Founders
Wrote the Declaration of Independence but did not sign the US Constitution
Thomas Jefferson
Author of Rights of Man and Common Sense
Thomas Paine
The Voting Rights Act was first enacted during this year.
1965
Commerce Clause
Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3
The Court upheld Executive Order 9066, allowing the President to intern Japanese people for national security.
Korematsu v. US
James Madison and Rufus King opposed this compromise: to create a bicameral legislature with proportional representation in the House of Representatives and equal representation in the Senate.
The Connecticut Compromise aka the Great Compromise
Principle source of the separation of powers
Montesquieu
This section of the VRA allows voters to seek judicial relief if they believe that a state or local government has denied or limited their voting rights on the basis of their race, color or membership in a language minority group.
Section 2
This Article specifies how to amend the US Constitution.
Article 5
A Commerce Clause Case
US v. Carolene Products (1938)
Wickard v. Filburn (1942)
“Ollie’s BBQ” Katzenbach v. McClung (1964)
US v. Morrison (2000)
Haaland v. Brackeen (2023)
This Anti-Federalist Paper argues a republic cannot be successful over such a large territory and that a confederation of states is a better alternative. “In so extensive a republic, the great officers of government would soon become above the control of the people, and abuse their power to the purpose of aggrandizing themselves, and oppressing them.”
Brutus 1
This author of The Social Contract (1762) creates a philosophical concept based on classical republicanism that describes an implicit agreement among individuals to form a society and obey its laws in exchange for protection and the benefits of civil society.
Rousseau
Prior to 2013, this section of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) required certain jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination to obtain "preclearance"—or federal approval—before implementing new voting laws.
Section 5
Appointments Clause: “He shall … nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States… .”
Article 2, Section 2, Clause 2
The Court held that partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts.
Rucho v. Common Cause (2019)
This Federalist Paper and author states “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
Federalist 47, James Madison
Moral & economic philosopher who was considered the father of capitalism
Adam Smith
A U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld two Arizona voting laws and significantly narrowed Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), making it harder to challenge state voting restrictions.
Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee
“The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.”
Article 1 Section 4
This landmark case paved for the most liberal Court in history: the Warren Court. It held that redistricting qualifies as a justiciable question under the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause, thus enabling federal courts to hear racial gerrymandering cases.
Baker v. Carr (1962)
This Anti-Federalist paper states that without a Bill of Rights, this Constitution “is a most daring attempt to establish a despotic aristocracy among freemen, that the world has ever witnessed.”
Centinel 1
This Greek philosopher says the natural community was the city (polis) which functions as a political "community" or "partnership." The aim of the city is not just to avoid injustice or for economic stability, but rather to allow at least some citizens the possibility to live a good life, and to perform beautiful acts: "The political partnership must be regarded, therefore, as being for the sake of noble actions, not for the sake of living together."
Aristotle
Holding: a successful claim under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 requires evidence that an affected minority group is sufficiently large to elect a representative of its choice, that the minority group is politically cohesive, and white majority voters cast their ballots sufficiently as a bloc to usually defeat the preferred candidates of the minority group.
Thornburg v. Gingles
allows Congress to strip jurisdiction from federal courts, including the Supreme Court, through the Exceptions Clause. This clause gives Congress the power to make "exceptions" to the Supreme Court's appellate jurisdiction (its power to hear cases on appeal)
Article 3, Section 2, Clause 2
The first case to establish the Dormant Commerce Clause: where Congress declines to act, the Court may decide on issues where one state’s commerce regulation is discriminatory toward another state.
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)