AP Gov Court Cases

an 1803 case in which Chief Justice John Marshall and his associates first asserted the right of the Supreme Court to determine the meaning of U.S. Constitution. The decision established the Court’s power of judicial review over acts of Congress, in this case the Judiciary Act of 1789

an 1819 Supreme Court decision that established the supremacy of the nation government over state governments. In deciding this case, Chief Justice John Marshall and his colleagues held that Congress had certain implied powers in addition to the enumerated powers found in the Constitution

a landmark case decided in 1824 in which the Supreme Court interpreted very broadly the clause in Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution giving Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce, encompassing virtually every form of commercial activity

In 1833, the Supreme Court said that the Bill of Rights retained only the national government, not states and cities

the 1925 Supreme Court decision holding that freedoms of press and speech are “fundamental personal rights and liberties protected by the due process clause of the 14th Amendment from impairment by the states” as well as by the federal government

the 1971 Supreme Court decision that established that aid to church-related schools must (1) have a secular legislative purpose, (2) have a primary effect that neither advances nor inhibits religions, and (3) not foster excessive government entanglement with religion

a landmark decision in 2002 where the Court upheld a program that provided some families in Cleveland, Ohio vouchers that could be used to pay tuition at religious schools

the 1962 Supreme Court decision holding that state officials violated the 1st Amendment when they wrote a prayer to be recited by New York’s schoolchildren

the Supreme Court decision holding that the 1st Amendment protects newspapers from prior restraint

a Supreme Court decision holding that a proper search warrant could be applied to a newspaper as well as to anyone else without necessarily violating the 1st Amendment rights to freedom of the press

a 1957 Supreme Court decision ruling that “obscenity is not within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press”

a 1973 Supreme Court decision that avoided defining obscenity by holding that community standards be used to determine whether material is obscene in terms of appealing to a “prurient interest” and being “patently offensive” and lacking in value

decided in 1964, this case established the guidelines for determining whether public officials and public figures could win damage suits for libel. To do so, individuals must prove that the defamatory statements were made with “actual malice” and reckless disregard for the truth

a 1989 case in which the Supreme Court struck down a law banning the burning of the American flag on the grounds that such action was symbolic speech protected by the 1st Amendment

a 1974 case in which the Supreme Court held that a state could not force a newspaper to print replies from candidates it had criticized, illustrating the limited power of government to restrict the print media

a 1969 case in which the Supreme Court upheld restrictions on radio and television broadcasting. These restrictions on the broadcast media are much tighter than those on the print media because there are only a limited number of broadcasting frequencies available

the Supreme Court protected the right to assemble peacefully in this 1958 case when it decided the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) did not have to reveal its membership list and thus subject its members to harassment

the 1961 Supreme Court decision ruling that the 4th Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures must be extended to the states as well as to the federal government

the 1966 Supreme Court decision that sets guidelines for police questioning of accused persons to protect them against self-incrimination and to protect their right to counsel

the 1963 Supreme Court decision holding that anyone accused of a felony where imprisonment may be imposed, however poor he or she might be, has a right to a lawyer

the 1976 Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty, stating that “It is not an extreme sanction, suitable to the most extreme of crimes.” The court did not, therefore, believe that the death sentence constitutes cruel and unusual punishment

the 1987 Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty against charges that it violated the 14th Amendment because minority defendants were more likely to receive the death penalty than by White defendants

the 1973 Supreme Court decision holding that a state ban on all abortions was unconstitutional. The decision forbade state control over abortions during the first trimester of pregnancy, permitted states to limit abortions to protect the mother’s health in the second trimester, and permitted states to protect the fetus during the third trimester

a 1992 case in which the Supreme Court loosened its standard for evaluating restrictions on abortion from one of “strict scrutiny” of any restraints on a “fundamental right” to one of “undue burden” that permits considerably more regulation

the 1857 Supreme Court decision ruling that a slave who had escaped to a free state enjoyed no rights as a citizen and that Congress had no authority to ban slavery in the territories

an 1896 Supreme Court decision that provided a constitutional justification for segregation by ruling that Louisiana law requiring “equal but separate accommodations for the White and colored races” was constitutional

the 1954 Supreme Court decision holding that school segregation in Topeka, Kansas, was inherently unconstitutional because it violated the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection. This case marked the end of legal segregation in the United States

a 1944 Supreme Court decision that upheld as constitutional the internment of more than 100,000 Americans of Japanese descent in encampments during World War II

the landmark case in 1971 in which the Supreme Court for the first time upheld a claim of gender discrimination

in the 1976 ruling, the Supreme Court established the “medium scrutiny” standard for determining gender discrimination

a 1978 Supreme Court decision holding that a state university could not admit less qualified individuals solely because of their race

a 1995 Supreme Court decision holding that federal programs that classify people by race, even for an ostensibly benign purpose such as expanding opportunities for minorities, should be presumed to be unconstitutional