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Gibbons v. Ogden
Can a state regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the states while Congress is regulating it? the Court broadened federal power over interstate commerce. The Court overturned a New York law that had awarded a monopoly over steamboat traffic on the Hudson River, ruling that the Constitution had specifically given Congress the power to regulate commerce. -
Dred Scott v. Sanford
did the citizenship rights guaranteed by the Constitution apply to African Americans, and could Congress prohibit slavery in new states? the U.S. Supreme Court stated that enslaved people were not citizens of the United States and, therefore, could not expect any protection from the federal government or the courts. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
considered the constitutionality of an 1890 Louisiana law that required railway companies to provide equal, but separate accommodations for white and African American passengers either with separate cars or by dividing a car into two sections with a partition. -
Korematsu v. United States
Did the President and Congress go beyond their war powers by implementing exclusion and restricting the rights of Americans of Japanese descent? a divided Supreme Court ruled, in a 6-3 decision, that the detention was a “military necessity” not based on race. -
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
argued that the question of whether racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal, and thus beyond the scope of the separate but equal doctrine.The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits states from segregating public school students based on race. This marked a reversal of the "separate but equal" doctrine from Plessy v. -
Miranda v. Arizona
"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning." this protected you from self-incriminating. -
United States v. Nixon
Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 (1974), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court unanimously ordered President Richard Nixon to deliver tape recordings and other subpoenaed materials related to the Watergate scandal to a federal district court. -
Wade v Roe
The question was Does the Constitution recognize a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy by abortion? abortion nationwide. It protected the right to access abortion legally all across the country and freed many patients to access the care they needed when they needed it — without fear. -
Texas v. Johnson
Question: Is flag burning protected as symbolic speech by the First Amendment? A divided Supreme Court held that burning the flag was a protected expression under the First Amendment. -
Obergefell v. Hodges
Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex? the U.S. Supreme Court held in a 5–4 decision that the Fourteenth Amendment requires all states to grant same-sex marriages and recognize same-sex marriages granted in other states.