Period 3
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
Bailey, R. 1) Marbury v Madison
Bardeen, B. 2) Baker v Carr
Group 6 - CIVIL LIBERTIES CASES
1st Amendment - Religion
Silverberg, A 16) Engel v Vitale
Butler, C 3) US v Nixon
Iribe, D 4) National Fed. of Independent Business v.
Sebelius
Sun, C 17) Lemon v Kurtzman
Van Heel, V 18) Zelman v Simmons-Harris
Wasniack, E 19) Lynch v Donnelly
Group 2 - COMMERCE CLAUSE
Istrate, J 5) Katzenbach v McClung
Wasniack, E 20) Sherbert v Verner
Van Heel, V 21) Employment Division v Smith
Sun, C 22) Town of Greece v Galloway
Kdeiss, N 6) United States v Morrison
Group 3 –CIVIL RIGHTS
Lee, S 7) Plessy v Ferguson
Lewis, K 8) Brown v Bd of Ed. Of Topeka (1954)
Luzzi, S 9) Swann v Charlotte-Mecklenburg Bd. Of Ed.
Mabry, J 10) Regents of University of CA v Bakke
Major, D 11) Gratz v Bollinger
Marestaing, E 12) Shelby County v Holder
1st Amendment – Speech
Silverberg, A 23) Schenck v United States
Padget, D 24) Brandenburg v Ohio
Molenaar, C 25) Miller v California
Markowitz, T 26) Tinker v Des Moines
Marestaing, E 27) Texas v Johnson
Major, D 28) New York Times v United States
Mabry, J 29) Citizens United v FEC
Luzzi, S 30) McCutcheon v FEC
Group 4- NATIONALIZATION OF THE BILL OF
RIGHTS
Markowitz, T 13) Barron v Baltimore (5th Amendment)
2nd Amendment
Lewis, K 31) McDonald vs. Chicago
Molenaar, C 14) Gitlow v New York (1st Amendment)
4th Amendment
Lee, S 32) Weeks v US
Kdeiss, N 33) Mapp v Ohio
Group 5 –CITIZENSHIP
Padget, D 15) Korematsu v United States
Istrata, J 34) New Jersey v TLO
5th Amendment
Iribe, D 35) Miranda v Arizona
Butler, C 36) Kelo v New London
6th Amendment
Bardeen, B 37) Gideon v Wainwright
8th Amendment
Bailey, R. 38) Gregg v Georgia
Luzzi, S.39) Roper v Simmons
Right to Privacy (9th)
Istrate, I. 40) Roe v Wade
Silverberg, A.41) Planned Parenthood v Casey
Marestaing, E42) Lawrence v Texas
Iribe, D. 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