Wallace V. Jaffree

Name: Wallace V Jaffree

Year: 1985

Result: 6-3 Jaffree won

Constitutional Issue: 1st amendment

Right or Liberty: Liberty

Significance: Prayer in schools is a violation of the 1st amendment, it forces religion on to kids. This case re enforced protection of religion.

Quote: "The State's endorsement of prayer activities at the beginning of each school day is not consistent with the established principle that the government must pursue a course of complete neutrality toward religion."

Summary: Prayer in schools violates 1st amendment

Tinker V. Des Moines

Name: Tinker V. Des Moines

Year: 1969

Result: 7-2 Tinker won

Constitutional Issue: 1st amendment

Right or Liberty: Liberty

Significance: The school violated to 1st amendment.

Quote: "First Amendment rights, applied in light of the special characteristics of the school environment, are available to teachers and students. It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."

Summary: Armbands are protected under 1st amendment

Thompson V. Oklahoma

Name: Thompson V. Oklahoma

Year: 1988

Result: 5-3 Thompson won

Constitutional Issue: 8th amendment

Right or Liberty: Liberty

Significance: Execution of a 15 year old is cruel and unusual punishment. Execution of anyone under the age of 16 is cruel and unusual punishment.

Quote: "In performing that task, the Court has reviewed the work product of state legislatures and sentencing juries, and has carefully considered the reasons why a civilized society may accept or reject the death penalty in certain types of cases. Thus, in confronting the question whether the youth of the defendant -- more specifically, the fact that he was less than 16 years old at the time of his offense -- is a sufficient reason for denying the State the power to sentence him to death, we first review relevant legislative enactments, then refer to jury determinations, and finally explain why these indicators of contemporary standards of decency confirm our judgment that such a young person is not capable of acting with the degree of culpability that can justify the ultimate penalty."

Summary: Execution under 16 is cruel punishment

Texas V. Johnson

Name: Texas V. Johnson

Year: 1989

Result: 5-4 Johnson won

Constitutional Issue: 1st amendment

Right or Liberty: Liberty

Significance: Burning the American flag was seen as expression and was protected under the 1st amendment.

Quote: "After publicly burning an American flag as a means of political protest, Gregory Lee Johnson was convicted of desecrating a flag in violation of Texas law. This case presents the question whether his conviction is consistent with the First amendment.  We hold that it is not."

Summary: Burning of American flag is constitutional

Swann V. Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Eduction

Name: Swann V. Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education

Year: 1971

Result: 9-0 Charlotte won

Constitutional Issue: 14th amendment

Right or Liberty: Right

Significance: Fought racial segregation, started bussing to different distracts to accelerate desegregation.

Quote: "We granted certiorari in this case to review important issues as to the duties of school authorities and the scope of powers of federal courts under this Court's mandates to eliminate racially separate public schools established and maintained by state action."

Summary: Charlotte helps desegregation by bussing students

Sheppard V. Maxwell

Name: Sheppard V. Maxwell

Year: 1966

Result: 8-1 Sheppard won

Constitutional Issue: 5th amendment

Right or Liberty: Liberty

Significance: Sheppard didn't receive a fair trial due to the media. The media is now more supervised and less biased.

Quote: "This federal habeas corpus application involves the question whether Sheppard was deprived of a fair trial in his state conviction for the second-degree murder of his wife because of the trial judge's failure to protect Sheppard sufficiently from the massive, pervasive and prejudicial publicity that attended his prosecution. The United States District Court held that he was not afforded a fair trial and granted the writ subject to the State's right to put Sheppard to trial again…we have concluded that Sheppard did not receive a fair trial consistent with the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and, therefore, reverse the judgment."

Summary: Media causes unfair and biased trials

Schenck V. US

Name: Schenck V. US

Year: 1919

Result: 9-0 United States won

Constitutional Issue: 1st amendment

Right or Liberty: Liberty

Significance: Scheck's actions presented a clear and present danger.

Quote: "We admit that, in many places and in ordinary times, the defendants, in saying all that was said in the circular, would have been within their constitutional rights. But the character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done...When a nation is at war, many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its effort that their utterance will not be endured so long as men fight, and that no Court could regard them as protected by any constitutional right."

Summary: Free speech limited during war time