AP Exam Review: Key Supreme Court Cases

Jul 13, 2024

AP Exam Review: Key Supreme Court Cases

The Marshall Court Era

  • Chief Justice John Marshall: Appointed by Federalist President John Adams.
    • Increased the power of the national government.
    • Diminished the powers of state governments.

Major Cases

  1. Marbury v. Madison
    • Established judicial review (Supreme Court can decide if laws/executive actions are constitutional).
  2. McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
    • Upheld Congress's right to charter a national bank.
    • National law: Doctrine of implied powers (free from state taxation).
  3. Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
    • National control over interstate commerce.
    • Invalidated New York State steamboat monopoly.
    • Freed internal transportation from state restraint.
  4. Worcester v. Georgia
    • States cannot regulate Native American territory; falls under federal jurisdiction.
    • Established tribal sovereignty (did not prevent Cherokee removal).

The 1850s and Slavery

  1. Dred Scott v. Sandford
    • Question: Can a black man be entitled to full citizen rights?
    • Decision: No; blacks (slave or free) are not citizens, cannot sue.
    • Struck down Missouri Compromise, permitted slavery in all territories.

Post-Civil War and Reconstruction Amendments

  1. Slaughterhouse Cases
    • 14th Amendment bans state deprivation of blacks' equal rights.
    • Did not guarantee all citizens (regardless of race) equal economic privileges.
    • Allowed economic discrimination, reduced protections.
  2. Plessy v. Ferguson
    • 14th Amendment does not apply to social situations.
    • Upheld constitutionality of segregation (separate but equal).
    • Basis of the Jim Crow era.
    • Overturned by Brown v. Board of Education.

Civil Rights Movement

  1. Brown v. Board of Education
    • Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson.
    • Declared separate but equal facilities inherently unequal.
    • Violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Cultural Conflicts: The Scopes Monkey Trial

  • Not a Supreme Court Case
  • Tennessee law vs. teaching evolution.
  • Challenged by teacher John Scopes.
  • Highlighted cultural debates of the 1920s (Modernists vs. Fundamentalists).

The New Deal Era

  • President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR)
    • Passed progressive legislation to combat the Great Depression.
    • Faced conservative Supreme Court appointees from previous administrations.
    • Key New Deal laws struck down (e.g., National Recovery Act, Agricultural Adjustment Act).
    • FDR proposed adding more justices (court-packing); Supreme Court subsequently upheld New Deal programs.

Wartime Powers and Restrictions

  1. Schneck v. United States (WWI)
    • Delivered anti-draft leaflets; violated the Espionage Act.
    • Supreme Court: Speech creating a clear and present danger can be restricted.
  2. Korematsu v. United States (WWII)
    • Challenged internment of Japanese Americans on the West Coast.
    • Supreme Court upheld internment, citing wartime strategic imperative.

Reproductive Rights

  1. Griswold v. Connecticut
    • Invalidated law restricting contraceptive use.
    • Legalized contraceptives for married couples (right of marital privacy).
  2. Roe v. Wade
    • Woman's right to choose abortion: Falls under right to privacy.
    • State laws cannot completely prohibit abortions; can regulate after the first trimester.

Affirmative Action

  1. Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
    • Dealt with affirmative action in university admissions.
    • Specific racial quotas impermissible.
    • Affirmative action can be considered in decisions.