Landmark Cases

There was a president named John Adams. He lost the election to a man named Thomas Jefferson. Before Jefferson became president, Adams and Congress passed a new law called the Judiciary Act. This law created some new courts and gave Adams the power to appoint new judges.
One of the people Adams appointed was a man named William Marbury. Marbury was supposed to become a judge, but the new Secretary of State, James Madison, didn’t give him the official papers he needed. So Marbury asked the Supreme Court to order Madison to give him the papers.

The Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John Marshall, had to answer three questions:

1. Did Marbury have a right to become a judge?
2. If so, could he sue in court to get the papers?
3. Could the Supreme Court order Madison to give Marbury the papers?
   The Court said that even though Marbury should have become a judge, the law that let him sue in the Supreme Court was not allowed by the Constitution. So the Supreme Court could not order Madison to give Marbury the papers.

In this case, the Supreme Court established the important power of judicial review. This means the Court can decide if laws passed by Congress follow the Constitution. If not, the Court can say the law is not valid. This was a big deal and made the Supreme Court very powerful!

In 1816, the United States Congress created a huge national bank called the Second Bank of the United States. This bank had branches in different states, including one in Baltimore, Maryland. A few years later, in 1818, the state of Maryland tried to tax this national bank branch in Baltimore. But the bank’s cashier, a man named Mr. McCulloch, refused to pay the tax. This led to a big legal battle all the way up to the Supreme Court. The main questions were:

1. Did Congress have the right to create a national bank in the first place?
2. And if so, could a state like Maryland tax this bank that belonged to the whole country?

The Supreme Court, led by the famous Chief Justice John Marshall, made two important decisions:

1. Congress did have the power to create the Second Bank of the United States. Even though the Constitution doesn’t specifically mention a national bank, Congress can do things that are “necessary and proper” to carry out its other powers.
2. Maryland could not tax this national bank. The Constitution gives the federal government certain powers, and no state can interfere with those powers by taxing federal institutions like the national bank.

So in the end, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the national bank and against Maryland’s attempt to tax it. This case helped establish that the federal government has broad powers beyond just what is written word-for-word in the Constitution.

A long time ago, there were two businessmen named Robert Livingston and Robert Fulton. They made a deal with New York state that said only their steamboats could travel on waters controlled by New York for 20 years! This was called a “monopoly” which meant no one else was allowed to operate steamboats there. Well, a steamboat owner named Thomas Gibbons didn’t like this one bit. He had a license from the U.S. government to sail between New York and New Jersey. But New York said he couldn’t because of their special deal with Livingston and Fulton. Gibbons argued that interstate trade and transportation between states should be controlled by the whole United States Congress, not individual states like New York. This turned into a huge legal battle all the way up to the Supreme Court!

In the end, the Supreme Court agreed with Thomas Gibbons. The famous Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce and trade between states. Since Gibbons had a federal license to operate between New York and New Jersey, the state of New York couldn’t stop him with their monopoly deal. The Court said federal laws take priority over state laws when they disagree. This case was a big victory for having one national set of rules for interstate business activities, rather than a bunch of different state laws causing confusion. It helped strengthen Congress’s power over national commerce!

Back in the 1890s, the state of Louisiana had a terrible law that said black people and white people had to be kept separate on trains. There were “whites only” train cars that black passengers couldn’t sit in. An African American man named Homer Plessy, purposely broke this law by sitting in the “whites only” section of a train. He did this as part of a protest against the segregation law. When Plessy refused to move to the “colored” car, he got arrested. His case went all the way to the Supreme Court to decide if Louisiana’s “separate but equal” law for trains was constitutional or not.

In a 7-1 decision, the Supreme Court sadly ruled that segregating black and white train passengers was allowed under the Constitution. The majority said that as long as the separate facilities for each race were “equal,” it didn’t violate anyone’s rights. The one dissenting justice was John Harlan. He strongly disagreed, saying the Constitution should treat all citizens equally, no matter their race. Separating people by skin color was wrong and went against America’s values. However, the Court sided with the state of Louisiana. This “separate but equal” doctrine allowed racial segregation to continue for many more decades until it was finally overturned years later.T he Plessy case was a very disappointing decision that upheld discrimination against black Americans. It took brave citizens continuing to protest injustice before segregation laws were eventually struck down.

During World War II, the United States was at war with Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Because of this, the U.S. government became very worried that Japanese-American citizens might help Japan by spying or sabotaging from within America. So in 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an order that said all Japanese-Americans on the West Coast had to leave their homes and move to special camps further inland. This was to keep the coastal areas secure from potential threats. A man named Fred Korematsu didn’t want to follow this order. He was an American citizen who was born in the United States. Korematsu felt it was unfair to force him into a camp just because of his Japanese ancestry. When Korematsu refused to go to the camp, he was arrested. His case went all the way to the Supreme Court to decide if the President’s order was constitutional or violated Japanese-Americans’ rights.

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court regrettably ruled that the internment camps were allowable under the President’s wartime powers. The majority said it was understandable to take precautions against potential espionage and sabotage threats. However, three justices strongly disagreed. They felt the internment order unfairly discriminated against a group of people based solely on their race and ancestry, which violated their constitutional rights as American citizens. Looking back now, most people agree the internment of loyal Japanese-American citizens without evidence was a terrible injustice driven by fear and racism rather than real security needs. The Korematsu case showed how even the highest court can make decisions that violate civil liberties, especially during times of crisis. It stands as a reminder to always uphold the constitutional rights of all Americans regardless of their racial background.

A long time ago, in many parts of the United States, there were separate schools for white students and black students. This was called racial segregation in education. Even though the schools were supposed to be “separate but equal,” the reality was that the white schools often had much better resources and facilities. Several brave African American families decided to challenge this unfair system of segregation. They filed lawsuits arguing that separating students just based on their race violated the constitutional rights of black children to get a proper education. These cases from different states all made their way together to the highest court in the land – the U.S. Supreme Court. It was now up to the nine Supreme Court justices to decide if racial segregation in public schools should still be allowed.

In 1954, the Supreme Court made a unanimous and groundbreaking decision. The Chief Justice, Earl Warren, stated that separating students by race in public schools was unconstitutional and inherently unequal. The Court said segregation made black children feel inferior and severely harmed their ability to learn and develop self-esteem. Separating kids just because of their race violated the constitutional promise of equal protection under the law. This ruling overturned the earlier “separate but equal” decision and outlawed racial segregation in public schools across America. It was a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement’s fight against discrimination and racial injustice. While it took many more years of struggle and perseverance, the Brown v. Board of Education decision finally began the process of desegregating schools and ensuring all students had access to the same quality education, regardless of race.

There was once a woman named Dollree Mapp who got into some trouble with the police. Officers showed up at her house looking for a criminal who had run away, but they didn’t have a proper search warrant to enter her home. Even though it was against the rules, the police went inside Mapp’s house anyway and started searching through all her private belongings. During this illegal search, they found some materials that were considered “obscene” at the time and arrested Mapp for having them. Mapp knew the police had violated her rights by searching her house without a warrant, which isn’t allowed under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. So she took her case all the way to the highest court in the country – the Supreme Court.

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court sided with Dollree Mapp. The justices ruled that any evidence obtained through an unreasonable or illegal search by police cannot be used in court. This became known as the “exclusionary rule.” The Court said that allowing illegally seized evidence would go against the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. Citizens’ constitutional rights to privacy in their homes must be protected. This landmark decision had a major impact. It meant that if police violate a person’s rights by searching improperly, any evidence they find can get thrown out of court. It gave more power to the Fourth Amendment and people’s civil liberties. The Mapp case showed that evidence collected illegally cannot be used, no matter what that evidence might be. It was an important ruling for upholding Americans’ constitutional rights to privacy and proper legal procedures.