Landmark Supreme Court Cases in American Legal History, Quizzes of Political Science

Download Landmark Supreme Court Cases in American Legal History and more Quizzes Political Science in PDF only on Docsity! TERM 1 Marbury v. Madison (1803) DEFINITION 1 Marbury v. Madison was the first time the Supreme Court declared something "unconstitutional," and established the concept of judicial review in the U.S. (the idea that courts may oversee and nullify the actions of another branch of government). The landmark decision helped define the "checks and balances" of the American form of government. TERM 2 Barron v. Baltimore (1833) DEFINITION 2 established a precedent on whether the United States Bill of Rights could be applied to state governments. TERM 3 Schenck v. United States (1919) DEFINITION 3 a United States Supreme Court decision that upheld the Espionage Act of 1917 and concluded that a defendant did not have a First Amendment right to free speech against the draft during World War I. TERM 4 Abrams v. United States (1919) DEFINITION 4 a decision of the United States Supreme Court involving the 1918 Amendment to the Espionage Act of 1917, which made it a criminal offense to urge curtailment of production of the materials necessary to the war against Germany with intent to hinder the progress of the war. TERM 5 Dennis v. United States (1951) DEFINITION 5 a United States Supreme Court case involving Eugene Dennis, general secretary of the Communist Party USA, which found that Dennis did not have a right under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States to exercise free speech, publication and assembly, if that exercise was in furtherance of a conspiracy to overthrow the government. TERM 6 United States v. OBrien (1968) DEFINITION 6 a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled that a criminal prohibition against burning a draft card did not violate the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech. Though the Court recognized that O'Brien's conduct was expressive as a protest against the Vietnam War, it considered the law justified by a significant government interest that was unrelated to the suppression of speech and was tailored towards that end. TERM 7 Tinker v. Des Moines (1969) DEFINITION 7 a decision by the United States Supreme Court that defined the constitutional rights of students in U.S. public schools. The Tinker test is still used by courts today to determine whether a school's disciplinary actions violate students' First Amendment rights. TERM 8 Texas v. Johnson DEFINITION 8 a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that invalidated prohibitions on desecrating the American flag in force in 48 of the 50 states. Justice William Brennan wrote for a five-justice majority in holding that the defendant's act of flag burning was protected speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. TERM 9 New York Times Co. v. Sullivan DEFINITION 9 a United States Supreme Court case which established the actual malice standard which has to be met before press reports about public officials or public figures can be considered to be defamation and libel; and hence allowed free reporting of the civil rights campaigns in the southern United States. It is one of the key decisions supporting the freedom of the press. The actual malice standard requires that the plaintiff in a defamation or libel case prove that the publisher of the statement in question knew that the statement was false or acted in reckless disregard of its truth or falsity. TERM 10 Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) DEFINITION 10 a landmark United States Supreme Court decision in the jurisprudence of the United States, upholding the constitutionality of racial segregation even in public accommodations (particularly railroads), under the doctrine of "separate but equal."