Landmark Cases
Banned laws segregating public schools
What is Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
This liberal icon of the Court who passed away in 2020, leading to a heated nomination battle, was an alumna of PAD
Who is Ruth Bader Ginsburg
First Black Supreme Court justice
Who is Thurgood Marshall
The current Chief Justice of the Court
Who is John Roberts
The first justices initially continued this British tradition, which Thomas Jefferson called "monstrous" and described as making English judges look "like rats peeping through bunches of oakum"
What is wearing wigs
Brown v Board overturned in part this famous 1896 case regarding segregation
What is Plessy v. Ferguson
This former president known for his bath troubles established his own chapter of PAD in 1909
Who is William Howard Taft
This justice established judicial review in Marbury v. Madison and formulated our modern conception of the Court
Who is John Marshall
The longest-serving active Supreme Court justice
Who is Clarence Thomas
Name one of the two justices who have ever appeared on US currency (one is famous, the other not so much--if you get both you deserve to win!)
John Marshall ($500 bill) and Salmon P. Chase ($10,000)
Famous quote from this case: "Students do not leave their rights at the schoolhouse door"
What is Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)
8 Supreme Court justices have been members of PAD, including 3 currently-serving members; name at least 2 of the current justices who are members of PAD
Who are Elena Kagan, Samuel Alito, and Sonia Sotomayor
First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and a co-author of the Federalist Papers
Who is John Jay
The nation's first Latinx justice, appointed by Obama in 2009
Who is Sonia Sotomayor
Reacting to his status as the first Jewish Supreme Court justice, Justice James McReynolds refused to speak to this justice for 3 years and left the conference room whenever he spoke
Who is Louis Brandeis
Banned laws prohibiting interracial marriage
What is Loving v. Virginia (1967)
This PAD alumna, referring to a glove, famously declared, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit!"
Who is Johnnie Cochran
This justice was Chief during Brown v. Board and Miranda v. Arizona and established many civil rights we take for granted today
Who is Earl Warren
The only current justice who did not attend Harvard or Yale law school
Who is Amy Coney Barrett
This justice may have been the funniest of the last several decades, eliciting an average of one laugh per oral argument, though the judicial philosophy he popularized has inspired a recent wave of conservative jurisprudence
Who is Antonin Scalia
Indigent defendants have the right to legal representation without charge
What is Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)
PAD was founded in this year--the same year that President Theodore Roosevelt became the first president to ride in an automobile and the year that A Trip to the Moon, the first-ever science-fiction film, was released
What is 1902
The only justice who dissented in Plessy v. Ferguson
Who is John Marshall Harlan
As head of the "cafeteria committee" (an obligation each new justice traditionally undertakes), they introduced the first frozen-yogurt machine in the Court
Who is Elena Kagan
This associate justice who served from 1990-2009 was a famous recluse who had never heard of Diet Coke or the other "Supremes" (the band)
Who is David Souter