AP Government Required Court Cases 2023-2024

• Marbury v. Madison (1803)


  Established judicial review. Supreme Court now had authority to overturn a law based on Constitutionality.
• Shaw v. Reno (1993)


  Legislative redistricting must be conscious of race and ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965; no racial gerrymandering
• Citizens United v. FEC (2010)


  corporations have a 1st Amendment right to expressly support political candidates for Congress and the White House. Contributions equal free speech.
• Brown v. Board of Education (1954)


  The Supreme Court overruled Plessy v. Ferguson, declared that racially segregated facilities are inherently unequal and ordered all public schools desegregated.
• McDonald v. Chicago (2010)


  The Second Amendment that allows the people to keep and bear arms applies to state governments as well as the federal one
• Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)


  Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that a defendant in a felony trial must be provided a lawyer free of charge if the defendant cannot afford one.
• Schenck v. United States (1919)


  A legal case in which it was ruled that government can limit free speech if the speech provokes a "clear and present danger" of substantive evils.
• New York Times Company v. United States (1971)


  To exercise prior restraint (the ability of the government to stop publication of a news story), the Government must show sufficient evidence that the publication would cause a "grave and irreparable" danger.
• Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)


  Public school students may wear armbands to class protesting against America's war in Vietnam when such display does not disrupt classes
• Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)


  Compelling Amish students to attend school past the eighth grade violates the free exercise clause
• Engel v. Vitale (1962)


  Struck down state-sponsored prayer in public schools. Ruled that the Regents' prayer was an unconstitutional violation of the Establishment Clause.
• United States v. Lopez (1995)


  Commerce clause of Constitution does not give Congress the power to regulate guns near state-operated schools
• Baker v. Carr (1962)


  Established the principle of "one person, one vote" and made such patterns of representation illegal. The Court asserted that the federal courts had the right to tell states to reapportion their districts for more equal representation.
• McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)


  the Supreme Court upheld the power of the national government and denied the right of a state to tax the federal bank using the Constitution's supremacy clause. The Court's broad interpretation of the necessary and proper clause paved the way for later rulings upholding expansive federal powers