Supreme Court Cases
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50 free Supreme Court Cases trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
A Supreme Court case usually starts small: a routine arrest, a school suspension, an unpaid tax bill, a lost job. By the time nine justices have finished with it, the dispute has a name that law students memorize and a rule the whole country lives by. This quiz covers the landmark rulings taught in civics and AP Government classes, on judicial review, segregation, free speech, the rights of the accused, privacy, elections and presidential power, alongside stranger disputes over soft drinks, comedy routines, student newspapers and an unfinished dam. Some questions ask you to name the case from its story; others name the case and ask what was at stake. It is written for students revising for an exam, teachers who want a ready-made review, and anyone who enjoys knowing where a famous legal rule came from. Every answer comes with a short explanation and a detail worth repeating.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01A 1916 Supreme Court case named after forty barrels of Coca-Cola was a government bid to remove which ingredient?
Caffeine
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.
Q 02Which unanimous 1954 ruling, argued by Thurgood Marshall, declared segregated public schools unconstitutional?
Brown v. Board of Education
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.
Q 03In 2011 the Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justice Scalia, struck down a California ban on selling what to minors?
Violent video games
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.
Q 04Which 1966 ruling requires police to tell suspects in custody of their rights to silence and a lawyer?
Miranda v. Arizona
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.
Q 05Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905) upheld a fine on a pastor who refused what during a smallpox outbreak?
Vaccination
Vaccination could be made compulsory, the Court held, because individual liberty is not absolute; pastor Henning Jacobson had been fined $5 for refusing.
Q 06Murphy v. NCAA (2018), a win for New Jersey, ended a federal law that stopped most states allowing what?
Sports betting
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.
Q 07FCC v. Pacifica Foundation (1978) arose from an afternoon radio broadcast of a profane monologue by which comedian?
George Carlin
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.
Q 08Which 1973 ruling, brought under a pseudonym by Norma McCorvey, recognized a constitutional right to abortion?
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade was decided 7–2; its defendant, Dallas district attorney Henry Wade, was already nationally known for prosecuting Jack Ruby.
Q 09Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. (2021) protected a cheerleader's profane off-campus post made on which app?
Snapchat
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.
Q 10Which Supreme Court ruling halted Florida's recount and effectively settled the 2000 presidential election?
Bush v. Gore
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.
Q 11Which 1803 case over an undelivered judicial commission established the Supreme Court's power to strike down laws?
Marbury v. Madison
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.
Q 12Which 1896 ruling upheld 'separate but equal' facilities after a man sat in a whites-only rail car in New Orleans?
Plessy v. Ferguson
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.
Q 13Which arts-and-crafts chain won a 2014 Supreme Court ruling exempting it from covering some contraceptives for staff?
Q 21Which 1857 ruling rejected an enslaved man's suit for freedom, based on his years living in free territory?
Dred Scott v. Sandford
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.
Q 22Which 1963 ruling, begun by a Florida prisoner's penciled petition, guaranteed poor felony defendants a free lawyer?
Gideon v. Wainwright
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.
Q 23Which 1969 ruling backed students who were suspended for wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War?
Hobby Lobby
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.
Q 14Which 2015 ruling, sparked by an Ohio dispute over a death certificate, made same-sex marriage legal nationwide?
Obergefell v. Hodges
Obergefell v. Hodges was decided 5–4; Jim Obergefell had sued to be named the surviving spouse of his terminally ill husband, John Arthur.
Q 15Which 1967 ruling struck down interracial marriage bans after a couple was ordered out of their home state?
Loving v. Virginia
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.
Q 16Epperson v. Arkansas (1968) struck down a state law that barred public school teachers from teaching what?
Evolution
Evolution had been banned from Arkansas classrooms since 1928; Little Rock biology teacher Susan Epperson challenged the law and won unanimously.
Q 17Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) broke a New York monopoly, once held by Robert Fulton, on which kind of transport?
Steamboats
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.
Q 18Which unanimous 1974 ruling ordered a president to surrender White House tapes, sixteen days before he resigned?
United States v. Nixon
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.
Q 19Which publisher won a unanimous 1988 Supreme Court ruling protecting a crude parody ad about preacher Jerry Falwell?
Larry Flynt
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.
Q 20Which 1819 case stopped a state taxing the Bank of the United States and confirmed Congress's implied powers?
McCulloch v. Maryland
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.
Tinker v. Des Moines
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.
Q 24Which 2010 ruling, which began with a film attacking Hillary Clinton, freed corporations to spend on election ads?
Citizens United v. FEC
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.
Q 25Which 1944 ruling, since disowned by the Supreme Court, upheld the removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast?
Korematsu v. United States
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.
Q 26Which 1919 ruling, on a socialist's anti-draft leaflets, introduced the 'clear and present danger' test for speech?
Schenck v. United States
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.
Q 27Which 1962 ruling stopped New York public schools opening the day with a prayer composed by state officials?
Engel v. Vitale
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.
Q 28Which 1965 ruling struck down a state ban on contraceptives for married couples and recognized a right to privacy?
Griswold v. Connecticut
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.
Q 29Which 2008 ruling first held that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to keep a gun at home?
D.C. v. Heller
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.
Q 30Riley v. California (2014) held that police need a warrant to search which item found on a person they arrest?
A cell phone
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.