Chapter 11 Cases

1. Gibbons v. Ogden

1.1. Background- In 1808, the legislative of the state of New York granted Robert R. Livingston and Robert Fulton navigation rights of all the waters within the jurisdiction of the state. The boats moved by fire and steam and the term lasted for 20 years. They petitioned other states and territorial legislatures to hope to develop a national network of steamboats. Only Orleans territory excepted their petition and let them form a monopoly on the lower Mississippi. Competitors challenged Livingston and Fulton by arguing the commerce power of the federal government was exclusive and superseded state laws. The monopoly tried to undercut its rivals by selling them franchises and buying their boats. New Jersey Gov. Aaron Ogden had tried to defeat the monopoly. He entered in business with Thomas Gibbons. The partnership only lasted for 3 years because Gibbons operated another steamboat on Ogden's route that had been licensed by the United States Congress under a 1793 law regulating the coasting trade.

1.2. Significance- The case ended up in the New York Court of errors and it granted a permanent injunction against Gibbons in 1820. The case was argued the most admired and capable attorney's at the time.

2. Dartmouth College v. Woodward

2.1. Background- In 1769, King George III of Great Britain granted a charter to Dartmouth College. This document set up the structure to govern it and it gave lad to the college. After the American Revolution the legislative of New Hampshire tired to alter the charter. It converted the school from private to public.

2.2. Significance- Dartmouth college was being forced to become a public school rather than remaining private. The president of Dartmouth college was deposed by its trustees.

3. McCulloch v. Maryland

3.1. Background- Congress built a Bank of the United States in Maryland without the permisison of the state. The state then wanted to impose a tax on the bank, but the bank was not going to pay it so they started a law suit.

3.2. Significance- The supreme court then decided that congress did have the power to create the bank. The court then refuted the argument that states retain ultimate sovereignty because they ratified the constitution. They went on to say that the people who signed the Constitution are sovereign not the states themselves.

4. Dred Scott v. Sandford

4.1. Background- Dred Scott was a slave and bought by U.S. Army Surgeon Dr. John Emerson. In 1837, Emerson was sent to Jefferson Barracks Military Post, south of St. Louis, Missouri. He left Scott and his wife at his home and hired him into the free state. Emerson was effectively bringing the institution of slavery into a free state, which was a direct violation of the Missouri Compromise, the Northwest Ordinance, and the Wisconsin Enabling Act. The army reassigned Emerson to Fort Jesup in Louisiana. The Scott's traveled to Louisiana too and could have sued for freedom, but they did not. In 1843, Emerson died in Iowa Territory and his widow received his estate along with the Scott's. She continued to lease out Scott as a slave. In 1846, Scott tried to buy his Freedom, but Eliza Irene Emerson refused.

4.2. Significance- the decision of the Supreme Court if African Americans, whether slave or free, could not be American citizens. Also, they were not aloud to sue the federal court. Dred Scott, an African American, tried to sue for freedom. In a 7–2 decision written by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, the Court denied Scott's request. This was only the second time the Supreme Court ruled an Act of Congress to be unconstitutional.

5. Schenck v. United States

5.1. Background- In 1919, Schenck v. United States came out and it is a United States Supreme Court decision concerning enforcement of the Espionage Act of 1917 during World War I.The first case defining the modern understanding of the First Amendment. It concluded that defendants who distributed leaflets to draft-age men, urging resistance to induction, could be convicted of an attempt to obstruct the draft, a criminal offense. Holmes said that expressions which in the circumstances were intended to result in a crime, and posed a "clear and present danger" of succeeding, could be punished.

5.2. Significance- The Court continued to follow this reasoning to uphold a series of convictions arising out of prosecutions during war time, but Holmes began to dissent in the case of Abrams v. United States, insisting that the Court had departed from the standard he had crafted for them, and had begun to allow punishment for ideas.

6. Brown v. Board of Education

6.1. Background- This case is about the segregation in a Kansas school district. One little girl was being forced to walk far away in order to attend a black school when there was a white school right down the street from the house. So her family went to the Supreme Court to fight for her right to go to a all white school.

6.2. Significance- Overturned the separate but equal doctorate when the Board of Education of Topeka began to end segregation in the Topeka elementary schools in August 1953, integrating two attendance districts. All the Topeka elementary schools were changed to neighborhood attendance centers in January 1956, although existing students were allowed to continue attending their prior assigned schools at their option.

7. Lochner v. New York

7.1. Background- Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., served as an associate justice on the Supreme Court for 29 years. He wrote 873 opinions for the Court which was more than any other justice. In 1905, he wrote his most famous opinion, Lochner v. New York. It supported the state's right to limit the labor of bakery workers to ten hours a day. Also, the number of hours per week would be 60.

7.2. Significance- By a 5–4 vote, the Supreme Court rejected the argument that the law was necessary to protect the health of bakers, deciding it was a labor law attempting to regulate the terms of employment, and calling it an "unreasonable, unnecessary and arbitrary interference with the right and liberty of the individual to contract." It was one of the most controversial decisions in the Supreme Court's history. Another name for the case became Lochner era because the Supreme Court has many decisions that regulated working conditions during the Progressive Era and the Great Depression.

8. Marbury v. Madison

8.1. Significance- secured the courts power to review the acts of Congress. This is known as Judicial Review. Because the Judiciary Act of 1789 had given the court more power than the constitution allowed.

8.2. Background- President Adam tired to appoint 42 justices in the District of columbia. When Jefferson all but 4 of the justices had been sent over. Jefferson stopped these remaining from going over and one of the men filed a law suit because he lost his commission. The court then sided with the an saying that his rights had been violated and he should get his commission. But they then revoked that saying the court had used to much power to give him that back.

9. Fletcher v. Peck

9.1. Significance- This was the first case where the Supreme Court ruled a state law unconstitutional. Also, it showed that Native Americans did not hold the title to their own lands. The final outcome showed that Fletcher soon lost the case.

9.2. Background- After the American Revolution, Georgia claimed possession of the Yazoo lands, a 35-million-acre area of land. This land later became part of Alabama and Mississippi. In 1795, Georgia divided it into four areas. Later the areas were sold to different companies for a total of $500,000. Georgia legislature approved the land grant and it soon was called the Yazoo Land act of 1795. It was found later that the grant was approved in replace of bribes. Robert Fletcher, and especially John Peck, were speculators in the Yazoo lands. Fletcher bought an area of land from Peck while the act was still in play. Fletcher later brought a suit upon Peck because he had not had clear title to the land when he sold it. Both Fletcher's and Peck's land holdings would be secured if the Supreme Court decided that Indians did not hold original title.

10. Plessy v. Ferguson

10.1. Significance- Landmarked the United States Supreme Court decision in the jurisprudence of the United States, upholding the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal"

10.2. Background- A court case involving the railroads being segregated in Luisiana. A young man then taken off the train and taken to trial because he refused to get off a white only car. The court sided with Ferguson and made the Separate but equal Doctorate.

11. Debs v. United States

11.1. Background- This cases is about Debs a presidential candidate making an anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio, protesting US involvement in World War I. He was the arrested for openly protesting the war. This type of speech was outlawed in the Espionage Act so it was taken to trial.

11.2. Significance- The Supreme Court decided against Debs, and maintained the power of the Espionage Act. Debs' sentence to ten years imprisonment and loss of citizenship was upheld.

12. United States v. E. C. Knights

12.1. Background- Enacted the Sherman Antitrust Act, an attempt to curb concentrations of economic power that significantly reduced competition between businesses. It did this by outlawing all trade combinations and agreements and outlawing any attempts to monopolize trade in the United States.

12.2. Significance- The court ruled to up hold the monopoly of business trust. They also ruled that manufacturing is a local activity not subject to congressional regulation of interstate commerce.

13. Schechter Poultry Corporation v. United States

13.1. Significance- The Court decided on invalidating the industrial "codes of fair competition" which the NIRA enabled the President to issue. The Court held that the codes violated the constitutional separation of powers as an impermissible delegation of legislative power to the executive branch. The Court also held that the NIRA provisions were in excess of congressional power under the Commerce Clause.

13.2. Background- The Schechter Poultry Corporation was found price and wage fixing, selling sick poultry, and ignored the maximum working hours and the formation of unions.

14. Roe v. Wade

14.1. Significance- The court ruled 7–2 that a right to privacy under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment extended to a woman's decision to have an abortion, but that right must be balanced against the state's two legitimate interests in regulating abortions: protecting prenatal life and protecting women's health.

14.2. Background- The Supreme Court had and appeal in 1970. The case states a women can legally obtain abortion. Roe v. Wade prompted a national debate that continues today about issues including whether, and to what extent, abortion should be legal, who should decide the legality of abortion, what methods the Supreme Court should use in constitutional adjudication, and what the role should be of religious and moral views in the political sphere. It divided much of the United States into pro-life and pro- choice.