Every Supreme Court case
deals with important constitutional principles. Some cases have had such an
enduring impact on
Name of Case: Marbury
v.
Year: 1803
Constitutional Principle:
-
Separation of powers
- The
judiciary.
Why Decision is Important:
- Established
the Supreme Court’s right of judicial review.
-
Strengthened the judiciary in relation to other branches of government.
Name of Case: McCulloch v.
Year: 1819
Constitutional Principle:
-
Federalism
- National
power
- The
judiciary
Why Decision is Important:
- Supported
the use of the elastic clause to expand federal power.
-
Established the principle of national supremacy- that the Constitution and
federal laws overrule state laws when the two conflict.
Name of Case: Gibbons v.
Year: 1824
Constitutional Principle:
-
Federalism
- Property
rights and economic policy.
- The
judiciary
Why Decision is Important:
-
Established the basis of congressional regulation of interstate commerce.
-
Reinforced the supremacy of national law over state law when the two conflict.
Name of Case:
Year: 1832
Constitutional Principle:
-
Federalism
- National
power.
-
Separation of powers.
- Equality.
Why Decision is Important:
- Stated
that treaties between the
- Declared
that the federal government, not the state, had exclusive jurisdiction over
- Cherokee
nation’s territory; therefore, Georgia laws taking jurisdiction of Cherokee
people and land were void.
- President
Jackson supported Georgia in defying this ruling, and Native American removal
followed.
Name of Case: Scott v. Sanford
Year: 1857
Constitutional Principle:
- The
judiciary
- Equality
Why Decision is Important:
- Declared
that slaves were property and that slaveholders could take them anywhere.
Without risk of the slaves being freed.
- Ruled
that African American were not citizens.
- Declared
the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional; this decision was overturned by the
Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendment.
Name of Case: Civil Rights Cases
Year: 1883
Constitutional Principle:
- Equality
- National
power.
Why decision is Important:
- Judged
that racial discrimination by private persons did not place the “badge of
slavery” of African Americans nor keep them in servitude.
- Ruled
that neither Congress nor the Court has the powers to deal with private acts
of acts of discrimination.
Name of Case: Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific RR
v. Illinois
Year: 1886
Constitutional Principle:
- National
power
- Federalism
Why Decision is Important:
- The
supreme Court forbade any state to set rates, even within its own borders, on
railroad traffic entering from or bound for another state. This paved the way
for the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887.
Name of Case: United States v. E.C. Knight Co.
Year: 1895
Constitutional Principle:
- National
power
Why Decision is Important:
- Ruled
that Congress has the right to protect trade and commerce against unlawful
restraints and monopolies.
Name of Case: In Re Debs
Year: 1895
Constitutional Principles:
- National
power
Why Decision is Important:
-
Reinforced that the right of Congress to regulate interstate commerce extends
to the commerce that is conducted by railroad and highway.
- Ruled
that the federal government has the right to intervene forcibly to eliminate
monopolies in transportation of people, property, and mail.
Name of Case: Plessy
v. Ferguson
Year: 1896
Constitutional Principle:
- Equality
- Rights of
minority groups
Why decision is Important:
- Gave
legal justification for racial segregation for different races were legal as
long as those facilities were equal to one another.
-
Overturned in 1954 by Brown v. Board of Education.
Name of Case: Northern Securities Co. v. United
States
Year: 1904
Constitutional Principle:
- National
power
Why Decision is Important:
- Property
rights and economic policy.
- Federal
suit brought as part of Theodore Roosevelt’s trust-busting using Sherman
Anti-trust Act.
- Court in
5-4 decision ruled that the Northern securities Company was formed only to
eliminate competition and ordered it to be dissolved.
Name of Case: Locher
v. New York
Year: 1905
Constitutional Principle:
- Property
rights and economic policy
- Civil
liberties
Why Decision is Important:
- Established
that the Supreme Court has the power to oversee state regulations.
- Ruled hat
a New York law limiting baker’s hours was unconstitutional because it
interfered with workers’ Fourteenth Amendment right to sell their labor to
their employers.
Name of Case: Muller v. Oregon
Year: 1908
Constitutional Principle:
- Civil
liberties
-
Federalism
- Rights of
women
Why Decision is Important:
- Let stand
an Oregon law that limited women to a 10-hour work day in laundries or
factories in order to protect women’s health.
- Stated
that the need of the state to protect women’s health outweighed the liberty to
make a contract (a liberty that was upheld in Lochner).
Name of Case: Schenck
v. United States
Year: 1919
Constitutional Principle:
- Civil
liberties
Why Decision is Important:
-
Established limits on free speech holding that this right is not absolute.
- Set the
‘clear and present danger’ standard for when free speech can be restricted.
Name of Case: Schechter
Poultry Corporation v. United States
Year: 1935
Constitutional Principle:
-
Separation of powers
- Property
rights and economic policy
Why Decision is Important:
- Placed
limits on the ability of Congress to delegate legislative powers to President.
- Narrowly
defined interstate commerce.
- Declared
the New Deal’s NRA unconstitutional.
Name of Case: Korematsu
v. United States
Year: 1944
Constitutional Principle:
- Equality
- Rights of
minority groups
Why Decision is Important:
- Ruled
that the forcible relocation of Japanese Americans to Wartime Relocation Agency
camps during World War II was legal.
Name of Case: Brown v. Board of Education
Year: 1954
Constitutional Principle:
- Equality
- Rights of
minority groups
Why Decision is Important:
- Ruled
that segregation in education creates inequality.
-
Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and nullified the
concept of “Separate but equal.”
Name of Case: Watkins v. United States
Year: 1957
Constitutional Principle:
- Civil
liberties
Why Decision is Important:
- Ruled
that the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) could not punish at will
those witness who refused to cooperate.
Name of Case: Mapp v.
Ohio
Year: 1961
Constitutional Principle:
- Avenues
of representation
-
Federalism
Why Decision is Important:
- Upheld
the principle that population is the only acceptable basis for the
apportionment of seats in a legislative body.
-
Established that the Supreme Court has cases when that reapportionment
threatens voters rights.
Name of Case: Engel v. Vitale
Year: 1962
Constitutional Principle:
- Civil
liberties
Why Decision is Important:
-
Reinforced the separation of church and state.
- Ruled
that use of the public schools to encourage prayer or other religious practices
is a direct violation of the establishment clause.
Name of Case: Gideon v. Wainwright
Year: 1963
Constitutional Principle:
- Civil
liberties
Why Decision is Important:
- Ruled
that to deny legal representation to defendants who can not afford to pay for
it is a violation of those individual’s constitutional rights.
Name of Case: Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United
States
Year: 1964
Constitutional Principle:
- Equality
- National
power
Why Decision is Important:
- Found
racial segregation of private facilities engaged in interstate commerce
unconstitutional.
Name of Case: Miranda v. Arizona
Year: 1966
Constitutional Principle:
- Criminal
procedures
- Civil
liberties
Why decision is Important:
-
Established the requirement to inform people accused of crimes that they have
the right to remain silent and receive legal representation before they say
anything that can be held against them in court.
Name of Case: Tinker v. Des Moines Independent
Community School District
Year: 1969
Constitutional Principle:
-Civil
liberties
Why Decision is Important:
- Ruled
that certain kinds of nonverbal communication can be protected under the First
Amendment.
Name of Case: New York Times Co. v. United
States
Year: 1971
Constitutional Principle:
- Civil
liberties
Why Decision is Important:
- Gave the
media more power against governmental secrecy.
Name of Case: Roe v. Wade
Year: 1973
Constitutional Principle:
- Civil
liberties
Why Decision is Important:
-Ruled that
state laws that criminalize abortion are unconstitutional.
Name of Case: United States v. Nixon
Year: 1974
Constitutional Principle:
-
Separation of powers
Why Decision is Important:
- Limited
the President’s right to confidentiality.
- Gave
federal courts the right to decide when and how that confidentiality should be
limited.
Name of Case: New Jersey v. T.L.O.
Year: 1985
Constitutional Principle:
- civil
liberties
Why Decision is Important:
- Ruled
that juveniles have the right to the same protection as adults against illegal
search and seizure.
- More
clearly defined what constituted a legal search and seizure.
Name of Case: Cruzan v. Director, Missouri
Department of Health
Year: 1990
Constitutional Principle:
- Civil
liberties
Why Decision is Important:
- ‘Clear
and convincing’ evidence was presented to demonstrate that a Missouri woman
(Cruzan) in a coma from 1983 car accident should have the right to die.
Intravenous feeding was ended with court approval, and Cruzan subsequently
died.
Name of Case: Planned Parenthood of
Southeastern Pennsylvania et al. V. Casey
Year: 1992
Constitutional Principle:
- Civil
liberties
- Rights of
women
Why Decision is Important:
- Struck
down the portions of a Pennsylvania law requiring (1) that a woman seeking an
abortion must wait 24 hours between being informed about the procedure and
having it performed and (2) that a married woman must inform her husband that she
planned to have an abortion.
- Upheld
the portion of the law requiring minors to inform their parents before having
an abortion.