69 articles
Judicial review in the United States
Judicial review in the United States: courts' power to void unconstitutional laws, established by Marbury v. Madison (1803), extended to all state courts by 1850, and reshaped for federal agencies by Loper Bright (2024).
Kelo v. City of New London
Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005): Supreme Court case, 5-4, holding economic development takings for private developers are a Fifth Amendment public use; sparked state eminent domain reforms.
Korematsu v. United States
Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), was a 6-3 Supreme Court decision upholding the wartime exclusion of Japanese Americans, later vacated by coram nobis in 1983 and repudiated in Trump v. Hawaii (2018).
Lawrence v. Texas
Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003), the Supreme Court's 6-3 Due Process ruling by Justice Kennedy striking down Texas Penal Code §21.06 and overruling Bowers v. Hardwick, legalizing same-sex sexual activity nationwide.
Lemon v. Kurtzman
Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971), a U.S. Supreme Court case striking down Pennsylvania and Rhode Island aid to religious schools, announced the three-prong Lemon test for Establishment Clause cases, overruled in Kennedy v. Bremerton (2022).
List of landmark court decisions in the United States
Landmark US Supreme Court decisions: informal scholarly designation for rulings like Marbury, Brown, Miranda, Roe/Dobbs, and Obergefell; grouped by doctrine, era, and chronology; includes overrulings, docket statistics, and 2023–2026 additions.
Lochner v. New York
Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905): Supreme Court case striking down New York's ten-hour Bakeshop Act as violating liberty of contract under the Fourteenth Amendment; 5–4 Peckham decision; namesake of the Lochner era ended by West Coast Hotel v. Parrish (1937).
Loving v. Virginia
Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967), the unanimous Supreme Court decision by Chief Justice Warren striking down Virginia's Racial Integrity Act and all state bans on interracial marriage under the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses.
Mapp v. Ohio
Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961), decided June 19, 1961, is the Warren Court decision extending the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule to state criminal prosecutions via the Fourteenth Amendment, overruling Wolf v. Colorado after the warrantless Cleveland search of Dollree Mapp.
Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission
Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018): US Supreme Court case in which Jack Phillips refused a same-sex wedding cake; the Court reversed 7-2 on Free Exercise grounds due to Commission hostility to religion.
McCulloch v. Maryland
McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316 (1819), Supreme Court decision by Chief Justice John Marshall upholding Congress's implied power to charter the Second Bank under the Necessary and Proper Clause and barring state taxation of federal instruments.
McDonald v. City of Chicago
McDonald v. City of Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010), Supreme Court case extending the Second Amendment individual right to keep and bear arms to state and local governments via Fourteenth Amendment Due Process incorporation, 5-4, opinion by Alito.
McGirt v. Oklahoma
McGirt v. Oklahoma (2020) is the 5-4 Supreme Court ruling that the Muscogee (Creek) Nation reservation was never disestablished, making eastern Oklahoma Indian country and barring state prosecution of Indians for major crimes there.
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius
NFIB v. Sebelius, 567 U.S. 519 (2012): Supreme Court case upholding the Affordable Care Act individual mandate under the Taxing Clause, rejecting Commerce Clause and Necessary and Proper Clause justifications, and making the Medicaid expansion optional.
National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie
National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie, 432 U.S. 43 (1977), the Skokie case, held Illinois must give immediate appellate review before denying stays of injunctions restraining First Amendment speech, enabling neo-Nazis' march rights.
New York Times Co. v. United States
New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971), the Pentagon Papers case: Supreme Court held the government failed to justify prior restraint of the Times and Washington Post publishing the leaked Vietnam study.
Planned Parenthood v. Casey
Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992), the Supreme Court case reaffirming Roe v. Wade's core while adopting the undue burden standard, later overruled by Dobbs (2022).
Plessy v. Ferguson
Plessy v. Ferguson (163 U.S. 537, 1896) is the US Supreme Court case that upheld Louisiana's Separate Car Act and created the "separate but equal" doctrine; decided 7-1, Brown majority, Harlan dissent, overruled by Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978): Supreme Court case striking down UC Davis medical school's 16-seat minority set-aside while allowing race as a plus factor; Powell's solo opinion governed until SFFA (2023).
Religious Freedom Restoration Act
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), P.L. 103-141 (1993), a U.S. federal statute restoring the compelling-interest test for burdens on religious exercise after Employment Division v. Smith; limited to the federal government by City of Boerne v. Flores (1997).
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), the US Supreme Court decision recognizing a Fourteenth Amendment right to abortion and creating the trimester framework; reframed by Casey's undue burden standard, overruled by Dobbs in June 2022.
Roper v. Simmons
Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005): 5–4 Supreme Court decision abolishing the death penalty for offenders under 18 at the time of the crime, overturning Stanford v. Kentucky and grounding Graham, Miller, and Montgomery.
Schenck v. United States
Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919), a unanimous Supreme Court decision by Justice Holmes upholding Espionage Act convictions of Charles Schenck and Elizabeth Baer for anti-draft leaflets, which established the clear and present danger test later replaced by Brandenburg's imminent lawless action standard.
Scottsboro Boys
The Scottsboro Boys: nine Black teenagers falsely accused of raping two white women on an Alabama freight train in 1931; eight death sentences, Powell v. Alabama, Norris v. Alabama, recantations, paroles, and 2013 posthumous pardons.
Separate but equal
Separate but equal was the U.S. legal doctrine from Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) holding that racially segregated facilities satisfied the Fourteenth Amendment if equal; overturned by Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
Shelby County v. Holder
Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013): 5-4 Supreme Court decision striking down the Voting Rights Act's Section 4(b) coverage formula, ending Section 5 preclearance and leaving Section 2 litigation as the main enforcement path.
Shouting fire in a crowded theater
Shouting fire in a crowded theater: phrase from Holmes's 1919 Schenck v. United States dictum, originally "falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic"; its clear and present danger test was replaced by Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969).
Slaughter-House Cases
Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U.S. 36 (1873), also called the New Orleans slaughterhouse cases: 5-4 Supreme Court decision, the first reading of the Fourteenth Amendment, confining Privileges or Immunities to national citizenship and upholding Louisiana's Crescent City slaughterhouse monopoly.
Tennessee v. Garner
Tennessee v. Garner is a 1985 US Supreme Court decision holding that the Fourth Amendment prohibits deadly force against an unarmed, nondangerous fleeing suspect, striking down a Tennessee statute.
Texas v. Johnson
Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989), Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled 5-4 that flag burning is symbolic speech protected by the First Amendment, striking down Texas's venerated-object desecration statute and, via United States v. Eichman, the 1989 federal Flag Protection Act.