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Supreme Court Cases

Landmark decisions and the constitutional questions behind them.

16 entries, in chronological order

The Early Republic1789–1828

Portrait of Chief Justice John Marshall

1755–1835Person

John Marshall

Fourth Chief Justice, who made the Supreme Court a co-equal branch

The U.S. Supreme Court Building at dusk

Sep 24, 1789–presentInstitution

The Supreme Court

The highest court in the United States and the final interpreter of federal law

First page of the Supreme Court’s opinion in Marbury v. Madison

1803Court Case

Marbury v. Madison

The case in which the Supreme Court first struck down an act of Congress

Page from the Supreme Court’s decision in McCulloch v. Maryland

1819Court Case

McCulloch v. Maryland

The Supreme Court upholds broad federal power and bars states from taxing the national bank

Expansion and Sectional Conflict1828–1860

First issue of the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper, printed in English and Cherokee

1832Court Case

Worcester v. Georgia

The Supreme Court recognizes Cherokee sovereignty — and the president refuses to enforce it

The Supreme Court’s judgment in Dred Scott v. Sandford

1857Court Case

Dred Scott v. Sandford

The Supreme Court denies Black citizenship and opens the territories to slavery

Industrialization and the Gilded Age1877–1900

The Supreme Court’s judgment in Plessy v. Ferguson

1896Court Case

Plessy v. Ferguson

The Supreme Court upholds “separate but equal,” 1896

The Progressive Era and World War I1900–1920

The antidraft leaflet distributed by Charles Schenck

1919Court Case

Schenck v. United States

Free speech in wartime and the “clear and present danger” test, 1919

World War II and the Early Cold War1939–1960

Fred Korematsu

1944Court Case

Korematsu v. United States

The Supreme Court upholds the wartime exclusion of Japanese Americans

The Supreme Court’s judgment in Brown v. Board of Education

1954Court Case

Brown v. Board of Education

The Supreme Court strikes down school segregation

Civil Rights and Social Transformation1954–1980

Photograph of Justice Thurgood Marshall

1908–1993Person

Thurgood Marshall

Civil rights lawyer and first Black justice of the Supreme Court

Document from Miranda v. Arizona signed by Chief Justice Earl Warren

1966Court Case

Miranda v. Arizona

The ruling that requires police to warn suspects of their rights

Mildred and Richard Loving

1967Court Case

Loving v. Virginia

The Supreme Court strikes down bans on interracial marriage

Official 1976 portrait of Justice Harry A. Blackmun, author of the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade

1973Court Case

Roe v. Wade

The 1973 decision recognizing a constitutional right to abortion — overruled in 2022

The edited transcripts of the White House tapes released by Nixon

1974Court Case

United States v. Nixon

The Supreme Court orders the president to release the Watergate tapes

The United States in the Twenty-First Century2001–present

Crowds celebrating outside the Supreme Court as the Obergefell decision is announced

2015Court Case

Obergefell v. Hodges

The Supreme Court recognizes same-sex couples’ right to marry