Landmark Supreme Court Cases for the FCLE

The FCLE asks about 26 landmark Supreme Court cases. Each link below opens a one-page summary with the facts, the constitutional question, the decision, and why it matters.

The 26 FCLE landmark cases
Year	Case	Theme
1803	Marbury v. Madison	Judicial power
1819	McCulloch v. Maryland	Federalism and national power
1857	Dred Scott v. Sandford	Slavery and citizenship
1896	Plessy v. Ferguson	Equal protection
1919	Schenck v. United States	Freedom of speech
1944	Korematsu v. United States	Civil liberties in wartime
1954	Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka	Equal protection
1961	Mapp v. Ohio	Rights of the accused
1962	Baker v. Carr	Voting and representation
1962	Engel v. Vitale	Freedom of religion
1963	Gideon v. Wainwright	Rights of the accused
1966	Miranda v. Arizona	Rights of the accused
1969	Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District	Student speech
1971	New York Times Co. v. United States	Freedom of the press
1972	Wisconsin v. Yoder	Freedom of religion
1973	Roe v. Wade	Privacy and due process
1974	United States v. Nixon	Separation of powers
1978	Regents of the University of California v. Bakke	Equal protection and affirmative action
1988	Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier	Student speech and press
1989	Texas v. Johnson	Symbolic speech
1993	Shaw v. Reno	Voting and representation
1995	United States v. Lopez	Federalism and the Commerce Clause
2000	Bush v. Gore	Elections
2008	District of Columbia v. Heller	Right to bear arms
2010	McDonald v. City of Chicago	Right to bear arms and incorporation
2010	Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission	Campaign finance and speech

Practice 20 case questions Read all cases in Chapter 15

Landmark legislation and executive actions

Competency 4 also covers acts of Congress and presidential actions:

Chapter 16: Landmark Legislation, from the Missouri Compromise to the Affordable Care Act.
Chapter 17: Landmark Executive Actions, from the Neutrality Proclamation to "Tear down this wall."