Required cases at a glance

All fourteen cases required by the course. For SCOTUS Comparison, know four things for each required case: the constitutional basis, essential facts, holding, and a useful comparison point. Several of these cases involve current-doctrine developments that go beyond the original holding; those developments are covered in the chapter where each case was first introduced.

Required case	Constitutional basis	Essential facts	Holding / reasoning	Best comparison hook
Marbury v. Madison (1803)	Article III; judicial review	Marbury sought a commission; the Judiciary Act purported to give the Supreme Court original jurisdiction beyond Article III	The Court could not issue the writ under the unconstitutional jurisdictional grant; the decision established judicial review of federal law	Compare whenever the supplied case concerns the Court’s authority to invalidate governmental action or the judiciary’s place in separation of powers
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)	Necessary and Proper; Supremacy	Congress created a national bank; Maryland taxed the bank	Congress has implied powers to choose appropriate means for enumerated powers, and a state may not tax a valid federal instrument in a way that controls or burdens it	Compare national implied power, federalism, state interference, or the scope of congressional authority
Schenck v. United States (1919)	First Amendment speech	Schenck distributed anti-draft material during World War I and was convicted under the Espionage Act	The Court upheld the conviction using the historical clear-and-present-danger approach; that standard is historical AP content, not the current incitement test	Compare government limits on speech, wartime context, or how later doctrine gives speech stronger protection
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)	Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection	Public schools were segregated by law	State-mandated racial segregation in public schools is inherently unequal and violates Equal Protection	Compare race discrimination, equal protection, civil rights, or the relationship between judicial rulings and implementation
Baker v. Carr (1962)	Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection; justiciability	Tennessee legislative districts had large population disparities and had not been reapportioned for decades	Federal courts may hear Equal Protection challenges to legislative apportionment; the claim is not automatically barred as a political question	Compare malapportionment /redistricting cases. Keep Baker’s justiciability rule distinct from later one-person-one-vote holdings
Engel v. Vitale (1962)	First Amendment Establishment Clause	New York public schools used a state-composed prayer	Government may not compose and sponsor an official prayer in public school	Compare school-sponsored religion with personal religious exercise; identify the government’s role in creating or directing the religious activity
Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)	Sixth Amendment via Fourteenth Due Process	Gideon, unable to afford counsel in a Florida felony case, was required to defend himself	States must provide appointed counsel to indigent defendants in felony prosecutions	Compare criminal procedure, incorporation, and state obligations under incorporated Bill of Rights protections
Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)	First Amendment speech	Students wore black armbands to protest the Vietnam War; the school prohibited the expression	Students retain speech rights at school; officials need material and substantial disruption, or a supportable forecast of it, to restrict this kind of expression	Compare student expression. Focus on facts showing disruption, school sponsorship, location, and the school’s justification

Required case	Constitutional basis	Essential facts	Holding / reasoning	Best comparison hook
New York Times Co. v. United States (1971)	First Amendment press; prior restraint	The federal government sought to stop publication of the Pentagon Papers	The government failed to meet the heavy burden required for prior restraint	Compare publication bans, national-security claims, prior restraint, and the difference between punishing speech after publication and blocking it in advance
Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)	First Amendment Free Exercise	Amish parents objected to compulsory schooling beyond eighth grade on religious grounds	On the specific facts, the state’s compulsory-schooling interest did not justify the burden on Amish religious practice	Compare free exercise conflicts. Use the specific burden and government interest; do not turn Yoder into a rule that religious objections always prevail
Shaw v. Reno (1993)	Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection	North Carolina created an unusually shaped majority-minority congressional district in a redistricting plan	A redistricting plan in which race predominates can be challenged under Equal Protection; racial classifications can trigger strict scrutiny	Compare racial gerrymandering. Distinguish race-based districting from ordinary partisan or geographic line drawing
United States v. Lopez (1995)	Commerce Clause	A student possessed a gun in a school zone under a federal statute lacking an adequate interstate-commerce connection	The Commerce Clause did not authorize federal regulation of this local, noneconomic activity on the facts presented	Compare the outer limits of congressional commerce power; ask whether the regulated activity is economic and how it connects to interstate commerce
McDonald v. Chicago (2010)	Second Amendment via Fourteenth Due Process	Chicago handgun restrictions were challenged after the Court recognized an individual self-defense right	The Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for self-defense applies to state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment	Compare selective incorporation and state/local restrictions on an incorporated liberty
Citizens United v. FEC (2010)	First Amendment political speech	Federal law restricted corporate-funded electioneering communications and independent political spending	Government may not ban independent political expenditures because the speaker is a corporation or union; the case concerns independent spending, not an unlimited right to contribute directly to candidates	Compare independent expenditures with direct contributions, campaign-finance restrictions, and political speech

Table B.2 Every required case, retrievable by constitutional basis, facts, holding, and comparison use.

Retrieval rule: for every required case, produce four things without notes: (1) the constitutional clause or right, (2) one fact that drove the dispute, (3) the holding, and (4) one sentence explaining why those facts produced that holding. In a SCOTUS Comparison, do not stop after recalling the required case. Use the supplied case’s facts to state the similarity or difference explicitly.