1. Marbury v. Madison (1803)
Significance: Established the principle of judicial review, allowing courts to strike down laws that violate the Constitution.
2. McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
Significance: Confirmed the supremacy of federal laws over state laws and upheld the Necessary and Proper Clause.
3. Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
Significance: Expanded the scope of the Commerce Clause, giving Congress broad powers to regulate interstate commerce.
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4. Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
Significance: Ruled that African Americans could not be U.S. citizens and that Congress did not have the authority to prohibit slavery in the territories, which was later reversed by the Fourteenth Amendment.
5. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Significance: Affirmed “separate but equal” segregation laws, which were later reversed by Brown v. Board of Education.
6. Schenck v. United States (1919)
Significance: Established the “clear and present danger” test for restrictions on free speech.
7. Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Significance: Voted to declare racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, overruling Plessy v. Ferguson.
8. Mapp v. Ohio (1961)
Significance: Applied the exclusionary rule to state courts and prohibited illegally obtained evidence based on the Fourth Amendment.
9. Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)
Significance: Gave criminal defendants the right to have counsel present for any trials in state courts under the Sixth Amendment.
10. Miranda v. Arizona (1966)
Significance: Mandated that police inform suspects of their rights Miranda rights while they are in custody during an interrogation.
11. Loving v. Virginia (1967)
Importance: Invalidated bans on interracial marriage and recognized equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment.
12. Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)
Importance: Protected students’ First Amendment rights, declaring they do not \”shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate.”
13. Roe v. Wade (1973)
Importance: Established a constitutional right to privacy, which protects a woman’s right to choose an abortion, later overturned by Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022).
14. United States v. Nixon (1974)
Importance: Qualified executive privilege, forcing President Nixon to relinquish tapes of his conversations related to the Watergate scandal.
15. Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)
Importance: Affirmed affirmative action but banned racial quotas in college admissions.
16. Texas v. Johnson (1989)
Importance: Protected flag burning as symbolic speech under the First Amendment.
17. Bush v. Gore (2000)
Significance: Decided the 2000 presidential election by stopping the Florida recount, citing equal protection in voting processes.
18. Citizens United v. FEC (2010)
Significance: Allowed corporations and unions to spend unlimited sums of money on political campaigns under First Amendment protections.
19. Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)
Significance: Affirmed the right to same-sex marriage under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
20. Shelby County v. Holder (2013)
Significance: Struck down portions of the Voting Rights Act, which dealt with federal protection of state election laws.
21. District of Columbia v. Heller (2008)
Significance: Upheld the right to bear arms for an individual in the Second Amendment.
22. Engel v. Vitale (1962)
Significance: Prohibited government-sponsored prayer in public schools by the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
23. New York Times v. United States (1971)
Significance: Defended freedom of the press, permitting the printing of the Pentagon Papers over objections from the government.
24. Korematsu v. United States (1944)
Significance: Affirmed the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, a decision widely criticized and later formally repudiated.
25. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022)
Significance: Reversed Roe v. Wade, stripping the constitutional right to abortion and sending regulation back to the states.
These landmark cases illustrate the evolution of constitutional law and its impact on American society.
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