Roe v Wade’s justification?

Answer 18

People have a constitutional right to privacy.

Women’s right to privacy is found in the Bill of Rights.

Women’s right to privacy is protected against state laws, due to the 14th amendment’s incorporation doctrine.

The choice of whether to terminate your pregnancy early is a private decision, thus why government laws making abortion illegal were declared unconstitutional.

Question 19

What was Shaw v Reno about?

Answer 19

Although the racial gerrymander was trying to provide *more* racial representation in Congress, the Supreme Court ruled that race could not be the predominant factor in creating congressional districts.

Question 20

What was US v Lopez about?

Answer 20

It was a historic Supreme Court case in that it found that Congress had overstepped its authority under the commerce clause by trying to regulate whether or not a child could bring a gun to school. This was because the commerce clause had to do with Congress regulating interstate activity.

Since the kid bringing a gun to school was not an obvious interstate activity, this issue needed to be handled at the local and state level, not the federal level.

So US v Lopez limited federal power in this case.

Question 21

What Supreme Court case had the opposite effect of US v Lopez, despite being a court ruling on the same part of the constitution?

Answer 21

This was the same commerce clause that had been used to justify the National Bank in McCulloch v Maryland.

This court case did not overturn McCulloch v Maryland, but it did limit federal power in what it could regulate using the commerce clause.

Question 22

What is the Supreme Court Case McDonald v Chicago about?

Answer 22

It incorporated the 2nd amendment right to bear arms. It basically said that, because of the 14th amendment, states had to respect a citizen’s desire to own a gun.

Question 23

What is Citizens United v Federal Election Commission about?

Answer 23

It ruled that corporations were people, and as such, a corporation’s political contributions to political candidates could not be limited.

This had led to the creation of “Super PACs”, which are basically political groups that are fed money by the wealthy, and these Super PACs can throw hundreds of millions of dollars into any election they want, influencing the types of ads that are run on tv, radio, and social media.