Landmark Cases In American Government

Front 1

Gitlow v. New York (1925)

Back 1

Supreme Court says the First Amendment applies to states.

Front 2

Palko v. Conneticut (1937)

Back 2

Spreme Court says that states must observe all "fundamental" liberties.

Front 3

Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942)

Back 3

"Fighting words" are not protected by the First Amendment.

Front 4

Collin v. Smith (1978)

Back 4

The Nazi Party may march through a largely Jewish neighborhood.

Front 5

McConnell v. Federal Election Commission (2003)

Back 5

Upholds 2002 campaign finance reform law.

Front 6

Miller v. California (1973)

Back 6

Obscenity defined as appealing to prurient interests of an average person with materials that lack literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

Front 7

New York Times v. Sullivan (1964)

Back 7

To libel a public figure, there must be "actual malice."

Front 8

Reno v. ACLU (1997)

Back 8

A law that bans sending "indecent" material to minors over the Internet is unconstitutional because "indecent" is too vague and broad a term.

Front 9

Schenk v. United States (1919)

Back 9

Speech may be punished if it creates a clear-and-present-danger test of illegal acts.

Front 10

Texas v. Johnson (1989)

Back 10

There may not be a law to ban flag-burning.

Front 11

Engel v. Vitale (1962)

Back 11

There may not be a prayer, even a nondenominational one, in public schools.

Front 12

Everson v. Board of Education (1947)

Back 12

The wall-of-separation principal is announced.

Front 13

Lee v. Weisman (1992)

Back 13

Public schools may not have clergy lead prayers at graduation ceremonies.

Front 14

Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971)

Back 14

Three tests are described for deciding whether the government is improperly involved in religion.

Front 15

Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe (2000)

Back 15

Students may not lead prayers before the start of a football game at a public school.

Front 16

Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, 536 U.S. 639 (1952)

Back 16

Voucher plan to pay school bills is upheld.

Front 17

Zorauch v. Clauson (1952)

Back 17

States may allow students to be released from public schools to attend religious instruction.

Front 18

Dickerson v. United States (2000)

Back 18

The Mapp desicion is based on the constitution and it cannot be altered by Congress passing a law.

Front 19

Gideon v. Wainwright (1964)

Back 19

Persons charged with a crime have a right to an attorney even if they cannot afford one.

Front 20

Mapp v. Ohio (1961)

Back 20

Evidence illegally gathered by the police may not be used in a criminal trial.

Front 21

Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966)

Back 21

Court describes ruling that police must give to arrested persons.

Front 22

Rasul v. Bush, 03-334 (2004)

Back 22

Terrorist detainees must have access to a neutral court to decide if they are legally held.

Front 23

United States v. Leon (1984)

Back 23

Illegally obtained evidence may be used in a trail if it was gathered in good faith without violating the principals of the Mapp decision.

Front 24

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Back 24

Upheld separate-but-equal facilities for white and black people on railroad cars.

Front 25

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Back 25

Said that separate public schools are inherently unequal, thus starting racial desegregation.

Front 26

Green v. County School Board of New Kent County (1968)

Back 26

Banned a freedom-of-choice plan for integrating schools, suggesting that blacks and whites must actually attend racially mixed schools.

Front 27

Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971)

Back 27

Approved busing and redrawing district lines as a way of integrating public schools.

Front 28

Reed v. Reed (1971)

Back 28

Gender discrimination violates the equal protection clause of the constitution.

Front 29

Craig v. Boren (1976)

Back 29

Gender discrimination can only be justified if it serves "important governmental objectives" and be "substantially related to those objectives"

Front 30

Rostker v. Goldberg (1981)

Back 30

Congress can draft men without drafting women.

Front 31

United States v. Virginia (1996)

Back 31

States may not finance an all-male military school.

Front 32

Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)

Back 32

Found a "right to privacy" in the Constitution that would ban state law against selling contraceptives.

Front 33

Roe v. Wade (1973)

Back 33

State Laws against abortion were unconstitutional.

Front 34

Webster v. Reproductive Health and Services (1989)

Back 34

Allowed states to ban abortions in public hospitals and permitted doctors to test to see if fetuses were viable.

Front 35

Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992)

Back 35

Reaffirmed Roe v. Wade but upheld certain limits on its use.

Front 36

Stenberg v. Carhart (2000)

Back 36

States may not ban partial birth abortions if they fail to allow an exception to protect the health of the mother.

Front 37

United Steelworkers v. Weber (1979)

Back 37

Despite the ban on racial classifications in the 1964 Civil Rights Act, this case upheld the use of race in an employment agreement between the steelworkers union and steel plant.

Front 38

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)

Back 38

A quotalike ban on Bakke's admission was unconstitutional but that "diversity" was a legitimate goal that could be pursued by taking race into account.

Front 39

Richmond v. Croson (1989)

Back 39

Affirmative action plans must be judged by the strict scrutiny standard that requires any race-conscious plan to be narrowly tailored to serve a compelling interest.

Front 40

Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger (2003)

Back 40

Numerical benifits cannot be used to admit minorities into a college, but race can be a "plus factor" in making decisions.

Front 41

Lawrence v. Texas (2003)

Back 41

State Law may not ban sexual relations between same-sex partners.

Front 42

Boy Scouts of America v. Dale (2000)

Back 42

A private organization may ban gays from its membership.

Front 43

Near v. Minnesota (1931)

Back 43

Freedom of the press applies to state governments, so that they cannot impose prior restraints on newspapers.

Front 44

New York Times v. Sullivan (1964)

Back 44

Public officials may not win a libel suit unless they can prove that the statement was made knowing it to be false or with reckless disregard of its truth.

Front 45

Miami Herald v. Tornillo (1974)

Back 45

A newspaper cannot be required to give someone a right to reply to one of its stories.

Front 46

Curtiss-Wright Export Corp. v. United States (1936)

Back 46

American foreign policy is vested entirely in the federal government where the president has plenary power.

Front 47

Korematsu v. United States (1944)

Back 47

Sending Japanese Americans to relocation centers during World War II was based on an acceptable military justification.

Front 48

Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952)

Back 48

The president may not seize factories during wartime without explicit congressional authority even when they are threatened by a strike.