Supreme+Court+Cases

1803 - //Marbury v. Madison// Supreme Court ruling that gave the Supreme Court the power of judiciary review/power to nullify any law/declare it "unconstitutional" 1819 - //Dartmouth College v. Woodward// Republicans tried to revise Dartmouth College's charter to convert the private college into a state university. Court ruled corporation charters such as the one the colonial legislature had granted the college were contracts and thus unviolable 1819 - //McCulloch v. Maryland// Marshall upheld the constitutionality of the Bank of the United States; by doing this, the Court confirmed the "implied powers" of Congress 1821 - //Cohens v. Virginia// Court ruled that by ratifying the Constitution, the states gave up part of their sovereignty, and thus must submit to federal jurisdiction 1831 - //Cherokee Nation v. Georgia// Cherokee Indian tribe appealed to Supreme Court 1832 - //Worcester v. Georgia// Invalidated Georgia laws that attempted to regulate access by U.S. citizens to Cherokee country. Also defined Indian tribes as "sovereign entities", ultimately defining place for Indian tribes in the American political system 1837 - //Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge// Two companies argued over which had the right to build a bridge over the Charles River. The ruling stated that the object of government was to promote the general happiness, and therefore a state had the right to amend or abrogate a contract if such action was necessary to advance the well-being of the community. 1857 - //Dred Scott v. Sandford// Missouri slave who was occupying Illinois and Wisconsin bought his freedom by performing various jobs. When his master's mistress refused to grant him freedom, he sued. Supreme Court ruled that Dred Scott couldn't sue because he was property, and that under the Constitution which stated the government had no right to take away property without compensation, the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional 1896 //- Plessy v. Ferguson// Supreme Court ruled that separate accommodations did not deprive blacks of equal rights if the accommodations were equal 1899 //- Cumming v. Country Board of Education// Court ruled that laws establishing separate schools for whites were valid even if there were no comparable schools for blacks //1915 - Guinn v. United States// Supreme Court supported their position that the grandfather clause in an Oklahoma law was unconstitutional //1917 - Buchanan v. Worley// Court struck down a Louisville, Kentucky law requiring residential segregation 1925 //- Scopes trial (State of Tennessee v. Scopes)// American Civil Liberties Union challenging a recent Tennessee Law that made illegal to deny the story of God in schools by having John T. Scopes arrested and William Jennings Bryan prosecute him. Scopes was proven guilty and fined $100 (which was dismissed in a higher court). It was important due to its devastation towards the fundamentalists and how it depicted them 1931-1934 //scottsboro trials// nine black teenagers were arrested and accused of raping two white women on a freight train, and were sentenced to death. What proceeded were years of several more trials, with the teenagers hopping in and out of jail, with all of them eventually leaving. The Scottsboro case was significant due to its obvious display of deep seeded racism towards the defendants 1944 //- korematsu v. u.s.// Court ruled that the relocation of Japanese-Americans during WWII was "constitutionally permissible" 1954 - //Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka// In a case of an African-American girl that had to travel several miles to a segregated school even though she lived next door to a white school, the court rejected the ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson and instead ruled that the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place 1973 - //Roe v. Wade// Invalidated all laws prohibiting abortion in the first trimester (three months) based on a relatively new theory of a constitutional "right to privacy //1978 - United States v. Wheeler// Court confirmed that Indian tribes had independent legal standing and could not be "terminated" by Congress. //1985 - County of Oneida v. Oneida Indian Nation// Court supported Indian claims to 100,000 acres in upstate New York that the Oneida tribe claimed by virtue of treaty rights long forgotten by whites