Supreme Court Cases

Question 1

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Answer 1

Separate but equal was ruled to violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Question 2

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

Answer 2

The U.S. Constitution did not extend American citizenship to enslaved people and could not expect any protection from the federal government or the courts. It also stated Congress had no authority to ban slavery from a Federal territory.

Question 3

Engel v. Vitale (1962)

Answer 3

School-sponsored prayer violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Since Americans adhere to a wide variety of beliefs, it is not appropriate for the government to endorse any particular belief system.

Question 4

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

Answer 4

States cannot interfere with the power of Congress to regulate commerce.

Question 5

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)

Answer 5

The Sixth Amendment requires state courts to provide attorneys for criminal defendants facing felony charges who cannot otherwise afford counsel.

Question 6

Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier (1988)

Answer 6

School officials have power of censorship over student newspapers that are not considered public forums.

Question 7

Korematsu v. United States (1944)

Answer 7

About Japanese internment after Pearl Harbor - the court ruled that the need to protect the country was a greater priority than the individual rights of the people of Japanese descent forced into internment camps.

Question 8

Mapp v. Ohio (1961)

Answer 8

In state criminal proceedings, any evidence obtained through an unreasonable search and seizure is inadmissible and violates the Fourth Amendment.

Question 9

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

Answer 9

Established the principle that the Supreme Court could overrule an act of Congress and the power of federal courts to interpret the nation’s laws.

Question 10

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

Answer 10

Affirmed the right of implied powers, that there were powers that the federal government had that were not specifically mentioned in the Constitution, but were implied by it. In addition, the Supreme Court found that states are not allowed to make laws that would interfere with congressional laws that are allowed by the Constitution.

Question 11

Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

Answer 11

Established that under the Fifth Amendment, an individual cannot be compelled to incriminate himself. Known as Miranda warnings.

Question 12

New Jersey v. T. L. O. (1985)

Answer 12

Established the standards by which a public school official can search a student in a school environment, and to what extent. They require a “reasonable suspicion” to perform a search.

Question 13

Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)

Answer 13

Ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.

Question 14

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Answer 14

Upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine.

Question 15

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)

Answer 15

Upheld affirmative action, allowing race to be one of several factors in college admission policy. However, the court ruled that specific racial quotas were impermissible.

Question 16

Roe v. Wade (1973)

Answer 16

Struck down a Texas statute banning abortion, effectively legalizing the procedure across the United States. The court held that a woman’s right to an abortion was implicit in the right to privacy protected by the 14th Amendment

Question 17

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022)

Answer 17

Held that the Constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion. The court’s decision overruled both Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), giving individual states the full power to regulate any aspect of abortion not protected by federal law.

Question 18

Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992)

Answer 18

Upheld the right to have an abortion as established by the “essential holding” of Roe v. Wade (1973) and issued as its “key judgment” the imposition of the undue burden standard when evaluating state-imposed restrictions on that right.

Question 19

Schenck v. United States (1919)

Answer 19

Concerning the enforcement of the Espionage Act of 1917 during World War I. Concluded that Charles Schenck, who distributed flyers to draft-age men urging resistance to induction, could be convicted of an attempt to obstruct the draft, a criminal offense. The First Amendment did not protect Schenck from prosecution. Schenck was largely overturned by Brandenburg v. Ohio, which limited the scope of banned speech to that which would be directed to and likely to incite imminent lawless action (e.g. a riot).

Question 20

Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969)

Answer 20

The government cannot punish inflammatory speech unless that speech is “directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.”

Question 21

Texas v. Johnson (1989)

Answer 21

Held that burning the American flag was protected speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as doing so counts as symbolic speech and political speech.

Question 22

Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)

Answer 22

Defined First Amendment rights of students in U.S. public schools. Decision held that the First Amendment applied to public schools and that administrators would have to demonstrate constitutionally valid reasons for any specific regulation of speech in the classroom.

Question 23

United States v. Nixon (1974)

Answer 23

Ordered Nixon to deliver tape recordings and other subpoenaed materials to a federal district court. Considered a crucial precedent limiting the power of any U.S. president to claim executive privilege.