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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
Marbury v. Madison
Established judicial review (Supreme Court can decide if laws/executive actions are constitutional).
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
Upheld Congress's right to charter a national bank.
National law: Doctrine of implied powers (free from state taxation).
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
National control over interstate commerce.
Invalidated New York State steamboat monopoly.
Freed internal transportation from state restraint.
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
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
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.
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
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
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.
Korematsu v. United States (WWII)
Challenged internment of Japanese Americans on the West Coast.
Supreme Court upheld internment, citing wartime strategic imperative.
Reproductive Rights
Griswold v. Connecticut
Invalidated law restricting contraceptive use.
Legalized contraceptives for married couples (right of marital privacy).
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
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.
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