Unit 5 Court Cases

Unit 5 Court Cases

Establishment / Free Exercise

Everson v. Board of Education (1947) Court ruled that a New Jersey law granting travel reimbursements to parents of children attending catholic school did not violate the 1st Amendments establishment clause.

Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971) Court ruled that RI and PA statutes making state financial aid available to church-related educational institutions violated the Establishment clause.

Smith v. Oregon (1990) Court ruled that a state can deny unemployment benefits to a worker fired for using illegal drugs for religious purposes.

Board of Education of the Westside Community Schools v. Mergens (1990) Court ruled that equal access to any after-school club cannot be denied based on the content of its speech.

Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. City of Hialeah (1993) Court ruled that a city ordinance prohibiting ritual animal sacrifices violated the free exercise clause.

Expression

Trial of John Peter Zenger (1735) This early American case established an important right of the freedom of press as well as the importance of the jury as a check on arbitrary government power.

Ex parte Milligan (1866) Court ruled that martial law cannot exist where the civil courts are operating.

Shenck v. United States (1919) Court ruled that speech can be limited if it is of such nature as to create a clear and present danger that will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent. Also, utterances tolerable in peacetime can be punished.

Gitlow v. New York (1925) The Court upheld the conviction and concluded New Yorks Criminal Anarchy law was constitutional. Rationale of the majority is sometimes called the dangerous tendency test.

Roth v. United States (1957) Court ruled that obscenity was not within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press.

Bradenburg v. Ohio (1969) Court rules against constitutionality of Ohios criminal syndicalism law, stating that speech can only be prohibited if it is (1) "directed at inciting or producing imminent lawless action" and it is (2) "likely to incite or produce such action."

Madsen v. Womens Health Center (1994) Court ruled that a 36 ft. buffer zone in the front of abortion clinics was not an infringement upon free speech, but the barring of protesters from approaching patients within a 300 ft radius was.

Assembly, Petition, Association

Hague v. Congress of Industrial Organizations (1939) New Jerseys city ordinance that forbid gatherings of groups that advocated obstruction of the government by unlawful means was ruled in violation of the right to assembly.

NAACP v. Alabama (1958) Court ruled that Alabamas requirement for NAACP members to reveal names and addresses to States Attorney General was in violation of the 14th Amendment. Disclosure of such lists would have the effect of suppressing legal association among the groups members.

Barenblatt v. United States (1959) Court ruled that the First Amendment does not protect a witness from all lines of questioning, as long as the Congressional inquiry is pursued to aid the legislative process and to protect important government interests.

Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969) Prohibiting students from wearing of armbands in public school as a form of symbolic protest was ruled in violation of free speech.

Protection Against Unreasonable Search & Seizure

Weeks v. United States (1914) Court ruled that the warrantless search and seizure of Weeks home violated the Fourth Amendment. Eventually became known as exclusionary rule.

Mapp v. Ohio (1961) This historic and controversial decision places the requirement of excluding illegally obtained evidence from court at all levels of the government.

Miranda v. Arizona (1966) Court ruled that the police practice of interrogating individuals without notifying them of their right to counsel and their protection against self-incrimination violated the 5th Amendment.

Katz v. United States (1967) Court ruled that the warrantless wiretapping of a public payphone was in violating of the 4th Amendments protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1985) Principals search of a 14-year-old girl accused of smoking did not violate the 4th and 14th amendments. As opposed to probable cause, court used less strict standard of reasonableness to conclude constitutionality of search. Rights Within the Judicial System

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) As a result of this case, states were required to provide attorneys for poor criminals charged with serious crimes.

Coker v. Georgia (1977) Court ruled that imposition of the death penalty for the crime of rape was grossly disproportionate punishment for the crime and was a form of cruel and unusual punishment forbidden by the 8th Amendment.

Roper v. Simmons (2005) Court ruled that the execution of minors violated the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

2nd Amendment

United States v. Miller (1939) Court ruled that the 2nd Amendment does not protect the right to possess a sawed-off double barrel shotgun since it does not have a reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated militia.

District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) Court reversed the handgun ban and ruled that the 2nd amendment does protect an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that firearm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.

McDonald v. Chicago (2010) Court held that the 14th Amendment makes the 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense applicable to the states.

Court Case Summaries from Oyez: US Supreme Court Media (http://www.oyez.org/) & We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution Level 3 Textbook. Page 2