Court Decisions
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- John Marshall
- Chief Justice 1801-1835 (established role of gov. and court, affirmed protect. for corp. and private economic institutions from local gov. interference. This allowed growth of the new industrial capitalist economy.
- Marbury v. Madison
- (1803) gave the Court the power of judicial review.
- U.S. v. Peters
- established the Court's right to coerce a state legislature
- Martin v. Hunter's Lessee
- confirmed the Court's right to overrule a state court
- Cohens v. Virginia
- (1821) States were no longer sovereign in all respects since they had ratified the Constitution. State courts must submit to federal jurisdiction.
- McCullough v. Maryland
- (1819) upheld the right of Congress to charter a national bank, thus putting into national law the doctrine of implied powers.
- Gibbons v. Ogden
- (1824) gave the national government undisputed control over interstate commerce by ruling invalid a steamboat monopoly chartered by New York state. This freed internal transportation from state restraint.
- Fletcher v. Peck
- (1810) established the principle that state laws were invalid when in conflict with the Constitution
- Dartmouth College v. Woodward
- (1819) by forbidding the state legislature to alter the college charter, established the principle that charters were contracts which could not be impaired.
- Martin v. Mott
- (1827) denied a state the right to withhold its militia from service.
- Roger Brooke Taney
- 1836-1864; decided on Dred Scott case
- Charles E. Hughes
- 1930-1941, presided court during Great Depression/New Deal era. Master of consensus, guided court in transformation from opposing New Deal legislation to acceptance of programs for a new national economy.
- William Howard Taft
- 1921-1930 appointed by Harding. Remembered for innovations in judicial administration. Successfully pressed Congress to pass laws that gave court unlimited discretion to decide which cases it will hear.
- Earl Warren
- 1953-1969 former CA governor, though appointed by Republican Eisenhower, took a decidedly liberal course.legacy includes decisions forbidding school segregation, fairer mapping of voting districts and enhancing rights of defendants in criminal trials.
- John Jay
- 1789-1795; 1st Chief Justice
- Warren Earl Burger
- 1969-1986; made the Court's work more efficient, promoter of judicial reform,promoted a national court of appeals and worked to increase the competence of lawyers trying cases in federal court.
- Dred Scott v. Sanford
- 1857 - Missouri Compromise declared unconstitutional b/c it deprived a person of his property without due process of law. second time they asserted power of judicial review. also stated that slaves are not citizens of any state
- Munn v. Illinois
- 1877 States were allowed to regulate businesses when "a public interest" was involved. This principle was weakened by rulings in other cases in the late nineteenth century.
- U.S. v. E.C. Knight Co.
- 1895- stated that manufacturing and commerce are not connected, and that the Sherman Anti-Trust Act could not be applied to manufacturers, the Court seriously impaired the government's ability to regulate monopolies
- Plessy v. Ferguson
- 1896- Supreme Court ruled that state laws enforcing segregation by race are constitutional if accommodations are equal as well as separate. Subsequently overturned by Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
- Northern Securities Co. v. U.S.
- 1904- High Court backed government action against big businesses that restrained trade, in effect, putting teeth in the Sherman Anti-Trust Act
- Muller v. Oregon
- 1908-Court ruled that a state could legislate maximum working hours based on evidence complied by attorney Louis Brandeis.
- Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey Et Al. v. U.S.
- 1911- The Court dissolved the Standard Oil Trust not because of its size but because of its unreasonable restraint of trade. The principle involved is called "the rule of reason."
- Schenck v. U.S.
- 1919-Court upheld the World War I Espionage Act. In a landmark decision dealing with free speech, Justice Oliver W. Holmes said that a person who encourages draft resistance during a war is a "clear and present danger."
- Schechter v. U.S.
- 1935- Invalidating the National Industrial Recovery Act of the New Deal, the Court declared that Congress could not delegate its powers to the President.
- Dennis Et Al. v. U.S.
- 1951-Supreme Court ruled the 1946 Smit Act constitutional; the act made it a crime to advocate the overthrow of the government by force. In its 1957 Yates v. U.S. decision, the Court tempered this ruling by permitting such advocacy in the abstract if it is not connected to action to achieve this goal.
- Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
- 1954-In an example of sociological jurisprudence, the Court held unconstitutional laws enforcing segragated schools; it called for desegregation of schools "with all deliberate speed."
- Roth v. U.S.
- 1957-ruling based obscenity decisions on whether a publication appeals to "prurient interests." The Court also said that obscene material is that which lacks any "redeeming social importance."
- Mapp v. Ohio
- 1961-The High Court extended the federal exclusionary rule to the states; this rule prevented prosecutors from using illegally obtained evidence in a criminal trial.
- Baker v. Carr
- 1962-Court held that state legislatures must be apportioned to provide equal protection under the law (Fourteenth Amendment). A follow-up decision applied the same principle to the size of congressional districts, insisting that they be approximately equal in population.
- Miranda v. Arizona
- 1966-case declared that before questioning suspects, police must inform them of their right=silent,any statements they make=used against them,right to remain silent until have attorney, which the state will provide if they cannot afford to pay.
- Furman v. Georgia
- 1972-Court found unconstitutional all death penalty statues then in force in the states, but held out the possibility that if they were rewritten so as to be less subjective and randomly imposed, they might be constitutional (as the Court has subsequently held in many instances).
- Roe v. Wade
- 1973- Court ruled state anti-abortion laws unconstitutional, except as they apply to the last trimester of pregnancy.
- University of California v. Bakke
- 1978- ruling allowed a university to admit students on the basis of race if the school's aim is to combat discrimination. Subsequent decisions of the Court have filled in the details of how government and business may use quotas to make up for past racism.
- Bowers v. Hardwick
- 1986-In a case involving enforcement of Georgia's law against sodomy, the Court ruled that states have the power to regulate sexual relations in private between consenting adults.
- Scopes Monkey Trial
- Clarence Darrow vs. William Bryan Jennings over the teaching of evolution and fundamentalism