Court Cases

Question 1

Marbury v Madison

Answer 1

Question: Do the plaintiffs have a right to receive their commissions?
Answer: The court has the power to declare laws passed by congress unconstitutional.

Question 2

McCulloch v Maryland

Answer 2

Question: Does congress have the power to establish a national bank?
Answer: Congress has the power to create a national bank and states cannot tax the federal government.

Question 3

Dred Scott v Sanford

Answer 3

Question: Does the constitution apply citizenship rights to people of African descent?
Answer: African Americans, whether enslaved or free, were not citizens of the United States and therefore did not have the right to sue federal court.

Question 4

Plessy v Ferguson

Answer 4

Question: Are state laws requiring racial segregation constitutional?
Answer: Racial segregation laws were constitutional as long as the facilities provided to each race were equal.

Question 5

Schenck v US

Answer 5

Question: Did Charles Schenck’s actions of disturbing leaflets against the military draft during World War I violate his first amendment right?
Answer: The Espionage Act of 1917 was constitutional. The court established the “clear and present danger” test, which limits free speech.

Question 6

Korematsu v US

Answer 6

Question: Did the president and congress go beyond their war powers by implementing exclusion and restricting the rights of Americans of Japanese descent?
Answer: The internment of Japanese Americans during World War II was constitutional.

Question 7

Brown v Board of Education

Answer 7

Question: Did racial segregation in public schools, based on the “separate but equal” doctrine, violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment?
Answer: Racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. The ruling overturned the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision.

Question 8

Mapp v Ohio

Answer 8

Question: Can evidence obtained through an illegal search and seizure by state police be used against a defendant in state court?
Answer: In favor of Mapp, the high court said evidence seized unlawfully, without a search warrant, could not be used in criminal prosecutions.

Question 9

Baker v Carr

Answer 9

Question: Did the supreme court have jurisdiction over questions of legislative apportionment?
Answer: Federal courts do have the jurisdiction to hear cases regarding legislative apportionment that violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Question 10

Engel v Vitale

Answer 10

Question: Do school-sponsored nondenominational prayers in schools violate the Establishment Clause of the first amendment?
Answer: Yes, the government cannot establish a state religion.

Question 11

Gideon v Wainwright

Answer 11

Question: Are states required to provide a person charged with a non-capital felony with the assistance of counsel if that person cannot afford to hire an attorney?
Answer: The 6th amendment requires U.S. states to provide attorneys to criminal defendants who are unable to afford their own.

Question 12

Miranda v Arizona

Answer 12

Question: Is interrogating individuals without notifying them of their rights to counsel and protection against self-incrimination a violation of their 5th amendment rights?
Answer: Miranda’s confession could not be used as evidence in a criminal trial because of the fifth amendment.

Question 13

Tinker v Des Moines

Answer 13

Question: Did the school district’s policy of prohibiting students from wearing armbands, as a form of symbolic protest, violate the student’s 1st amendment rights?
Answer: Public school officials cannot censor student expression unless they can reasonably forecast that the speech will disrupt school.

Question 14

New York Times V United States

Answer 14

Question: Was the constitutional freedom of the press subordinate tot eh executive branch’s need to maintain the secrecy of information?
Answer: The government cannot use vague claims of national security to suppress the publication of information that was in the public interest.

Question 15

Wisconsin v Yoder

Answer 15

Question: Did Wisconsin’s law requiring children to attend school violate the First Amendment’s protection of religious freedom?
Answer: Wisconsin’s compulsory school attendance law was unconstitutional as applied to the Amish, as it violated their first amendment right to free religion.

Question 16

Roe v Wade

Answer 16

Question: Did the U.S. Constitution protect a woman’s right to have an abortion?
Answer: Unduly restrictive state regulation of abortion is unconstitutional.

Question 17

United States v Nixon

Answer 17

Question: Can the president use executive privilege to withhold information from a judicial subpoena during a criminal investigation?
Answer: A claim of presidential privilege as to materials subpoenaed for use in a criminal trial cannot override the needs tot he judicial process

Question 18

Regents of the University of California v Bakke

Answer 18

Question: Does a university’s affirmative action policy that uses racial quotas in its admissions process violate the Equal protection clause of the 14th amendment?
Answer: Colleges can consider race as a factor in admissions but could not use racial quotas.

Question 19

Hazelwood v Kuhlmeier

Answer 19

Question: Can school officials censor content in a school-sponsored student newspaper, specifically when the content is deemed inappropriate?
Answer: Schools can limit student speech that goes against their educational mission.

Question 20

Texas v Johnson

Answer 20

Question: Does burning an American flag constitute protected symbolic speech under the first amendment, can the government prohibit flag burning?
Answer: Burning the American flag is a form of protected symbolic speech under the first amendment, meaning that a state cannot prohibit flag burning.

Question 21

Shaw v Reno

Answer 21

Question: Did the creation of racially gerrymandered electoral districts violate the Equal Protection Clause of the fourteenth amendment?
Answer: Restricting based on race violated the Equal protection Clause of the 14th amendment.

Question 22

U.S. v Lopez

Answer 22

Question: Does congress have the authority under the Commerce Clause of the constitution to pass the gun-free school zones act?
Answer: The gun-free school zones act of 1990 was unconstitutional. The court ruled that congress over-stepped its authority under the Commerce Clause.

Question 23

Bush v. Gore

Answer 23

Question: Does the Florida Supreme Court’s method for recounting ballots in the 2000 presidential election violate the Equal Protection Clause?
Answer: The Equal protection clause guarantees to individuals that their ballots cannot be devalues by “later arbitrary and disparate treatment”.

Question 24

District of Columbia v Heller

Answer 24

Question: Does the second amendment protect an individual’s right to possess a firearm for self-defense within the home?
Answer: The Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to possess a firearm for traditionally lawful purposes.

Question 25

McDonald v Chicago

Answer 25

Question: Does the second amendment apply to state and local governments? Answer: The second amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees "the right of the people to keep and bear arms," applies to state and local governments.

Question 26

Citizens United v FEC

Answer 26

Question: Do laws preventing corporations and labor unions from supporting political advertising violate the First Amendment's free speech protections? Answer: Political spending is a form of free speech protected under the first amendment.

Question 27

Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization

Answer 27

Question: Was the Mississippi law prohibiting abortion after the fifteenth week of presidency constitutional? Answer: The Mississippi law prohibiting abortions after the fifteenth week of pregnancy was constitutional. The decision overturned Roe v. Wade and shifted the power.

Question 28

Gitlow v New York

Answer 28

Question: Does the first amendment apply to states? Answer: The first amendment's protection of free speech applies to state governments.