Supreme Court: Famous Decisions Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Segregation.

After the Civil War southern state governments began passing Jim Crow lawsthat prohibited blacks from using the same public accommodations as whites. Plessy v. Ferguson Upholds the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in private businesses (particularly railroads), under the doctrine of"separate but equal". It remained the standard until Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954) Desegregation. - Linda Brown was denied admission to her local elementary school in Topeka because she was black. When, combined with several other cases, her suit reached the Supreme Court, that body, in an opinion by recently appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren, broke with long tradition and unanimously overruled the "separate but equal" doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson, holding for the first time that de jure segregation in the public schools violated the principle of equal protection under the law guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Responding to legal and sociological arguments presented by NAACP lawyers led by Thurgood Marshall, the court stressed that the "badge of inferiority" stamped on minority children by segregation hindered their full development no matter how "equal" physical facilities might be. After hearing further arguments on implementation, the court declared in 1955 that schools must be desegregated "with all deliberate speed." Engel Et Al. V. Vitale Et Al. (1962) Ban school prayer. The Supreme Court held the entire idea of a state-mandated or state-sponsored prayer, no matter how innocuous, as contrary to the spirit and command of the First Amendment's ban against the establishment of religion. Union Free School in New Hyde Park, New York, instituted the following prayer to be said aloud by each class in the presence of a teacher at the beginning of each school day: "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country." It was concidered so brief and general there can be no danger to religious freedom in it.

This daily procedure was adopted on the recommendation of the State Board of Regents and called the Regent's Prayer. The parents of ten pupils brought this action in a New York State Court insisting that use of this official prayer in the public schools was contrary to the beliefs, religions, or religious practices of both themselves and their children. Miranda v. Arizona (1966) - Right to remain silent. Four cases in Arizona, California and New York involved defendants who were questioned by police officers, detectives, or a prosecuting attorney in a room in which he was cut off from the outside world. None of the defendants was given a full and effective warning of his rights at the outset of the interrogation process. In all four cases the questioning elicited oral admissions, and in three of them signed statements as well, which were admitted at their trials. Resulted in Miranda Rights being read at the time of arrest:

You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say may be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you by the court.

Roe v. Wade (1973) Right to Abortion - Supreme Court decision limiting state's right to regulate abortion. "Jane Roe" (whose real name was Norma McCorvey) was a woman who challenged the criminal abortion laws in Texas. These laws forbade abortion except in cases where the mother's life was in danger; claiming they were unconstitutional. Henry Wade was the Texas Attorney General who defended the anti-abortion law. Sarah Weddington argued the cause for Roe twice. Jay Floyd argued the cause for Texas in the first argument. Robert C. Flowers argued the cause for Texas in the second argument. The conclusion held that a woman's right to an abortion falls within the right to privacy protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. Regents of the University of California v. Bakke - 1978 Affirmative action Quotas are illegal.

The Court held in a closely divided decision that race could be one of the factors considered in choosing a diverse student body in university admissions decisions. The Court also held, however, that the use of quotas in such affirmative action programs was not permissible; thus the Univ. of California, Davis, medical school had, by maintaining a 16% minority quota, discriminated against Allan Bakke,. 1940-, a white applicant. The legal implications of the decision were clouded by the Court's division. Bakke had twice been rejected by the medical school, even though he had a higher grade point average than a number of minority candidates who were admitted. As a result of the decision, Bakke was admitted to the medical school and graduated in 1992. Loving et ux. v. Virginia - 1967 Interracial marriage. In June 1958, two residents of Virginia, Mildred Jeter, a Negro woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, were married in the District of Columbia. The Lovings returned to Virginia. The Circuit Court of Caroline County, a grand jury issued an indictment charging the Lovings with violating Virginia's ban on interracial marriages. On January 6, 1959, the Lovings pleaded guilty to the charge and were sentenced to one year in jail; however, the trial judge suspended the sentence for a period of 25 years on the condition that the Lovings leave the State and not return to Virginia together for 25 years. He stated in an opinion that: "Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix." CHIEF JUSTICE WARREN delivered the opinion of the Court. "This case presents a constitutional question never addressed by this Court: whether a statutory scheme adopted by the State of Virginia to prevent marriages between persons solely on the basis of racial classifications violates the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. For reasons which seem to us to reflect the central meaning of those constitutional commands, we conclude that these statutes cannot stand consistently with the Fourteenth Amendment." ... "Virginia is now one of 16 States which prohibit and punish marriages on the basis of racial classifications. The present statutory scheme dates from the adoption of the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, passed during the period of extreme nativism which

followed the end of the First World War." ... There can be no question but that Virginia's miscegenation statutes rest solely upon distinctions drawn according to race. The statutes proscribe generally accepted conduct if engaged in by members of different races. Over the years, this Court has consistently repudiated "distinctions between citizens solely because of their ancestry" as being "odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality." See: Loving v. Virginia at law.umkc.edu George W Bush v. Al Gore (2000) - The 25 electorial college votes from Florida would decide the winner of the 2000 presidential election between Democratic candidate Al Gore nor Republican candidate George W. Bush. The vote was close and a mandated machine recount of Florida's votes put Bush in the lead by only hundreds of votes out of about 6 million cast, and Gore requested hand recounts of ballots in four heavily Democratic counties. When some of these counties failed to complete their manual recounts by an election certification deadline, Gore filed an election contest to challenge the official certification of Bush as the winner. On December 8 the Florida Supreme Court ordered a statewide manual recount of undervotes, or ballots on which machines failed to register a vote for president. Bush appealed this decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, and on December 9 the Court, by a 5-to-4 vote, halted these manual recounts while it considered the case. On December 12 the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Florida court's decision, effectively sealing Bush's victory. Seven of the nine justices found the court-ordered recount unconstitutional. They concluded that the use of different standards by different counties to determine a legal vote violates a voter's right to equal protection--that is, the right for all voters to be treated equally. However, the Court split 5 to 4 on the issue of whether to permit further counting under more uniform standards, with the majority ruling that a recount could not be completed constitutionally before a December 12 deadline for the state to choose its electors. The dissenting justices argued that the Court was wrong to involve itself in a state election dispute and that its split decision risked the credibility of the Court.

Presentation of religious symbols and sacred text on public property (2005)Ten Commandments may, in certain cases, be displayed. Two cases one in Texas and the other in Kentucky were decided differently, both by 5 to 4 votes. The court said an outdoor public presentation of a six-foot-tall tombstone-like monument, donated to the state 40 years ago by a civic group, among other monuments on the Texas State Capitol grounds in Austin did not amount to an unconstitutional government promotion of religion. The majority ruled that government officials in the Kentucky case had acted in a way that sought to advance religion in violation of the separation of church and state. The Kentucky case involves an attempt by McCreary County officials to authorize the display of a framed copy of the Ten Commandments in local courthouses. District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) In 2002, Robert A. Levy, a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, began vetting plaintiffs for a planned Second Amendment lawsuit that he would personally finance. In February 2003, six residents of Washington, D.C. filed a lawsuit in the District Court for the District of Columbia, challenging the constitutionality of provisions of the Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975, a local law (part of the District of Columbia Code). This law restricted residents from owning handguns. It challenged the law in federal enclaves like the District of Columbia and did not apply to the states. The Court ruled 5 to 4 a total ban on operative handguns in the home is unconstitutional. See: Wikipedia Second Amendment rights in the states was addressed later by McDonald v. Chicago (2010) Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, (2010) The court ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections. The decision overruled two precedents: Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, a 1990 decision that upheld restrictions on corporate spending to support or oppose political candidates,

and McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, a 2003 decision that upheld the part of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 that restricted campaign spending by corporations and unions. If the First Amendment has any force," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority, which included the four members of the court's conservative wing, "it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech." Majority - Kennedy, joined by Roberts, Scalia, Alito, Thomas. Dissent - Stevens, joined by Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor The dissenting justices did support Part IV which upheld the disclosure, disclaimer, and reporting requirements. Thomas did not support Part IV. See wikipedia. President Obama called it "a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests. He even criticized the court in his state of the union address. Snyder v. Phelps et al (Westboro Baptist Church) (2011) The Topeka, Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), led by its founder, Fred Phelps had been holding anti-gay protests outside military funerals and other high profile funerals to communicate its belief that God hates the United States for its tolerance of homosexuality, particularly in America's military. Albert Snyder won a lawsuit against the Westboro Baptist Church for defamation and invasion of privacy after the Rev. Fred Phelps and other church members held a demonstration 1,000 feet outside the funeral of Snyder's son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder in York, Pa.. They held signs with provocative messages, including "Thank God for dead soldiers," "You're Going to Hell," "God Hates the USA/Thank God for 9/11," "God hates Obama." The decision was overturned and went to the Supreme Court. Their 8-1 decision favored the Westboro Baptist Church. "Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and - as it did here - inflict great

pain," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. "On the facts before us, we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker," he said. "As a nation we have chosen a different course - to protect even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate," the chief justice wrote. In a lone dissent, Justice Samuel Alito said the nation's commitment to free and open debate "is not a license for the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case." He said, "Snyder was not a public figure" who could be expected to tolerate such an onslaught, but a private person who sought to "bury his son in peace." But Roberts said the frequency of the protests - and the church's practice of demonstrating against Catholics, Jews and many other groups - is an indication that Phelps and his flock were not mounting a personal attack against Snyder but expressing deeply held views on public topics. See: Westboro Baptist Church victory as Supreme Court rules in its favour over protests at military funerals | Mail Online Westboro Baptist Church - News Stories About Westboro Baptist Church | Newser.com A Peek Inside The Westboro Baptist Church : NPR Trials: John Scopes (1925) - (Monkey trial) - Charged with intentionally violating Tennessee law by teaching the Darwinian explanation of creation rather than the Biblical story. The fledgling American Civil Liberties Union wanted to challenge the law's constitutionality and chose to test it with the trial of John Scopes, a young high-school math and gym teacher who briefly taught Darwinism as a substitute biology teacher. The law had been enacted to reassure churches that a new school curriculum would not threaten religious beliefs, but it was not expected to be enforced. Clarence Darrow was one of Scopes's attorneys, while William Jennings Bryan aided the state prosecutor. Darrow argued that academic freedom was being violated and claimed that the

legislature had indicated a religious preference, violating the separation of church and state. He also maintained that the evolutionary theory was consistent with certain interpretations of the Bible, and in an especially dramatic session he sharply questioned Bryan on the latter's literal interpretation. Scopes was convicted, partly because of the defense, which refused to plead any of the technical defenses available, fearing an acquittal on a technical rather than a constitutional basis. Scopes was, however, later released by the state supreme court on a technicality. The trial that inspired a Broadway play and movie by the same name - Inherit the Wind? The Supreme Court has long since come down squarely on the side of proponents of such teaching. Several states have attempted to circumvent such court decisions by passing laws that require public school textbooks to give "balanced treatment" to the theories of evolution and "intelligent design." However, such laws have not withstood legal challenge. See more at creation vs. evolution. My Lai Massacre Court Martial (William Calley) (1970) Court martial trial of the lieutenant charged with responsibility (war crimes) for the killing of as many as 500 unarmed Vietnam civilians at My Lai village in 1968 during the Vietnam War. In March 1971 he was sentenced "To be confined at hard labor for the length of his natural life; to be dismissed from the service; to forfeit all pay and allowances." Opinion polls showed that the public overwhelmingly disapproved of the verdict. Two weeks after the Calley verdict was announced, the Harris Poll reported for the first time that a majority of Americans opposed the war in Viet Nam. On November 9, 1974, the Secretary of the Army announced that William Calley would be paroled. Ethel Rosenberg and Julius Rosenberg (1951) - Charged with delivering information about the construction of the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. They were executed. Chicago Seven Conspiracy Trial (1969-1970)

- Trial of demonstrators at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention for rioting. David Dellinger, Rennie Davis, Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, John Froines and Lee Weiner. (Bobby Seale was originally part of the group, but was four years in prison for contempt.) were sentenced to five years' imprisonment plus a $5,000 fine. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed all convictions on November 21, 1972. The appellate court based its decision on the refusal to allow inquiry into the cultural biases of potential jurors during voir dire as well as Judge Hoffman's "deprecatory and often antagonistic attitude toward the defense." The court also noted that it was determined after appellate argument that the F. B. I, with the knowledge and complicity of Judge Hoffman and prosecutors, had bugged the offices of the Chicago defense attorneys. See law.umkc.edu...chicago7.html Nuremberg War Crimes Trials (1945-1946) - Trial of major Nazi war criminals by an international tribunal after WWII. Twelve trials, involving over a hundred defendants and several different courts, took place in Nuremberg from 1945 to 1949. By far the most attention has focused on the first Nuremberg trial of twenty-one major war criminals. 11 were executed in October 1946, 3 received life sentences, 4 received sentences from 10-20 years, 3 were acquitted. Adolf Eichmann escaped to Argentina for ten years until Israeli Mossad agents abducted him in 1960 to stand trial in Jerusalem. He was executed in 1962. Japanese Internment Camp Cases (1943-1944) - Cases of Gordon Hirabyashi and Fred Korematsu; cases involved the constitutionality of the military orders removing American citizens of Japanese ancestry from the Pacific coast early in WWII and relocating them in internment camps for more than 2 years. The Supreme Court justified relocation by stating that residents with ethnic affiliations with the enemy were a greater source of danger than those of different ancestry.

Justice Frank Murphy, one of the three dissenters from the policy, attacked the decision as racist. Justice Robert Jackson warned against such precedents. Circuit Court Judge William Denman attacked the decision by saying that it justified the gas chambers of Dachau. Since WWII, the Japanese American Citizen's League (JACL), together with other Japanese Americans organizations, has won important political and legal victories. In 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed the Japanese American Evacuation Claims Act allowing reimbursements. Some 23,689 claims were filed asking for $131,949,176. By the time these claims outlasted federal procedures which required itemized claims and receipts, the Federal Government recompensed Japanese Americans $38,000,000 -or about 29 cents for every dollar claimed. In 1987, the U.S. house passed a law including a formal apology to Japanese Americans for the internment and providing $1.2 billion in compensation. See the National Japanese American Memorial Foundation Web site Trial of John Brown 1859 In October 1859 John Brown and a small group of abolitionists attacked the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, VA, as part of a plan to raise an army to end slavery. The attack failed and Brown and his followers were captured. They were arraigned on three state charges: treason against Virginia, inciting slaves to rebellion, and murder. He was convicted and hanged. See The Life and trial of John Brown at Douglas O. Linder's famous Trials Page. Sacco-Vanzetti Case 1920 A paymaster for a shoe company in South Braintree, Mass., and his guard were shot and killed by two men who escaped with over $15,000. Because Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti had gone to a garage to claim a car that local police had connected with the crime, they were arrested. Both men were anarchists. On their arrest they made false statements; both carried firearms; neither, however, had a criminal record, nor was there any evidence of their having had any of the money. In July, 1921, they were found guilty after a trial in Dedham, Mass. and sentenced to death. Many

then believed that the conviction was unwarranted and had been influenced by the reputation of the accused as radicals when antiradical sentiment was running high. Later much of the evidence against them was discredited. In 1927 when the Massachusetts supreme judicial court upheld the denial of a new trial, protest meetings were held and appeals were made to Gov. Alvan T. Fuller. He postponed the execution and appointed a committee to advise him. On Aug. 3 the governor announced that the judicial procedure in the trial had been correct. They were executed on Aug. 22, 1927. They were--and continue to be-widely regarded as martyrs. However, new ballistics tests conducted with modern equipment in 1961 seemed to prove conclusively that the pistol found on Sacco had been used to murder the guard. Other Supreme Court Cases: Dred Scott Case (1856-57) In 1834, Dred Scott, a black slave, personal servant to Dr. John Emerson, a U.S. army surgeon, was taken by his master from Missouri, a slave state, to Illinois, a free state, and thence to Fort Snelling (now in Minnesota) in Wisconsin Territory, where slavery was prohibited by the Missouri Compromise. There he married before returning with Dr. Emerson to Missouri in 1838. After Emerson's death, Scott sued (1846) Emerson's widow for freedom for himself and his family (he had two children) on the ground that residence in a free state and then in a free territory had ended his bondage. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered the court's opinion that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. Three of the justices also held that a black "whose ancestors were sold as slaves" was not entitled to the rights of a federal citizen and therefore had no standing in court. The court's verdict further inflamed the sectional controversy between North and South and was roundly denounced by the growing antislavery group in the North. Scottsboro Case - 1931 Nine black youths were indicted at Scottsboro, Ala., on charges of having raped two white women in a freight car passing through Alabama. In a series of trials the youths were found guilty and sentenced to death or to prison terms of 75 to 99 years. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the convictions ... Famous Antitrust Cases:

Standard Oil - 1882 AT&T - 1982 Microsoft - 2001

See: Antitrust's Greatest Hits at reason.com See: Famous Trials: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights in Modern America Supreme Court Decisions at ThisNation.com Famous Trials by Douglas O. Linder at the U. of Missouri, Kansas City. [Trials of Socrates (399 B.C.), Jesus (30 A. D.), Galileo (1633), Salem Witchcraft Trials (1692), Boston Massacre Trials (1770), Mutiny on the Bounty Court-Martial (1792), Burr Conspiracy (1807), Susan Anthony Trial (1873), Hauptmann (Lindbergh) Trial (1935), Alger Hiss Trials (1949-50), O. J. Simpson Trial (1995) and others] Major Acts of Congress - Constitution - Amendments Cases at www.encyclopedia.com