Supreme Court Cases

Citizens United V FEC (2010)

a U.S. constitutional law case dealing with the regulation of campaign spending by organizations. The United States Supreme Court held that the First Amendment prohibited the government from restricting independent political expenditures by a nonprofit corporation. The principles articulated by the Supreme Court in the case have also been extended to for-profit corporations, labor unions and other associations.

Griswold V Connecticut (1965)

(1965), was a landmark Supreme Court decision that recognized that a married couple has a right of privacy that cannot be infringed upon by a state law making it a crime to use contraceptives.

mcculloch v maryland (1819)

A U.S. Supreme Court case in which Chief Justice John Marshall established that the federal government has "implied powers" to carry out, without state interference, any and all rights given by the Constitution. Specifically, the Court ruled that the federal government could charter a bank and a state could not tax it.

Plessy V ferguson (1896)

A case decided by the Supreme Court in the 1890s. The Court held that a state could require racial segregation in public facilities if the facilities offered the two races were equal. The Court's requirement became known as the " separate but equal " doctrine. It was overturned by the Court in 1954 in Brown versus Board of Education.

Marbury v Madison (1803)

A case decided by the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Marshall in 1803. The Court declared unanimously that a certain law passed by Congress should not be enforced, because the law was opposed to the Constitution. Marbury versus Madison established the principle of "judicial review" — that the Supreme Court has the power to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional.

Brown V Board (1954)

A case regarding school desegregation, decided by the Supreme Court in 1954. The Court ruled that segregation in public schools is prohibited by the Constitution. The decision ruled out " separate but equal " educational systems for blacks and whites, which many localities said they were providing. The Court departed from tradition by using arguments from sociology to show that separate educational systems were unequal by their very nature.

dred scott v sandford (1857)

The U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled that African Americans, whether enslaved or free, were not citizens of the United States and therefore did not have the right to sue in federal court. The Court also ruled that the federal government could not prohibit slavery in the territories. The decision was a prime factor leading to the Civil War, but was eventually rendered moot by the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution -- which provides that anyone born or naturalized in the United States is a citizen of the nation and of his or her state.

Roe V Wade (1973)

a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that declared a pregnant woman is entitled to have an Abortion until the end of the first trimester of pregnancy without any interference by the state.

Shelby County V. Holder (2013)

is a landmark United States Supreme Court case regarding the constitutionality of two provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965: Section 5, which requires certain states and local governments to obtain federal preclearance before implementing any changes to their voting laws or practices; and Section 4, which contains the coverage formula that determines which jurisdictions are subjected to preclearance based on their histories of discrimination in voting.

Bush V Gore (2000)

the U.S Supreme Court ruled that the system devised by the Florida Supreme Court to recount the votes cast in the state during the 2000 U.S. presidential election violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution. Because there was no time to create a system that was fair to both candidates, the Supreme Court effectively stopped the recount process in its tracks, allowing george w. bush of Texas to become the 43rd president of the United States.

National Federation of independent Business et al V. Sebelius secretary of health and human services (2012)

was a landmark United States Supreme Court decision in which the Court upheld Congress's power to enact most provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly called Obamacare, and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act (HCERA), including a requirement for most Americans to have health insurance by 2014. The Acts represented a major set of changes to the American health care system that had been the subject of highly contentious debate, largely divided on political party lines.

McCutcheon V. Federal Election Committee (2014)

was a landmark campaign finance case before the United States Supreme Court challenging Section 441 of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), which imposed a biennial aggregate limit on individual contributions to national party and federal candidate committees.