Period 4
US Supreme Court Cases
The court cases listed below are some of the landmark decisions reached by the US Supreme Court. These are
the cases that will most likely appear on the AP Exam. The cases are arranged by categories:
Group 1 – GOV'T POWERS
Ang Lee, L. 1) Marbury v Madison
Drinkwine, E. 2) Baker v Carr
Gwatney, C 3) US v Nixon
Hunter, T 4) National Fed. of Independent Business v.
Sebelius
Group 2 - COMMERCE CLAUSE
Jones, J 5) Katzenbach v McClung
Kaukab, A 6) United States v Morrison
Group 3 –CIVIL RIGHTS
Lock, B 7) Plessy v Ferguson
Locke, J 8) Brown v Bd of Ed. Of Topeka (1954)
Manes, A 9) Swann v Charlotte-Mecklenburg Bd. Of
Ed.
Martinez, R 10) Regents of University of CA v Bakke
Reynoso, C 11) Gratz v Bollinger
Schulert, E 12) Shelby County v Holder
Group 4- NATIONALIZATION OF THE BILL OF
RIGHTS
Terry, R 13) Barron v Baltimore (5th Amendment)
Wertz, E 14) Gitlow v New York (1st Amendment)
Group 5 –CITIZENSHIP
White, S 15) Korematsu v United States
Group 6 - CIVIL LIBERTIES CASES
1st Amendment - Religion
White, S 16) Engel v Vitale
Wertz, E 17) Lemon v Kurtzman
Terry, R 18) Zelman v Simmons-Harris
Schulert, E 19) Lynch v Donnelly
Reynoso, C 20) Sherbert v Verner
Martinez, R 21) Employment Division v Smith
Manes, A 22) Town of Greece v Galloway
1st Amendment – Speech
Locke, J 23) Schenck v United States
Lock, B 24) Brandenburg v Ohio
Kaukab, A 25) Miller v California
Jones, J 26) Tinker v Des Moines
Hunter, T 27) Texas v Johnson
Gwatney, C 28) New York Times v United States
Drinkwine, E 29) Citizens United v FEC
Ang Lee, L 30) McCutcheon v FEC
2nd Amendment
Riley, T. 31) McDonald vs. Chicago
4th Amendment
Schulert, E. 32) Weeks v US
Hunter, T. 33) Mapp v Ohio
Jones, J. 34) New Jersey v TLO
5th Amendment
Martinez, R. 35) Miranda v Arizona
Ang Lee, L. 36) Kelo v New London
6th Amendment
Manes, A. 37) Gideon v Wainwright
8th Amendment
Lock, B. 38) Gregg v Georgia
Wertz, E. 39) Roper v Simmons
Right to Privacy (9th)
Drinkwine, E. 40) Roe v Wade
Kaukab, A.41) Planned Parenthood v Casey
Locke, J. 42) Lawrence v Texas
White, S. 43) Obergefell v Hodges
DIRECTIONS:
Each student will brief TWO cases from the list above. On the day that the briefs are due, I will place all the
legal briefs into a PDF and place it on my website. All briefs must be typed and ONLY ONE PAGE in
length. Each case must be set up in the following manner:
1) Place the name of the case you are briefing in the center of the first line at the top of your page.
2) Place the page number in the bottom right corner (If your case is #18 – put #18 in the bottom right
hand corner).
3) The four parts of a legal brief must be present, clearly shown and underlined. These four parts
include:
ISSUE: What is the court asked to decide? (Note – The US Supreme Court does not decide
guilt or innocence. In most cases, it is attempting to clarify a constitutional question.
State here what the Supreme Court was asked to decide, NOT what the lower courts were asked
to decide.)
FACTS: What happened? Describe the facts of the case.
DECISION: What did the court decide? The decision must always answer the question
asked in the issue.
REASONING: What were the justifications used by the court to reach its decision?
This assignment is worth 20 points for each case you are assigned and 10 points extra credit if assigned an extra case.
When researching your assigned case, focus on the summary of the case and be sure to include what parts of the
Constitution are being addressed. Use the following website to help you locate cases:
www.supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/index.html