50 Fun Facts About Supreme Court Cases

A 1916 Supreme Court case named after forty barrels of Coca-Cola was a government bid to remove which ingredient?

Caffeine was what federal chemist Harvey Wiley wanted out of Coca-Cola; he thought even small amounts harmful, but the government never managed to force the company to remove it.

Which unanimous 1954 ruling, argued by Thurgood Marshall, declared segregated public schools unconstitutional?

Brown v. Board of Education began when third-grader Linda Brown was sent to a Black school a mile away although a white school stood seven blocks from her Topeka home.

In 2011 the Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justice Scalia, struck down a California ban on selling what to minors?

Violent video games got the same First Amendment protection as books and films in the 7–2 ruling; at argument, Scalia asked whether the ban might also reach Grimms' fairy tales.

Which 1966 ruling requires police to tell suspects in custody of their rights to silence and a lawyer?

Miranda v. Arizona was decided 5–4 and threw out Ernesto Miranda's confession, yet he was convicted again at a 1967 retrial that relied on other evidence.

Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905) upheld a fine on a pastor who refused what during a smallpox outbreak?

Vaccination could be made compulsory, the Court held, because individual liberty is not absolute; pastor Henning Jacobson had been fined $5 for refusing.

Murphy v. NCAA (2018), a win for New Jersey, ended a federal law that stopped most states allowing what?

Sports betting had been limited by a 1992 law that exempted only four states, led by Nevada; within weeks of the ruling Delaware began taking bets.

FCC v. Pacifica Foundation (1978) arose from an afternoon radio broadcast of a profane monologue by which comedian?

George Carlin's routine about words unfit for television aired on New York's WBAI in 1973; a father who heard it in the car with his young son complained to the FCC.

Which 1973 ruling, brought under a pseudonym by Norma McCorvey, recognized a constitutional right to abortion?

Roe v. Wade was decided 7–2; its defendant, Dallas district attorney Henry Wade, was already nationally known for prosecuting Jack Ruby.

Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. (2021) protected a cheerleader's profane off-campus post made on which app?

Snapchat was where Brandi Levy vented after missing the varsity squad; the Court ruled 8–1 that her school went too far in suspending her from cheerleading for a year.

Which Supreme Court ruling halted Florida's recount and effectively settled the 2000 presidential election?

Bush v. Gore, decided 5–4, let Florida's certified result stand, handing George W. Bush the state's 25 electoral votes and 271 in all, one more than he needed.

Which 1803 case over an undelivered judicial commission established the Supreme Court's power to strike down laws?

Marbury v. Madison left William Marbury without his justice of the peace commission, but Chief Justice John Marshall used the case to claim the power of judicial review.

Which 1896 ruling upheld 'separate but equal' facilities after a man sat in a whites-only rail car in New Orleans?

Plessy v. Ferguson was a planned test case: a New Orleans activist committee recruited Homer Plessy, who was seven-eighths white, to take the seat and be arrested.

Which arts-and-crafts chain won a 2014 Supreme Court ruling exempting it from covering some contraceptives for staff?

Hobby Lobby, owned by the evangelical Green family, won 5–4, the first time the Court had recognized a for-profit corporation's claim of religious belief.

Which 2015 ruling, sparked by an Ohio dispute over a death certificate, made same-sex marriage legal nationwide?

Obergefell v. Hodges was decided 5–4; Jim Obergefell had sued to be named the surviving spouse of his terminally ill husband, John Arthur.

Which 1967 ruling struck down interracial marriage bans after a couple was ordered out of their home state?

Loving v. Virginia lifted a suspended jail sentence that required Richard and Mildred Loving to stay away for 25 years; they had married in the nation's capital.

Epperson v. Arkansas (1968) struck down a state law that barred public school teachers from teaching what?

Evolution had been banned from Arkansas classrooms since 1928; Little Rock biology teacher Susan Epperson challenged the law and won unanimously.

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) broke a New York monopoly, once held by Robert Fulton, on which kind of transport?

Steamboats running between New Jersey and New York were interstate commerce, the Court held, so the power to regulate them belonged to Congress rather than to one state.

Which unanimous 1974 ruling ordered a president to surrender White House tapes, sixteen days before he resigned?

United States v. Nixon rejected the claim of absolute executive privilege; William Rehnquist sat out because he had served in the Nixon administration as an assistant attorney general.

Which publisher won a unanimous 1988 Supreme Court ruling protecting a crude parody ad about preacher Jerry Falwell?

Larry Flynt's magazine Hustler had spoofed a Campari liqueur campaign; the Court ruled 8–0 that a public figure's emotional distress is no reason to strip a parody of First Amendment protection.

Which 1819 case stopped a state taxing the Bank of the United States and confirmed Congress's implied powers?

McCulloch v. Maryland is named for James McCulloch, cashier of the bank's Baltimore branch, who issued notes without the stamp that the state's tax law required.

Which 1857 ruling rejected an enslaved man's suit for freedom, based on his years living in free territory?

Dred Scott v. Sandford carries a typo: a Supreme Court clerk misspelled the surname of the defendant, Sanford, and the error stuck in the official record.

Which 1963 ruling, begun by a Florida prisoner's penciled petition, guaranteed poor felony defendants a free lawyer?

Gideon v. Wainwright was unanimous, and at his retrial Clarence Earl Gideon, this time with counsel, was acquitted after the jury deliberated for one hour.

Which 1969 ruling backed students who were suspended for wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War?

Tinker v. Des Moines was decided 7–2 and set the 'substantial disruption' test: schools need more than a wish to avoid discomfort before silencing students.

Which 2010 ruling, which began with a film attacking Hillary Clinton, freed corporations to spend on election ads?

Citizens United v. FEC was decided 5–4, with Anthony Kennedy writing that banning independent political spending by corporations and unions violated the First Amendment.

Which 1944 ruling, since disowned by the Supreme Court, upheld the removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast?

Korematsu v. United States is named for Fred Korematsu, who underwent plastic surgery to conceal his identity rather than comply; a federal court overturned his conviction in the 1980s.

Which 1919 ruling, on a socialist's anti-draft leaflets, introduced the 'clear and present danger' test for speech?

Schenck v. United States was unanimous; Oliver Wendell Holmes's opinion is the origin of the image of a man falsely shouting fire in a theater.

Which 1962 ruling stopped New York public schools opening the day with a prayer composed by state officials?

Engel v. Vitale was decided 6–1; the prayer was nondenominational and written by the state's Regents, but the Court held that government may not compose prayers for schools.

Which 1965 ruling struck down a state ban on contraceptives for married couples and recognized a right to privacy?

Griswold v. Connecticut began when Estelle Griswold opened a birth control clinic in New Haven to challenge the law; she was arrested, convicted and fined $100.

Which 2008 ruling first held that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to keep a gun at home?

D.C. v. Heller began with Dick Heller, a special police officer who carried a gun in federal office buildings for his job but was not allowed to have one in his home.

Riley v. California (2014) held that police need a warrant to search which item found on a person they arrest?

A cell phone's digital contents are off limits without a warrant, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote; the case began when David Riley was pulled over in San Diego for expired tags.

Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022) backed which school employee who prayed at the 50-yard line?

A football coach, Joseph Kennedy, was an assistant at a public high school in Washington state; the Court ruled 6–3 that his prayer was personal religious observance.

United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), brought by a cook refused re-entry at San Francisco, upheld which principle?

Birthright citizenship covered Wong because he was born on American soil, the Court held 6–2, even though the Chinese Exclusion Act barred immigrants like his parents from naturalizing.

Terry v. Ohio (1968), which began when a Cleveland officer watched two men on a corner, approved which police tactic?

Stop and frisk is allowed when an officer reasonably suspects that a person is armed and involved in a crime; such an encounter became known as a 'Terry stop'.

The 1971 Pentagon Papers case let newspapers print a secret Vietnam War study leaked by which military analyst?

Daniel Ellsberg had helped produce the 7,000-page report himself, then let a New York Times reporter see 43 of its 47 volumes.

Texas v. Johnson (1989) arose when Gregory Lee Johnson burned an American flag outside which 1984 event in Dallas?

The Republican National Convention protest earned Johnson a year in jail and a $2,000 fine before the Court ruled 5–4 that his act was protected speech, with Antonin Scalia in the majority.

In the 1943 Barnette case, children of which faith won the right not to salute the American flag at school?

Jehovah's Witnesses are forbidden by their religion to salute or pledge to symbols; the 6–3 ruling overruled a decision the Court had made on the same issue only three years earlier.

Reno v. ACLU (1997), striking down an indecency law, was the Supreme Court's first major ruling on which medium?

The Internet won full First Amendment protection in the unanimous ruling, unlike broadcast radio and TV, which the Court said had historically received the most limited protection.

Lochner v. New York (1905), brought by a Utica shop owner, struck down a law limiting the hours of which workers?

Bakers could not be held to 60 hours a week, the Court said, because that violated freedom of contract; the ruling gave its name to the 'Lochner era' of struck-down workplace laws.

Buck v. Bell (1927), written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, let states impose what on people deemed unfit?

Forced sterilization was upheld 8–1 in the case of Carrie Buck, an 18-year-old patient at a state institution; the law followed a model statute drafted by the Eugenics Record Office.

Which 1962 ruling, over Tennessee districts left unchanged since 1901, opened redistricting disputes to federal courts?

Baker v. Carr held that redistricting is a question judges may decide, clearing the way for later rulings that required districts of equal population on the principle of one person, one vote.

Which 1988 ruling let a Missouri principal pull articles on divorce and teen pregnancy from a student newspaper?

Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, decided 5–3, turned on the fact that the paper was produced in a supervised journalism class, so officials could edit it as they could not an independent one.

Loper Bright v. Raimondo (2024), brought by fishing companies, overruled a 1984 doctrine named after which oil company?

Chevron deference had directed courts to defer to an agency's reasonable reading of an ambiguous law; the fishing companies objected to paying for federal monitors on their boats.

Kyllo v. United States (2001) ruled that agents needed a warrant to scan an Oregon home with which device?

A thermal imager showed unusual heat coming from the roof, a sign of grow lamps; a later search found over 100 marijuana plants, but the Court ruled 5–4 that the scan itself was a search.

Ex parte Quirin (1942) upheld a military tribunal's power to try which eight men put ashore by submarine?

German saboteurs were tried by a military tribunal rather than a civilian court, and six of the eight were executed in the electric chair that August.

Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill (1978) blocked the Tellico Dam in order to protect which endangered creature?

The snail darter, a small fish found in the Little Tennessee River by a biologist in 1973, won an injunction against the dam under the Endangered Species Act.

Employment Division v. Smith (1990) involved two counselors fired for taking what in a Native American Church ritual?

Peyote use cost the two men their unemployment benefits, and the Court sided with Oregon; Congress answered in 1993 by passing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Morse v. Frederick (2007) arose after a Juneau student unfurled a drug-themed banner as which event passed by?

The Olympic torch relay was passing the school in 2002; the Court held that schools may restrict student expression they reasonably regard as promoting illegal drug use.

Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music (1994) held that which rap group's parody of 'Oh, Pretty Woman' could be fair use?

2 Live Crew had asked for a license and been refused, then released the song anyway; the Court ruled that even a commercial parody can qualify as fair use.

Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918), brought by a North Carolina cotton mill worker, struck down a federal law against what?

Child labor was the target of the law that Roland Dagenhart, who worked at the mill alongside his two sons, sued to block; the ruling in his favor was overruled in 1941.

Texas v. White (1869), a dispute over bonds sold by a Confederate legislature, ruled out which step by a state?

Secession was never legally possible, the Court held, so Texas had never been outside the Union and every act meant to carry out its departure was null and void.