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Definition
| Lethal injection is constitutional under the Eighth Amendment (cruel and unusual punishment). 7-2 Ginsburg and Souter dissenting. |
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Term
| Boumedience v. Bush (2008) |
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Definition
| Foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba have constitutional rights to challenge their detention there in United States courts (habeas corpus). 5-4 Roberts, Scalia, Alito and Thomas dissenting. Overturned Military Commissions Act of 2006 |
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| Brown v. Board of Education |
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Definition
| Segregation of students in public schools violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, because separate facilities are inherently unequal. 9-0 Warren joined by Unanimous |
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| The Free Exercise Clause of the 1st Amendment is incorporated against the states by the 14th Amendment (protecting free exercise of religion from intrusive state action). 9-0 Roberts joined by Unanimous |
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| Defendants' convictions for conspiring to overthrow the U.S. government by force through their participation in the Communist Party were not a violation of the 1st Amendment. 6-2 Black and Douglas dissenting. |
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Term
| Dickerson v. United States |
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Definition
| The mandate of Miranda v. Arizona that a crimnal suspect be advised of certain constitutional rights governs the admissibility at trial of the suspect's statements. 7-2 Scalia and Thomas dissenting. |
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| District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) |
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Definition
| The 2nd Amendment gaurantees an individual's right to posses a firearm unconnected with service in militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home. 5-4 Breyer, Stevens, Souter and Ginsburg dissenting. |
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| States do not have the right to claim an individual’s property that was fairly theirs in another state. Property cannot cease to exist as a result of changing jurisdiction. The majority decision held that Africans residing in America, whether free or slave, could not become United States citizens and the plaintiff therefore lacked the capacity to file a lawsuit. Furthermore, the parts of the Missouri Compromise creating free territories were unconstitutional because Congress had no authority to abolish slavery in federal territories. Judgment of Circuit Court for the District of Missouri reversed and dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. 7-2 Curtis and McLean dissenting. |
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| Government-directed prayer in public schools, even if it is denominationally neutral and non-mandatory, violates the Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment. 6-1 Stewart dissenting. |
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Term
| Everson v. Board of Education |
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Definition
| The Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment is incorporated against the states. However, the Supreme Court found that the New Jersey law was not in violation of the Establishment Clause. 5-4 Jackson, Frankfurter, Rutledge, and Burton dissenting. |
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Term
| Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life (2007) |
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Definition
| The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act's restriction on issue ads in the months preceding elections is unconstitutional. 5-4 Souter, Stevens, Ginsburg, and Breyer dissenting. |
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| The 6th Amendment right to counsel is a fundamental right applied to the states via the 14th Amendment's due process clause, and requires that indigent criminal defendants be provided counsel at trial. |
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| Though the 14th Amendment prohibits states from infringing free speech, the defendant was properly convicted under New York's criminal anarchy law for advocating the violent overthrow of the government, through the dissemination of Communist pamphlets.7-2 Holmes and Brandeis dissenting. |
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Definition
| The imposition of the death penalty does not, automatically, violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment. If the jury is furnished with standards to direct and limit the sentencing discretion, and the jury's decision is subjected to meaningful appellate review, the death sentence may be constitutional. If, however, the death penalty is mandatory, such that there is no provision for mercy based on the characteristics of the offender, then it is unconstitutional. |
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Definition
| A Connecticut law criminalizing the use of contraceptives violated the right to marital privacy. 7-2 Black and Stewart dissenting. |
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Term
| Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States |
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Definition
| Congress did not unconstitutionally exceed its powers under the Commerce Clause by enacting Title II of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibited racial description in public accommodations. 9-0 |
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Term
| Hudson v. Michigan (2006) |
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Definition
| A violation of the "knock-and-announce" rule by police does not require the suppression of the evidence found during a search. |
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Definition
| The Court extended the Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable search and seizure to protect individuals in a telephone booth from wiretaps by authorities without a warrant. |
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Definition
| The exclusion order leading to Japanese American Internment was constitutional. |
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Definition
| A Texas law classifying homosexual intercourse as illegal sodomy violated the privacy and liberty of adults to engage in private intimate conduct under the 14th amendment. |
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Definition
| Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 is unconstitutional to the extent it purports to enlarge the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court beyond that permitted by the Constitution. Congress cannot pass laws that are contrary to the Constitution, and it is the role of the Federal courts to interpret what the Constitution permits. |
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| The Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures, as applied to the states through the Fourteenth, excludes unconstitutionally obtained evidence from use in criminal prosecutions. Ohio Supreme Court reversed. |
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Definition
| Although the Constitution does not specifically give Congress the power to establish a bank, it does delegate the ability to tax and spend, and a bank is a proper and suitable instrument to assist the operations of the government in the collection and disbursement of the revenue. Because federal laws have supremacy over state laws, Maryland had no power to interfere with the bank's operation by taxing it. Maryland Court of Appeals reversed. |
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Definition
| Obscene materials are defined as those that the average person, applying contemporary community standards, find, taken as a whole, appeal to the prurient interest; that depict or describe, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable state law; and that, taken as a whole, lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. |
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Definition
| A Minnesota law that imposed permanent injunctions against the publication of newspapers with "malicious, scandalous, and defamatory" content violated the First Amendment, as applied to the states by the Fourteenth. Minnesota Supreme Court reversed. |
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Term
| New York Times v. United States |
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Definition
| In order to exercise prior restraint, the Government must show sufficient evidence that the publication would cause a “grave and irreparable” danger. |
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Term
| New York Times v. Sullivan |
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Definition
| The First Amendment, as applied through the Fourteenth, protected a newspaper from being sued for libel in state court for making false defamatory statements about the official conduct of a public official, because the statements were not made with knowing or reckless disregard for the truth. Supreme Court of Alabama reversed and remanded. |
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Term
| Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District (2007) |
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Definition
| The student assignment plan of Seattle Public Schools and Jefferson County Public Schools does not meet the narrowly tailored and compelling interest requirements for a race-based assignment plan because it is used only to achieve "racial balance." Public schools may not use race as the sole determining factor for assigning students to schools. Race-conscious objectives to achieve diverse school environment may be acceptable. |
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| The Court struck down state senate inequality based their decision on the principle of "one person, one vote." |
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Definition
| Texas law making it a crime to assist a woman to get an abortion violated her due process rights. U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas affirmed in part, reversed in part. |
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| The Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments forbid imposition of the death penalty on offenders who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed. Supreme Court of Missouri affirmed. |
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| Defendant's criticism of the draft was not protected by the First Amendment, because it created a clear and present danger to the enlistment and recruiting practices of the U.S. armed forces during a state of war. |
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| A statute that criminalizes the desecration of the American flag violates the First Amendment. |
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| United States v. American Library Association |
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Definition
| Congress has the authority to require libraries to censor internet content in order to receive federal funding. 6-3 Stevens, Souter and Ginsburg dissenting. |
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| The Supreme Court does have the final voice in determining constitutional questions; no person, not even the President, is completely above law; and the president cannot use executive privilege as an excuse to withhold evidence that is 'demonstrably relevant in criminal trial.' 8-0 Rehnquist took no part. |
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Term
| United States v. Williams (2008) |
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Definition
| Federal statute prohibiting the pandering of child pornography was not unconstitutionally. 7-2 Souter and Ginsburg dissenting. |
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Term
| Youngstown Sheet & Tube v. Sawyer |
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Definition
| The President did not have the inherent authority to seize private property in the absence of either specifically enumerated authority under Article Two of the Constitution or statutory authority conferred on him by Congress. 6-3 Vinson, Reed and Minton dissenting. |
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