1. Landmark Supreme Court Cases
Essential Questions: How have individual’s Constitutional Rights been violated overtime and how has the government responded to those violations? What relationship exists between the government and citizens?

2. Marbury v. Madison, 1803
Outgoing President, John Adams, decided to appoint some of his friends/political allies as important officials on his last night in office.
Before someone could start that new job – the papers had to be given to them by the Secretary of State. Most of the papers were delivered, but William Marbury’s, who had been appointed as Justice of the Peace in D.C., were not.
The new President, Thomas Jefferson, told James Madison, his Secretary of State, not to deliver the papers to Marbury because he was a different political party than John Adams had been and did not want these officials in office.
Marbury sued Madison, asking the courts to force Madison to give Marbury his job.
Chief Justice John Marshall wrote that the Judiciary Act of 1789, which spelled out the practice of delivering such commissions for judges and justices of the peace, was unconstitutional because it the gave the Supreme Court authority that was denied it by Article III of the Constitution. Thus, the Supreme Court said, the Judiciary Act of 1789 was illegal and not to be followed.
This was the first time the Supreme Court struck down a law because it was unconstitutional. It was the beginning of the practice of "judicial review.”

3. Dred Scott vs. Sandford, 1857
Owner moved with him to Illinois-Wisconsin Territory (free soil)
When he moved back to Missouri after 12 years, Scott sued for freedom
Chief Justice Roger B. Taney ruled slaves were property
Ruled Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional (slavery allowed in all territories)
Ruled African Americans could not be citizens

4. Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896- separate but equal
African American Homer Plessy was riding in a “white’s-only” railcar in Louisiana and was arrested.
The Supreme Court established that segregation was legal under the Constitution as long as the facilities for different races were equal to one another - (Separate but equal is OK)

5. Brown v. Board, 1954
Brown v. Board of Education, separated is not equal
Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools were not equal and violated the 14th Amendment guaranteeing equal protection under the law
This overruled Plessy v. Ferguson as a precedent; Brown v. Board of Education would now be used as a precedent.

6. Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg, 1969
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, violation of desegregation order
Followed Brown v. Board of Education when schools in North Carolina were slow to desegregate.
approximately 14,000 black students attended schools that were either totally black or more than 99 percent black- Swann believed this violated the precedent set by Brown v. Board of Education, 1954
The Supreme Court upheld the desegregation plan developed by the federal court overseeing public school integration in the district which used busing to force integration.

7. Korematsu v. US, 1944
The US had suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus during WWII.
Korematsu claimed that the military orders which sent Japanese Americans to internment camps during World War II were not justified by military necessity.
The orders were upheld as a valid exercise of the war powers the Constitution grants to Congress.

8. Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. US, 1964
Motel owner argued that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was unconstitutional because it required that private owned business provide equal access to all facilities to all patrons regardless of race.
The Supreme Court upheld the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (stating it applies under the 14th Amendment)

9. McCulloch v. Maryland, 1819
Maryland enacted a statute imposing a tax on all banks operating in Maryland not chartered by the state.
McCulloch, the cashier of the Baltimore branch of the Bank of the United States, did not pay the proper taxes to the state of Maryland.
Maryland sued McCulloch for failing to pay the taxes due under the Maryland statute but McCulloch said that he shouldn’t have to pay taxes to Maryland because the statute was unconstitutional.
Supreme Court ruled: Congress has power under the Constitution to incorporate a bank because of the Necessary and Proper clause (Article I, section 8) and the State of Maryland does not have the power to tax an institution created by Congress because of the Supremacy Clause – “the power to tax is the power to destroy.”

10. Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824
Two steamboat operators, Ogden and Gibbons, worked on the rivers in New York. Ogden had gotten permission from the state of NY to operate his business and asked the state government to prohibit competitors (Gibbons) from doing the same.
New York passed a statute that kept ships licensed by the US from navigating the waters of New York, which kept Gibbons from operating on NY rivers.
Supreme Court ruled that the injunction against Gibbons was unconstitutional, because of Congress’ Constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce

11. State Court Cases- Judicial Review
State v. Mann, 1830
A Chowan County resident & slave owner (Mann) leased (borrowed for a fee) a slave Lydia from another slave owner . When Lydia was beaten by Mann she would at times run away. One time, he shot and wounded her.
Mann was convicted of assault and battery and fined $5.00 in the NC District Court.
He took the case to the NC Supreme Court where the verdict was overturned because NC did not have a statute regarding the treatment of slaves he could not be convicted for beating her.
This shows that the NC Supreme Court is supreme in the state and can reverse the decisions of lower courts.

12. State Court Cases- Leandro v. NC
May, 1994: parents, school boards, and students from Cumberland, Halifax, Hoke, Robeson, and Vance counties filed a lawsuit against the State School Board stating that NC did not provide enough money to these counties to provide the students with a “sound education”.
The Superior courts ruled in favor of the school districts, parents and students.
The case has been appealed and contested many times because of the wording in the NC Constitution currently the court upholds that all students are to get a “adequate” not an “equal” education.
Greatly increased the court’s power to “watch over” the schools in the state – a school can lose it’s funding if it is not “adequately” teaching students.