Landmark Supreme Court Cases Flashcards

In Marbury v. Madison (1803), Chief Justice John Marshall established judicial review by ruling that Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 was unconstitutional. Which constitutional principle did Marshall invoke to justify striking down an act of Congress for the first time?

Answer: The Supremacy Clause makes the Constitution the supreme law, and courts must refuse to enforce laws that contradict it

Marshall's reasoning rested on the Supremacy Clause and the nature of a written constitution: if the Constitution is supreme law and courts must say what the law is, then courts must refuse to apply any law that conflicts with it. Judicial review is not explicitly written in Article III, and the Necessary and Proper Clause applies to Congress, not the courts. The Tenth Amendment reserves powers to states, not the judiciary.

The Supreme Court's decision in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) resolved two constitutional questions simultaneously. Which pair of outcomes correctly describes what the Court held?

Answer: Congress had implied power to charter the Bank of the United States, AND states could not tax a federal instrumentality

Chief Justice Marshall answered both questions: (1) using the Necessary and Proper Clause, Congress has implied powers beyond those explicitly listed, making the Bank constitutional; and (2) 'the power to tax involves the power to destroy,' so Maryland could not tax a federal institution — doing so would allow a state to undermine federal supremacy. No option that allows state taxation of the Bank is correct.

In Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), Chief Justice Taney's majority opinion contained a constitutional holding about citizenship that was later directly overturned by a specific constitutional amendment. Which amendment nullified that holding, and what did Taney incorrectly rule?

Answer: The 14th Amendment; Taney ruled that African Americans, whether enslaved or free, could never be citizens of the United States and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court

Taney held that Black Americans — free or enslaved — were not citizens and thus lacked standing to sue. He also struck down the Missouri Compromise. The 14th Amendment (1868) directly nullified the citizenship ruling by defining all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. as citizens. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery but did not address citizenship; the 15th addressed voting rights.

In Engel v. Vitale (1962), the Supreme Court struck down state-sponsored prayer in public schools. A school district then argued that a moment of silence — with no prescribed words — would be constitutionally permissible. In Wallace v. Jaffree (1985), how did the Court rule on Alabama's moment-of-silence statute?

Answer: The Court struck it down because the legislative record showed the statute was enacted specifically to return prayer to schools, revealing a religious purpose

In Wallace v. Jaffree, the Court applied the Lemon test and found that Alabama's statute was enacted with the explicit legislative intent to reintroduce prayer — its sponsor openly said so on the record. That religious purpose alone was enough to invalidate it under the Establishment Clause. A genuinely neutral moment-of-silence law with no religious intent might survive; this one did not because of its demonstrable purpose.

The Supreme Court's ruling in United States v. Nixon (1974) is remembered for limiting executive privilege. However, the Court also implicitly affirmed that executive privilege exists. Which statement most precisely captures the actual holding?

Answer: Executive privilege is constitutionally grounded but not absolute; it must yield to a demonstrated, specific need for evidence in a pending criminal trial

The unanimous Court (Chief Justice Burger writing) recognized executive privilege as having constitutional roots in the separation of powers, but held it is not absolute. When a generalized claim of confidentiality is weighed against a specific, demonstrated need for evidence in a criminal proceeding, the latter prevails. Nixon was ordered to surrender the tapes. The Court did not say privilege is purely statutory, nor did it limit it only to military matters.

In Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), the Supreme Court established a three-part test for Establishment Clause challenges. In 2022's Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, the Court ruled in favor of a public school football coach who prayed on the field after games. What did the majority say about the Lemon test in that decision?

Answer: The Court expressly abandoned the Lemon test, holding that Establishment Clause claims must be evaluated by reference to historical practices and understandings at the Founding

In Kennedy v. Bremerton (2022), Justice Gorsuch's majority opinion explicitly retired the Lemon test, stating that the Court had long since abandoned it and that Establishment Clause cases should instead be analyzed against the backdrop of historical practices and understandings rooted in the Founding era. This was a major doctrinal shift — the Lemon test had governed Establishment Clause analysis for over 50 years.