1 st Amendment Freedom of Speech

Texas v. Johnson 1989 Issue: Is the desecration of an American flag, by burning or otherwise, a form of speech that is protected under the First Amendment?

1 st Amendment Freedom of Religion

Reynolds v. United States 1879 Issue: Does the federal anti-bigamy statute violate the First Amendment's free exercise clause because plural marriage is part of religious practice?

Lemon v. Kurtzman 1971 Issue: Did the Rhode Island and Pennsylvania statutes violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause by making state financial aid available to "church- related educational institutions"?

Wisconsin v. Yoder 1972 Issue: Did Wisconsin's requirement that all parents send their children to school at least until age 16 violate the First Amendment by criminalizing the conduct of parents who refused to send their children to school for religious reasons?

Oregon (Employment Services) v. Smith 1990 Issue: Can a state deny unemployment benefits to a worker fired for using illegal drugs for religious purposes?

2 nd Amendment Right to Bear Arms

District of Columbia v. Heller 2008 Issue: Whether provisions of the D.C. Code generally barring the registration of handguns, prohibiting carrying a pistol without a license, and requiring all lawful firearms to be kept unloaded and either disassembled or trigger locked violate the Second Amendment rights of individuals who are not affiliated with any state-regulated militia, but who wish to keep handguns and other firearms for private use in their homes?

4 th, 5 th, 6 th Amendments Rights of Criminals or Accused Criminals

Barron v. Baltimore 1833 Issue: Does the Fifth Amendment deny the states as well as the national government the right to take private property for public use without justly compensating the property's owner?

Mapp v. Ohio 1961 Issue: Were the confiscated materials protected by the First Amendment? (May evidence obtained through a search in violation of the Fourth Amendment be admitted in a state criminal proceeding?)

Gideon v. Wainwright 1963 Issue: Does the Sixth Amendment's right to counsel in criminal cases extend to felony defendants in state courts?

Miranda v. Arizona 1966 Issue: Does the police practice of interrogating individuals without notifiying them of their right to counsel and their protection against self-incrimination violate the Fifth Amendment?

Hamdi v. Rumsfeld 2006 Issue: Did the government violate Hamdi's Fifth Amendment right to Due Process by holding him indefinitely, without access to an attorney, based solely on an Executive Branch declaration that he was an "enemy combatant" who fought against the United States? Does the separation of powers doctrine require federal courts to defer to Executive Branch determinations that an American citizen is an "enemy combatant"?

14 th Amendment “Equal Protection” Clause

Plessy v. Ferguson 1896 Issue: Is Louisiana's law mandating racial segregation on its trains an unconstitutional infringement on both the privileges and immunities and the equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment?

Brown v. Board of Education 1954 Issue: Does the segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race deprive the minority children of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th Amendment?

Griswold v. Connecticut 1965 Issue: Does the Constitution protect the right of marital privacy against state restrictions on a couple's ability to be counseled in the use of contraceptives?

Roe v. Wade 1973 Issue: Does the Constitution embrace a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy by abortion?

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke 1978 Issue: Did the University of California violate the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, by practicing an affirmative action policy that resulted in the repeated rejection of Bakke's application for admission to its medical school?

Gratz v. Bollinger 2003 Issue: Does the University of Michigan's use of racial preferences in undergraduate admissions violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment or Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

Webster v. Reproductive Health Services 1989 Issue: Did the Missouri restrictions unconstitutionally infringe upon the right to privacy or the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?

Planned Parenthood v. Casey 1992 Issue: Can a state require women who want an abortion to obtain informed consent, wait 24 hours, and, if minors, obtain parental consent, without violating their right to abortions as guaranteed by Roe v. Wade?

Supreme Court Jurisdiction Checks and Balances

Marbury v. Madison 1803 Issue: Does the Supreme Court have the jurisdiction to enforce presidential appointments?

Baker v. Carr 1962 Issue: Did the Supreme Court have jurisdiction over questions of legislative apportionment?

McCulloch v. Maryland 1819 Issue: Did Congress have the authority to establish the bank? Did the Maryland law unconstitutionally interfere with congressional powers?

Gibbons v. Ogden 1824 Issue: Did the State of New York exercise authority in a realm reserved exclusively to Congress, namely, the regulation of interstate commerce?

Korematsu v. United States 1944 Issue: Did the President and Congress go beyond their war powers by implementing exclusion and restricting the rights of Americans of Japanese descent?

Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States 1964 Issue: Did Congress, in passing Title II of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, exceed its Commerce Clause powers by depriving motels, such as the Heart of Atlanta, of the right to choose their own customers?

United States v. Lopez 1995 Issue: Is the 1990 Gun-Free School Zones Act, forbidding individuals from knowingly carrying a gun in a school zone, unconstitutional because it exceeds the power of Congress to legislate under the Commerce Clause?