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Marbury vs. Madison
major conflict: William Marbury had been commissioned justice of the peace in the District of Columbia by President John Adams in the “midnight appointments” at the very end of his administration. When the new administration did not deliver the commission, Marbury sued James Madison, Jefferson's Secretary of State.
Decided:
The decision was the first by the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional and void an act passed by Congress that the Court considered in violation of the Constitution. -
McCulloch v.Maryland
major conflict: Dealing specifically with the constitutionality of a Congress-chartered corporation, and more generally with the dispersion of power between state and federal governments.
Decided:Ruled in favor of McCulloch by finding that Congress had a constitutional power to establish a national bank and states could not legally interfere with federal law. -
gibbons v. odgen
major conflict: Gibbons only had a coasting license granted by the Federal Government, rather than under a license issued by either State. Because Gibbons had no New York license, Ogden asked the New York courts to issue an injunction forbidding him landing to the New york port. The New York courts issued the injunction.
Decided:That a state cannot grant exclusive rights to navigate in its waters, because this is a breach of Congress' right to regulate interstate commerce, as a constitution. -
Dred Scott vs. Sanford
major conflict: Dred Scott sued, claiming that his residence in a free territory granted him freedom. Deciscion: In a 7-2 vote, the Supreme Court decided that Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in the territories, making the already repealed Missouri Compromise of1820 unconstitutional. -
Plessy vs. Ferguson
major conflict:A black citizen, Plessy, was jailed for refusing to leave a car that was reserved for white passengers. He appealed to the Supreme Court on the basis that the principle of "equal but separate" violated his rights under the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. Decision: The Court, in a 7-1 vote, upheld the "separate but equal" doctrine which lasted until they reversed it in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. -
Gitlow v. New York
major conflict:Benjamin Gitlow, a member of a radical faction of the Socialist Party, was charged with violating the New York State Criminal Anarchy Act of 1902 for writing "The Revolutionary Age" and the "Left Wing Manifesto." Decision: The Court ruled that the Act did neither of these things. However, in their ruling, the Supreme Court incorporated the freedoms of speech and press, beginning two decades worth of cases which ultimately incorporated the entire First Amendment and many others. -
Powell v. Alabama
In an Alabama Court, seven indigent, ignorant, minor African-Americans had been falsely charged with the rape of two white girls and convicted in a one-day trial in a mob-dominated atmosphere without the benefit of proper defense counsel. The Supreme Court incorporated the right to counsel through the Fourteenth Amendment's "due process clause." -
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
Main deciscion: An African-American girl, Linda Carol Brown, was not allowed to attend a school four blocks from her house because it was for white students. Instead, she had to walk twenty-one blocks to the nearest all-black school. Decision: In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court reversed the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision saying that separate but equal is inherently unequal. the Court stated that local school systems should develop their own plans for desegregation to take effect. -
NAACP v. Alabama
major conflict: The state of Alabama had ordered the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to disclose its membership lists. At the time, the NAACP was involved in a bitter civil rights struggle. Decision: The Supreme Court ruled that Alabama's demand for the lists had violated the freedom of association as guaranteed by the First Amendment -
Mapp v. Ohio
Major conflict:Cleveland police, without a warrant, raided Ms. Mapp's home and found obscene material even though the Fourth Amendment, as incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment's "due process clause," protected her from improper law enforcement procedures. Decision:The Supreme Court extended the "exclusionary rule" to citizens in State courts, stating that condemning unreasonable searches would be useless unless the evidence obtained in these searches was excluded. -
Gideon v. Wainwright
Major conflict: gideon felt his 4th amendment right was violated.
Decision: The Court incorporated the Sixth Amendment's right to counsel and reversed his conviction, allowing him to be retried, this time with the help of counsel. Gideon went back to trial and this time he was found innocent of the charges. -
Abington School District v. Schempp
Major conflict:students were asked to stand and repeat the Lord's Prayer right before the flag salute. The Schempp family, who were of the Unitarian faith, challenged the state law claiming that it was unconstitutional in supporting religion and specific denominations at that.
Decision:The Supreme Court reaffirmed the First Amendment's forbiddance of laws building the establishment of a religion. -
Wesberry v. Sanders
Major conflict: A group of voters in Georgia charged that population variations among the legislative districts of Georgia were so great as to violate Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution.
Decision: In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the principle that one person's vote in a Congressional election should be worth as much as another's; this is known as the "one man, one vote" standard. -
Griswold v. Connecticut
Major conflict:A physician had been arrested for giving information about contraception to a married couple because Connecticut law prohibited the use of "any drug, medicinal article, or instrument for the purpose of preventing conception."
Decision:The Court overturned the Connecticut law stating that it infringed upon people's right to privacy. This decision raised more questions concerning the unenumerated rights mentioned in the Ninth Amendment. -
Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections
major conflict:The Supreme Court found that Virginia's poll tax was in conflict with the Fourteenth Amendment's "equal protection clause."
Decision:They could find no reasonable relationship between voting and paying a tax. This paved the way for eliminating all restrictions on voting.
