This annotated list provides citations and brief descriptions of important Supreme Court decisions, presented in an A–Z format. Most of the cases are related in some way to the topics and cases treated in the chapters of this book. In addition, this list includes every case—except those already emphasized in the chapters— mentioned in the social studies standards of the state departments of education throughout the United States.
Chapter 23: The Judicial Path to the White House
The Presidential election of 2000 was a cliffhanger that was ultimately decided by a few hundred contested ballots in Florida. In order to win, either Vice President Al Gore, a Democrat, or Texas governor George W. Bush, a Republican and the son of former President George H. W. Bush, had to secure at least 270 electoral votes.
Chapter 22: Affirmative Action and the Boundaries of Discrimination
Simply stating that discrimination would no longer be tolerated did not translate into bringing new opportunity to those people who had suffered prejudicial treatment. The question became how to overcome the tension between an individual’s claim to equal treatment by a state, and that state’s responsibility to foster equality among its citizens.
Chapter 21: Presidential Immunity and the Watergate Crisis
On August 8, 1974, Richard M. Nixon announced that the following day he would resign as President of the United States, becoming the first chief executive to do so. Nixon acted in order to avoid impeachment and, in his words, to begin “that process of healing which is so desperately needed in America.”
Chapter 20: Abortion, Privacy, and Values in Conflict
Abortion has roiled the waters of modern American life as few other issues have. Beneath this debate are simmering differences over basic values: the rights of the unborn and the related matter of when life begins, the rights of women to control their reproductive functions and preserve their health, the expectation that women’s most important role is to bear children, and the role of the state in selecting among these values.
Chapter 19: Standards for Interpreting the Establishment Clause
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion . . . ” Americans have always agreed that this “establishment clause” prohibits the government from establishing or promoting a national religion. However, since the earliest years of the republic, Americans have disagreed about whether the establishment clause bans all government involvement with religion.
Chapter 18: Freedom of Speech in Public Schools
The controversy that led to the Tinker decision began at a late-November 1965 antiwar demonstration in Washington, D.C. Among the thousands of protestors at the nation’s capital were about fifty Iowans, including two high school students from Des Moines, John Tinker and Christopher Eckhardt.
Chapter 17: The Right to Remain Silent
Constitutional issues inevitably arise when the government’s efforts to prevent crime clash with the need to protect those accused of crime. The U.S. Supreme Court confronted such issues in Miranda v. Arizona (1966).
Chapter 16: Finding a Right to Privacy
Does the U.S. Constitution protect an individual’s right to privacy? Many Americans think it does. Others say it does not. The word “privacy” cannot be found in the U.S. Constitution.
Chapter 15: Freedom of the Press in a Free Society
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the rights of individuals to freedom of speech and the press by restricting the powers of the federal government.
Chapter 14: Establishing Equality in Voting and Representation
Given the centrality of the electoral process in a representative democracy, the right to vote is the citizen’s most precious political possession. Citizens can contribute significantly to the achievement of good government.
Chapter 13: Public School Desegregation
Brown v. Board of Education was the Court’s greatest twentieth-century decision, a pivotal case that separated one era from another and that permanently reshaped the debate about race and American society.
Chapter 12: A Decision to Limit Presidential Power
Separation of powers among three branches of government is a central principle in the U.S. Constitution. According to Articles 1, 2, and 3, the Congress makes laws, the President as chief executive enforces them, and the federal judges interpret them in specific cases.
Chapter 11: Internment of Japanese Americans During World War II
A Nation at war with a formidable enemy is a nation at risk. National security becomes a paramount concern of the government, which may, under certain conditions, decide to subordinate the constitutional rights of some individuals to the collective safety of the people.
Chapter 10: The Flag-Salute Cases
In a constitutional democracy such as the United States, there inevitably is tension between majority rule and the rights of individuals in the minority. Citizens and their government continually confront two challenging questions.
Chapter 9: Affirming the New Deal
The Great Depression that followed the Wall Street panic of November 1929 was an economic scourge of mammoth proportions. Its effects lingered for a decade and spread around the world. Unemployment soared to almost one-quarter of the American labor force in 1933, a twentieth century high.
Chapter 8: The Latitude and Limits of Free Speech
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law. . . abridging the freedom of speech.” It expresses an absolute prohibition of legislation that would deny this freedom. Constitutional protection of this fundamental civil liberty, however, has not been absolute.
Chapter 7: The Rights of Labor and the Rights of Women
Lochner v. New York (1905) and Muller v. Oregon (1908) addressed the important question of how far state governments could go in regulating the impact of the late-nineteenth-century industrial revolution on labor and women. Writing in 1787, the framers of the Constitution reserved to the states broad powers to deal with matters of health, safety, morals, and welfare.
Chapter 6: Separate But Not Equal
On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy waited at the Press Street railroad depot in New Orleans. He had a first-class ticket for a thirty-mile trip to Covington, Louisiana. The train arrived on time at 4:15 in the afternoon, and the nicely dressed, well-groomed young man entered the first-class carriage, took a seat, gave his ticket to the conductor, and boldly spoke words that led to his arrest and trial in a court of law.
Chapter 5: Civil Liberties and the Civil War
During a national crisis, such as the Civil War, there is inevitably severe tension between these two imperatives of constitutional government: maintaining both the security of the nation and the security of civil liberties for every individual within the nation.
Chapter 4: Denying an Appeal for Freedom
In 1857 the Supreme Court refused to grant Dred Scott’s petition for freedom from slavery. In the 1830s, Dred Scott had moved from St. Louis with his owner, Dr. Emerson, to the free state of Illinois. After Emerson’s death, Scott returned to St. Louis with the doctor’s widow.
Chapter 3: Steamboats, States’ Rights, and the Power of Congress
A dispute between two New York steamboat owners, Thomas Gibbons and Aaron Ogden, raised questions about the powers of Congress to regulate commercial activity within the states and among the different states of the union. Thus, the U.S. Supreme Court was called upon in Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) to settle for the first time a controversy about the meaning of the commerce clause in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution.
Chapter 2: The National Bank and Federalism
During the early years of the nineteenth century, many Americans were primarily loyal to their state rather than to the United States of America. Luther Martin of Maryland, for example, often spoke of Maryland as “my country.”
Chapter 1: The Rise of Judicial Review
Like many Supreme Court cases, the great case of Marbury v. Madison began simply. William Marbury and three other people did not receive appointments as justices of the peace for the District of Columbia. Their claim before the Court was the result of a general effort by the outgoing administration of President John Adams to place its Federalist supporters in newly created judicial positions.
Chapter 2 – What Kind of Government Did the Constitution Create?
Monarchs ruled the nations of the world when the U.S. Constitution was written in 1787. Some monarchies, such as the one that ruled Great Britain, also had parliaments in which the people and the aristocracy were represented. As parliamentary systems developed, they combined legislative and executive functions, with the prime minister and other cabinet members serving as members of Parliament. This differs sharply from the separation of powers established in our Constitution.