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Plessey V Ferguson
In 1892, Homer Plessey refused to sit in the specified train car for black passengers, violating Louisiana´s separate cars act. The case was brought to the Supreme Court, which resulted in the decision that the segregation of public facilities was constitutional, as long as the quality of those places were equal. (Separate but equal) -
Brown V. Board of Education
In 1951, a public school in Topeka, Kansas refused to enroll Oliver Brown´s daughter because they were black, even though they lived in the district. The Browns and other black families in similar situations filed a class-action lawsuit against the Topeka Board of Education. It was later deemed unconstitutional to segregate public schools based on race. -
Gideon v. Wainwright
In 1963 Clarence Earl Gideon was charged with breaking and entering a pool hall. He requested a lawyer for the defense, but was denied by the Florida State Court and was sent to prison after trying to defend himself. The Supreme Court unanimously held that it was required for a court to appoint attorneys for those who could not afford their own. -
Miranda V Arizona
On March 13, 1963, Ernesto Miranda was arrested for the kidnapping and rape of a woman. After two hours of interrogation by the police, Miranda confessed. But he was never told his right to consult with an attorney before and during questioning. This resulted in the Miranda Rights being mandatory for the police while making an arrest. -
Heart of Atlanta Motel v. US
The Heart of Atlanta was a hotel in Georgia that was not allowing black people to come in and stay. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was just passed, but the hotel asked for the enforcement of a clause in Title II to stop, which forbid racist discrimination by public accommodation providers. They said it was exceeding the powers of Congress. The Court decided it was not exceeding the powers of Congress and that the hotel could not decline black visitors. -
Terry V Ohio
In Cleveland, Ohio in 1963, Martin McFadden saw a group of three men walking back and forth suspiciously on a block. McFadden, and on-duty police officer, thought they were being suspicious and suspected they were going to rob a store nearby so he decided to approach and search them and found two concealed guns. The issue of the case was the fact he searched them for being suspicious, but it was reasonable and that police can only pat down suspects. -
Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corp.
In 1971, Ida Phillips applied for a job at Martin Marietta Corp., which was a missile plant in Orlando, Florida. She was denied the job because she was a mother of seven children and they had a policy against hiring mothers of preschool-aged children. She sued for not being hired because of discrimination based on sex. The court ruled it as discriminatory. -
Wisconsin V. Yoder
Amish families refused to send their children to school past the eighth grade, which caused them to be fined $5 from the state, due to the law in Wisconsin that required children to go to school until they were at least 16. They argued that mandatory attendance went against their religion and violated the first amendment. The court decided that the state´s interest in education did not override their freedom of religion. -
United States V Nixon
After the Watergate scandal involving President Nixon, he was asked to give up tapes of his recorded phone calls. Nixon did not give them up, stating that he had the executive privilege to keep confidential information secret. He eventually released edited versions of those recordings, he and the prosecutor filed petitions to be heard by the Supreme Court. Nixon resigned before he could be impeached, as he was not allowed to withhold information from other branches of government. -
District of Columbia V. Heller
A security guard named Richard Heller carried a gun for his job but was unable to have one in his home, due to the laws of D.C. Richard and five others sued while arguing that it was violating the second amendment. The court decided that they should be able to have guns in their home due to the second amendment. It was the first time in seventy years that the Supreme Court ruled on the 2nd amendment
