Important+Court+Cases

Marbury v Madison Acquittal of Aaron Burr Fletcher v Peck Dartmouth v Woodward Cohen v VA McCulloch v Maryland Gibbons v Ogden Native American Court Cases Commonwealth v Hunt
 * Judiciary Act of 1801
 * Said the president can make new judicial positions
 * The Supreme court has the authority to order the executive commissions
 * The Night before he leaves, Adams packs the courts with federalists
 * James Marbury was supposed to be justice of the peace
 * Madison, the new secretary of state was supposed to hand out the commission
 * Marbury sues Madison for the commission
 * John Marshall is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
 * Marshall can issue a letter, but he can't physically force Madison to hand over the commission
 * Ordering Madison to would make Marshall look ridiculous
 * The Supreme court rules
 * The Judiciary Act is unconstitutional
 * Legislature can't define the powers of the judiciary
 * only constitution
 * This creates judicial review
 * Allows the courts to say laws it rules unconstitutional no longer apply
 * Aaron Burr had killed Alexander Hamilton
 * Marshall oversaw the trial
 * Burr was being tried for treason
 * Treason was defined as an overt act of aiding the enemy
 * there must be at least 2 witnesses
 * Burr's acquittal's impact
 * Limits the use of the legal system to attack political enemies
 * 1810
 * GA had given land to some ppl who had cheated to get it
 * land deal was fraudulent
 * Fletcher was one of the people who had been screwed by the fraudulent land deal
 * wanted his money back
 * Supreme Court ruled
 * even though the contract was fraudulent, it was still a contract and therefor stood
 * Fletcher didn't get his money back
 * 1819
 * NH wanted to make Dartmouth a public college
 * NH said Dartmouth's charter was from colonial times
 * no longer valid
 * Supreme court ruled
 * a contract is a contract doesn't matter when it's from
 * 1821
 * Cohen's won
 * Gave the Supreme Court jurisdiction over Criminal Court cases as well as civil
 * 1819
 * Concerning the national bank
 * Ppl in the South and the West didn't like the National Bank
 * Maryland adopted new taxes
 * tax on the national bank
 * McCulloch was the head of the Baltimore branch of the Bank
 * refused to pay the tax
 * Maryland Sues the bank
 * McCulloch wins
 * States don't have the right to void acts of congress
 * Power to tax is the power to destroy
 * 1824
 * deals with interstate commerce
 * NY makes a deal with Fulton and Livingston
 * Fulton uses his steamboat to ferry ppl across the Hudson
 * Congress gives Gibbons the exact same job
 * Ogden's in the gov, refuses to acknowledge Gibbons
 * Supreme Court rules in favor of Gibbons
 * Congress trumps state
 * B/c the Hudson goes from NY to NJ it's interstate commerce
 * All of these cases create some legal space for NA tribes to exist
 * tribal right precede other legal authorities
 * Johnson v McIntosh
 * 1823
 * IL tribe had sold land to Johnson
 * but latter had to give it up to the US gov in a treaty
 * US sold it to McIntosh
 * McIntosh won
 * SC ruled private citizens can't buy land from NA tribes
 * Worcester v GA
 * 1832
 * Court vacates GA law restricting access of whites to tribal lands
 * MA Supreme Court
 * Says Unions and strikes are legal
 * 1840

Dred Scott vs Sanford
 * He traveled frequently with his owner. They went to a free territory for a while.
 * Dred Scott sued for his freedom because he believed that since he had been in a free territory, he should lawfully be freed
 * Scott wins the decision in court, but it is appealed
 * Scott loses the decision in the appellate court.

Griswald v Connecticut
 * The case goes to the Supreme Court
 * Roger Taney is the Chief Justice of the time
 * He says that he is not allowed to even make a ruling because Dred Scott is a slave, which means he is property, and property cannot challenge for its freedom.
 * Taney further rules that the federal government cannot restrict what territories people bring their slave property into (although states can)
 * 1965
 * yes this is past the time on the test, but it's really important for understanding the 14th amendment
 * Establishes the right to privacy
 * and the idea that there are some rights so great, that there isn't a fair enough due process to deprive anyone of said rights