Chapter 28
In This Chapter
● Understanding the best Court decisions
● Following legal opinions as they developed
● Seeing how the Supreme Court changed history
As the final touch in your review of the United States’ past, here are the ten most important Supreme Court decisions. The Supreme Court is the last word on the law of the land in the United States, and these ten cases are part of its claim to fame.
Being able to reference Supreme Court decisions is impressive evidence of your mastery of U.S. History on the AP exam. Because you can’t make much money teaching history, who knows — you may want to be a lawyer.
Marbury Versus Madison (1803)
In this early decision, the Supreme Court super Chief Justice John Marshall found that the Supremes have the final word on whether any law is constitutional. The Court refused to order that Marbury be awarded a federal legal job because the law he was using wasn’t covered by the Constitution.
McCulloch versus Maryland (1819)
This case established that federal law trumps state law. Maryland wanted to slap a state tax on the National Bank established by the federal government. John Marshall found that the feds had the power to set up a bank under the Necessary and Proper Clause of the Constitution and that states could no more tax the federal bank than they could tax the army.
Gibbons versus Ogden (1824)
This decision states that only the feds can regulate business between the states. New York tried to set steamboat guru Robert Fulton as the only guy who could run power boats between New York and New Jersey (or license others, like Ogden, to do so). Not fair, said the court; anything that runs between states is the business of the feds. When they got around to it 140 years later, this principle allowed Congress to require civil rights in planes, trains, hotels, and restaurants.
West Coast Hotel Co. Versus Parrish (1937)
This decision during the heart of the Great Depression allowed the federal government to set minimum wages for work in private industry, something the Court had previously prohibited. Parrish was a poor chambermaid whose hotel refused to pay her the minimum wage.
Brown versus Board of Education (1954)
Separate and not equal was the unspoken rule of the land before this decision came along. It set off the Civil Rights movement by declaring that segregated schools for different races had to go. Brown, an African American railroad worker, had a third-grade daughter who had been forced to travel miles to a segregated black school when a white-only public school was right in her neighborhood.
Gideon versus Wainwright (1963)
Gideon was a poor prisoner who was barely literate. In a touching, handwritten appeal, he asked the Supreme Court for help. The Supremes found that states have a duty to supply a lawyer for people who can’t afford one. Gideon got a new trial and was found innocent.
Griswold versus Connecticut (1965)
This case established the right to privacy that kept the states from regulating personal sexual behavior that hurts no one. Griswold had been fined by Connecticut for running a birth-control clinic.
Miranda versus Arizona (1966)
Miranda was a Mexican American with little education who confessed under police questioning without being read his now-famous rights to remain silent and to have an attorney. Even people being arrested in totalitarian countries now sometimes demand police read their Miranda rights like they saw on TV. They don’t know that because they’re not from the U.S., they don’t necessarily have these rights.
Roe versus Wade (1973)
The Court held that women have a privacy right to decide whether to have an abortion; states can’t prohibit this birth-control procedure. Although many women favor the right to choose, conservative religious groups oppose abortion. The Court has been a battleground ever since.
United States versus Nixon (1974)
President Nixon had to turn over tape recordings as ordered by a federal court. The Court found that even the president has to follow the law; he can’t hide behind executive privilege.
Nixon, supported by a few of his Republican allies, had tried to argue that he didn’t have to turn over evidence of his own wrongdoing to Congress because as president he had special rights. The Supreme Court held that the president is not above the law. Shortly after this ruling, Nixon resigned to avoid impeachment.