Adamson v. California Admiral Dewey Adamson, a poor, illiterate black man, had twice served time for robbery. He had, however, been out of prison for seventeen years when police arrested him for the . . .
American Communications Association v. Douds The Court's record in reviewing the loyalty cases that came before it during the McCarthy era shows that the judiciary, like the other branches of governm . . .
Bolling v. Sharpe Argued together and decided with the state school desegregation cases in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), this case dealt with segregated schools in the D . . .
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas In June 1952 the Court announced that it would hear arguments in cases challenging school segregation in laws in Delaware (Gebhart v. Belton ), Virginia . . .
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (Brown II) Chief Justice Warren's strategy in Brown I, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), assumed that the states would accept the inevitability of school desegregatio . . .
Colegrove v. Green Three Illinois voters petitioned an Illinois district court to require the state to change the sizes and shapes of its congressional voting districts. The petitioners claimed that . . .
Cooper v. Aaron The implementation of a Supreme Court decision is not based on the proverbial sword or purse, but rather on the moral authority the Court commands. Naturally, assistance from Congress . . .
Dennis v. United States In this case the Court pondered the constitutionality of the Smith Act as applied to eleven leaders of the Communist Party. They were indicted on two counts. The first was con . . .
Everson v. Board of Education of Ewing Township Observers assumed that when the Court incorporated the Free Exercise Clause during World War II, the Establishment Clause would also apply to the state . . .
Haupt v. United States Hans Max Haupt was convicted of treason against the United States. A military tribunal had earlier convicted Haupt's son Herbert of performing sabotage and spy work for the Ger . . .
Morissette v. United States Joseph Morissette, a Michigan farmer, was convicted of stealing government property from a rural forest area where he hunted. The land was used by the United States as a p . . .
Reid v. Covert Clarice Covert killed her husband, a sergeant in the United States Air Force, at an air base in England. She was tried by court-martial under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ . . .
Roth v. United States Obscenity, like libel, was long considered outside First Amendment protection and subject to state control. The Supreme Court's first encounter with obscenity came in a little n . . .
Shelley v. Kraemer The Court in Buchanan v. Warley, 245 U.S. 60 (1917), voided local residence ordinances enforcing racial segregation as a deprivation of property rights in violation of the Fourteen . . .
State of Louisiana ex. rel. Francis v. Resweber Petitioner Willie Francis was a convicted murderer sentenced to death by electrocution. Strapped into the electric chair, Francis received an electrica . . .
Trop v. Dulles Albert L. Trop, while serving as a private in the U.S. Army stationed in French Morocco, caused some discipline problems within his unit and was confined to barracks. He escaped and be . . .
Watkins v. United States John Watkins, a labor organizer, was summoned to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). He freely answered questions about himself and his activiti . . .
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer In the spring of 1952 the United Steel Workers threatened to strike after the Wage Stabilization Board failed to negotiate a settlement between the union and the . . .
Zorach v. Clauson A New York City program allowed public schools to release students during the school day to receive religious education. A student could be released only on written request of his o . . .