primary documents
The founding document of the United States
The Declaration of Independence
Addresses means by which appropriate checks and balances can be created in government and also advocates a separation of powers within the national government.
Federalist no. 51
The U.S. Supreme Court case that established the principle of judicial review.
Marbury v. Madison
Supreme Court decision that held that official recitation of prayers in public schools violated the First Amendment's Establishment Clause.
Engel v. Vitale
The US Supreme Court ruled that laws banning abortion violated the US Constitution.
Roe v. Wade
An agreement among the 13 original states of the United States of America that served as its first constitution
The Articles of Confederation
Argument written by Alexander Hamilton for a strong executive leader, as provided for by the Constitution, as opposed to the weak executive under the Articles of Confederation.
Federalist no. 70
One of the first and most important Supreme Court cases on federal power. The Supreme Court held that Congress has implied powers derived from those listed in Article I, Section 8. The “Necessary and Proper” Clause gave Congress the power to establish a national bank.
McCulloch v. Maryland
The Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution requires the states to provide defense attorneys to criminal defendants charged with serious offenses who cannot afford lawyers themselves.
Gideon v. Wainwright
The court ruled that redistricting based on race must be held to a standard of strict scrutiny under the equal protection clause.
Shaw v. Reno
The supreme law of the United States of America. This founding document, originally comprising seven articles, delineates the national frame of government.
The Constitution of the United States
Describes the process of judicial review, in which the federal courts review statutes to determine whether they are consistent with the Constitution and its statutes.
Federalist no. 78
Legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the freedom of speech protection afforded in the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment could be restricted if the words spoken or printed represented to society a “clear and present danger.”
Schenck v. United States
The Supreme Court ruled that public school officials cannot censor student expression unless they can reasonably forecast that the speech will substantially disrupt school activities or invade the rights of others.
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District
legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 was unconstitutional because the U.S. Congress, in enacting the legislation, had exceeded its authority under the commerce clause of the Constitution.
United States v. Lopez
This essay defended the form of republican government proposed by the Constitution
Federalist no. 10
A letter that Martin Luther King, Jr., addressed to his fellow clergymen after a nonviolent protest against racial segregation.
Letter from a Birmingham jail
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
The landmark Supreme Court decision that defended the First Amendment right of free press against prior restraint by the government.
New York Times Company v. United States
Case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,” applies to state and local governments as well as to the federal government.
McDonald v. Chicago
argument that federal power was bad and that the Constitution gives too much power to the federal government.
Brutus no. 1
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A case in which the Court found that redistricting issues present justiciable questions, and in which the Court reframed its political question doctrine.
Baker v. Carr
The Court held that individual's interests in the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment outweighed the State's interests in compelling school attendance beyond the eighth grade
Wisconsin v. Yoder
The Supreme Court issued a ruling that held that corporations could be banned from making electioneering communications
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission