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.