Supreme Court Rulings
Dates
Politics
Culture and Society
Technology or Environment
100

The power established by Marbury v. Madison (1803) that allows the Supreme Court to strike down unconstitutional laws.


Judicial Review 

100

The year the Declaration of Independence was signed.


1776

100

The term for the first ten amendments to the Constitution.


The Bill of Rights

100

The cultural movement of the 1950s and 60s that used nonviolent protest to fight racial segregation.

Civil Rights 

100

The network of railroads completed in 1869 that connected the eastern and western United States for the first time.


Transcontinental Railroad 

200

The doctrine upheld in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) was later struck down in Brown v. Board of Education (1954).


Separate but Equal

200

The year the Civil War ended

1865

200

The political process by which Congress can remove a sitting president from office.


Impeachment 

200

The 1960s youth movement rejected mainstream American values and embraced peace, free expression, and social change.


Counterculture 

200

The 1930s environmental disaster caused by severe drought and poor farming practices that devastated the Great Plains.


Dust Bowl

300

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) was used to justify expanding federal power over the states, specifically over what economic activity?


The operations of the National Bank

300

The year the United States entered World War I.


1917

300

The constitutional amendment that granted women the right to vote in 1920.


19th Amendment 

300

The urban cultural movement of the 1920s that celebrated African American art, literature, and music.


Harlem Renaissance 

300

The landmark 1962 book by Rachel Carson that warned of the dangers of pesticides and helped launch the modern environmental movement.


Silent Spring 

400

What was the ruling in Korematsu v. United States (1944) during WWII?


The federal government may discriminate on the basis of race and ethnicity during wartime, as "emergency powers" take precedence.

400

The year the Civil Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.


1964

400

The doctrine that expanded presidential power by asserting the right to intervene in Latin American affairs to stabilize economic interests.


Roosevelt Corollary 

400

The social phenomenon describing the mass movement of white middle-class Americans from cities to suburbs following World War II.


"White Flight"

400

The first national park established by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1872 to preserve natural wilderness.


Yellowstone

500

What Supreme Court ruling uses the civil liberty of "freedom of speech" to protect corporations and unions from being banned from spending unlimited amounts of money on independent political advertising 

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)

500

In what year was "Operation Iraqi Freedom" initiated?

2003

500

This act reformed government/civil service jobs in America at the end of the 19th century, combating corruption and favoritism with a more merit-performance-based metric

Pendleton Act (1883)

500

The term for the cultural and intellectual movement of the late 19th century that emphasized social reform, science, and the role of environment in shaping human behavior.


Progressive Era

500

The 1979 nuclear accident in Pennsylvania that raised serious concerns about the safety of nuclear energy in America.


Three Mile Island