Landmark Decisions
In this 1954 decision, the NAACP challenged the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision that upheld the “separate but equal” doctrine. The NAACP, led by counsel and later Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, was successful in challenging the constitutionality of segregation in the Topeka, Kansas system.
What is Brown v. Board of Education?
This latin term refers to “the guilty mind,” one half of establishing motive.
What is Mens rea?
Annalise Keating of How to Get Away With Murder teaches Criminal Law at this Philadelphia law school.
What is Middleton University?
This 1862 law established the land-grant institution system in the United States.
What is the Morrill Act of 1862?
What Supreme Court Justice is most well known for his dissenting opinions?
Who is Justice Antonin Scalia?
In this 1961 decision, the Court held that illegally obtained material could not be used in a criminal trial, and added materials that were fruits of an illegal search and seizure to the evidentiary exclusionary rule established in Weeks v US (1914). Fun fact - the hand sketched materials seized were “illegal” because they were “too obscene."
What is Mapp v. Ohio?
This latin term means, “produce the body,” and is typically used to order prisons to bring inmates to court, although it could be used to challenge the lawfulness of a person’s sentence.
What is Habeas corpus?
To prove Brooke Wyndam's innocence in Legally Blonde, Elle Woods uses this key detail during her cross examination of Chutney.
What is a perm?
This law passed in 1863 granted enslaved African-Americans freedom.
What is the 14th amendment?
This Supreme Court Justice was the only person to also serve as President of the United States.
Who is President William Howard Taft?
This 1974 case declared that even the President is not above the law, so long as evidence proving guilt in a crime is not a matter of national security.
What is U.S. v. Nixon?
This kind of writ is used to ask the court to correct major errors in past judgements in extreme circumstances.
What is Coram nobis?
In the hit series Suits, Mike utilizes this extraordinary ability to help him succeed as a lawyer.
What is a photographic memory?
As part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society,” this pair of acts protected the health of millions of Americans and provided greater healthcare access to many.
What are the Medicare and Medicaid acts?
This Supreme Court Justice failed their drivers test five times before passing.
Who is Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg?
What constitutional amendment was at the center of Gideon v. Wainwright?
What is the Sixth Amendment?
This is a brief submitted by a person or group that is not part of a lawsuit but helps the court by giving advice, information, or expertise (also known as a “friend of the court” brief).
What is amicus curiae?
These two parts of the criminal justice system are represented by the title Law & Order.
What are police investigations and prosecutors?
This act outlawed discriminatory voting practices like literacy tests that historically disenfranchised racial minorities.
What is the Voting Rights Act of 1865?
This Justice was the longest serving on the Supreme Court, who sat for 36 years and 209 days before retiring in 1975.
Who is Justice William O. Douglas?
This 1969 case declared that students do not leave their constitutional rights at the door of the schoolhouse, as students appealed their removal from school for protesting the Vietnam War by wearing black armbands.
What is Tinker v. Des Moines?
This legal term refers to a doctrine in injury law where an accident implies negligence because of how it occurred.
What is Res ipsa loquitur? (The thing speaks for itself)
In what show does a lawyer work from the backseat of a Lincoln while defending clients in Los Angeles?
What is The Lincoln Lawyer?
Signed on July 4, 2025, this alliterative bill instituted widesweeping federal taxes and instituted large cuts to programs providing healthcare, food assistance, and clean energy to the nation.
What is the “Big Beautiful Bill?”
This Justice is credited with bringing the first frozen-yogurt machine to the Supreme Court cafeteria.
Who is Justice Elena Kagan?