Important Cases in Supreme Court History

1803 Marbury v. Madison- the power of the courts
This case established the power of the Court to judiciously review acts of Congress, a power not explicitly granted by the Constitution.

1819 McCulloch v. Maryland- "the letter and the spirit"
Upheld the right of Congress to create a Bank of the United States, ruling that it was a power implied but not specifically laid out by the Constitution. The case is significant because it advanced the doctrine of implied powers, or a loose construction of the Constitution. The Court, Chief Justice John Marshall wrote, would sanction laws reflecting "the letter and spirit" of the Constitution.

1857 Dred Scott v. Sanford- a defeat for anti-slavery forces
A highly controversial case that intensified the national debate over slavery. The case involved Dred Scott, a slave, who was taken from a slave state to a free territory. Scott filed a lawsuit claiming that because he had lived on free soil he was entitled to his freedom. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney disagreed, ruling that blacks were not citizens and therefore could not sue in Federal Court. Taney further inflamed anti-slavery forces by declaring that Congress had no right to ban slavery from U.S. territories.

1896 Plessy v. Ferguson- paved the way for Jim Crow laws
The infamous case that asserted that "equal but separate accommodations" for blacks on railroad cars did not violate the "equal protection under the laws" clause of the 14th Amendment. By defending the constitutionality of racial segregation, the Court paved the way for the repressive Jim Crow laws of the south. The lone dissenter on the Court, Justice John Marshall Harlan, protested, "The thin disguise of ‘equal’ accommodations . . . will not mislead anyone."

1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka- separate is unequal
Invalidated racial segregation in schools, and led to the unraveling of segregation in all areas of public life. In the unanimous decision spearheaded by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Court invalidated the Plessy ruling, declaring "in the field of public education, the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place," and contending that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." Future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was one of the NAACP lawyers who successfully argued the case.

1973 Roe v. Wade- legalized abortion
Roe v. Wade legalized abortion and is at the center of the current controversy between "Pro-Life" and "Pro-Choice" advocates. The Court ruled that a woman has the right to an abortion without interference from the government in the first trimester of pregnancy, because it is part of her "right to privacy." The Court maintained that right to privacy is not absolute, however, and granted states the right to intervene in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy.