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Marbury v. Madison under John Marshall
Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 is unconstitutional to the extent it purports to enlarge the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court beyond that permitted by the Constitution. Congress cannot pass laws that are contrary to the Constitution, and it is the role of the judiciary to interpret what the Constitution permits. -
Fletcher v. Peck under John Marshall
The Contracts Clause of the U.S. Constitution prohibited Georgia from voiding contracts for the transfer of land, even though they were secured through illegal bribery. Circuit Court for the District of Massachusetts affirmed. -
McCulloch v. Maryland under John Marshall
Although the Constitution does not specifically give Congress the power to establish a bank, it delegates the ability to tax and spend. Since a bank is a proper and suitable instrument to assist the operations of the government in the collection and disbursement of the revenue, and federal laws have supremacy over state laws, Maryland had no power to interfere with the bank's operation by taxing it. Maryland Court of Appeals reversed. -
Dartmouth College v. Woodward under John Marshall
The charter granted by the British crown to the trustees of Dartmouth College, in New-Hampshire, in the year 1769, is a contract within the meaning of that clause of the constitution of the United States, (art. 1. s. 10.) which declares that no State shall make any law impairing the obligation of contracts. The charter was not dissolved by the revolution. -
Gibbons v. Ogden under John Marshall
New York law was invalid because the Commerce Clause of the Constitution designated power to Congress to regulate interstate commerce and the broad definition of commerce included navigation. -
Worcester v. Georgia under John Marshall
Plaintiff was convicted in Gwinnett County, Georgia by the Georgia Superior Court. Worcester's conviction is void because states have no criminal jurisdiction in Indian Country. -
Dred Scott v. Sanford under Roger Taney
Persons of African descent cannot be and were never intended to be citizens under the U.S. Constitution. Plaintiff is without standing to file a suit. The Property Clause is applicable only to lands possessed at the time of the Constitution's ratification (1787). As such, Congress cannot ban slavery in the territories. The Missouri Compromise is unconstitutional. The Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment prohibits the federal government from freeing slaves brought into federal territories. -
Slaughter-House Cases under Salmon Chase
The Fourteenth Amendment only protects the privileges and immunities pertaining to citizenship of the United States, not those that pertain to state citizenship. -
United States v. Cruikshank under Morrison Waite
The right of assembly under the First Amendment and the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment are only applicable to the federal government, not the states or private actors. -
United States v. Reese under Morrison Waite
The Fifteenth Amendment did not confer the right of suffrage, but it prohibited exclusion from voting on racial grounds -
Munn v. Illinois under Morrison Waite
The Fourteenth Amendment does not prevent the State of Illinois from regulating charges for use of a business's grain elevators. -
Plessy v. Ferguson under Melville Fuller
The "separate but equal" provision of private services mandated by state government is constitutional under the Equal Protection Clause.