# Most Historically Significant Supreme Court Cases in US History **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 10, 2015, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-significant-supreme-court-cases-in-us-history/734169 "2015-10-10T17:12:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-significant-supreme-court-cases-in-us-history/734169/1 "2015-10-10T17:12:06Z")
Legal history is mostly unknown to me. As a kind of long-term project, I’d like to read through the most important decisions in US history, along with the dissenting opinions where they exist. I was going to title this, “The 100 Most Historically Significant Supreme Court Cases”, but putting a specific number on it didn’t look right. Maybe there have only been 60 especially pivotal cases? 35? 110? I don’t know. I’m sure someone has compiled something like this in a book, and links to those titles would be appreciated. But I’d like to see a thread with links to the relevant decisions, along with some comments on why the cases were important and how they affected/were driven by history, especially cases further back in time where I am probably not as familiar with the history. The idea is that, if I can get enough good examples together, put them in order and go through them, I will get a sense of… legal history? The evolution of America? The reading of history through the law? I’m not completely sure what I will get out of it until I’m done. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-significant-supreme-court-cases-in-us-history/734169/2 "2015-10-10T17:16:59Z")
Undoubtedly the single most important supreme court case was Marbury v. Madison, in which the Court interpreted the Constitution as giving the Court the power to interpret the Constitution. Which, yes, is circular, and no, was not actually made explicit in the original document, but it stuck. Without that, we couldn’t even have had most of the other pivotal cases. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-significant-supreme-court-cases-in-us-history/734169/3 "2015-10-10T17:28:22Z")
A few suggestions (from a layman): Dred Scott v Sandford Brown v Board of Education of Topeka Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific Railroad Co. Plessy v Ferguson Bush v Gore Lawrence v Texas Roe v Wade Miranda v Arizona Mostly these are the ones that are better-known by the general public. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-significant-supreme-court-cases-in-us-history/734169/4 "2015-10-10T17:47:08Z")
Also: > [@](#): > > The First Amendment holding in Schenck v United States was later overturned by Brandenburg v. Ohio in 1969, which limited the scope of banned speech to that which would be directed to and likely to incite imminent lawless action (e.g. a riot). The test in Brandenburg is the current High Court jurisprudence on the ability of government to proscribe speech after that fact. Despite Schenck being limited, the phrase “shouting fire in a crowded theater” has since come to be known as synonymous with an action that the speaker believes goes beyond the rights guaranteed by free speech, reckless or malicious speech, or an action whose outcomes are obvious ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-significant-supreme-court-cases-in-us-history/734169/5 "2015-10-10T19:17:04Z")
**List of landmark court decisions in the United States** > **[List of landmark court decisions in the United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_landmark_court_decisions_in_the_United_States)** > > Landmark court decisions in the United States change the interpretation of existing law. Such a decision may settle the law in more than one way: > In the United States, landmark court decisions come most frequently from the Supreme Court. United States courts of appeals may also make such decisions, particularly if the Supreme Court chooses not to review the case or if it adopts the holding of the lower court, such as in Smith v. Collin. Although many cases from state supreme courts are signif... ---
**Author:** ![magnusblitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@magnusblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magnusblitz)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-significant-supreme-court-cases-in-us-history/734169/6 "2015-10-10T21:09:04Z")
Here’s a quick and dirty history of the 14th Amendment’s Due Process protections: In 1873, the due process clause of the 14th was basically gutted by the [Slaughter-House cases](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughter-House_Cases) (holding that it only protected federal citizenship rights, which were few), which proved to be an unpopular decision. In 1905, [Lochner v. New York](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lochner_v._New_York) led to a new era in which the Supreme Court used the 14th Amendment to strike down numerous state-enacted worker regulations (under the theory of protecting ‘right to contract’), essentially creating an era of laissez-faire. Then, in the 1930s, the court reversed course (starting with [West Coast Hotel v. Parrish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Coast_Hotel_Co._v._Parrish)) and became much more deferential to legislatures and government regulation. Then, in the 1960s and onward, starting with [Griswold v. Connecticut](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griswold_v._Connecticut) (right to privacy/contraceptives) the court started using the 14th as a way to protect individual rights. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-significant-supreme-court-cases-in-us-history/734169/7 "2015-10-11T04:09:40Z")
Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-significant-supreme-court-cases-in-us-history/734169/8 "2015-10-11T05:39:40Z")
The Dred Scott case is important, but it’s a hard one to get through. There are several judgments, and they all raise a lot of 19th century procedural issues, because depending how the procedural issues were dealt with, there was a good argument the Court could have avoided the slavery issue. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-significant-supreme-court-cases-in-us-history/734169/9 "2015-10-11T05:40:40Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge That’s the one I was going to add. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-significant-supreme-court-cases-in-us-history/734169/10 "2015-10-11T06:12:55Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Undoubtedly the single most important supreme court case was Marbury v. Madison, in which the Court interpreted the Constitution as giving the Court the power to interpret the Constitution. Which, yes, is circular, and no, was not actually made explicit in the original document, but it stuck. Without that, we couldn’t even have had most of the other pivotal cases. Disagree, English law for near 200 years (since Dr Bonhom’s case) had recognised that a body could not act in excess of powers given to it. The US Congress was (and is) a creature of the US Constitution, and therefore could not pass legislation beyond what it was authorised to do., the decision was not surprising in retrospect. (Americans had used Dr Bonhom’s case as precedent throughout the arguments against the Stamp Acts). I would say that it would be [Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company v City of Chicago](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago,_Burlington_%26_Quincy_Railroad_Co._v._City_of_Chicago) the first incorporation case. ---
**Author:** ![dofe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@dofe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dofe)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-significant-supreme-court-cases-in-us-history/734169/11 "2015-10-11T15:59:01Z")
Not one specific case, but the string of cases that ended the _Lochner_ era of the Supreme Court is significant because much of 20th-century federal power would not be viable until a more expansive interpretation of the commerce clause was adopted. Along this line of thought, _Wickard v. Filburn_ allowed for federal legislation that previously would likely have been struck down as unconstitutional. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-significant-supreme-court-cases-in-us-history/734169/12 "2015-10-11T21:15:26Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **AK84** : > > Disagree, English law for near 200 years (since Dr Bonhom’s case) had recognised that a body could not act in excess of powers given to it. The US Congress was (and is) a creature of the US Constitution, and therefore could not pass legislation beyond what it was authorised to do., the decision was not surprising in retrospect. (Americans had used Dr Bonhom’s case as precedent throughout the arguments against the Stamp Acts). It was settled that Congress may not pass unconstitutional legislation, and that any unconstitutional legislation Congress might pass would be invalid… but it was not settled just who decided whether something was unconstitutional. It seems obvious to us now that that’s the job of the courts, and especially of the Supreme Court, but that’s just because we’ve now had such a long history of it. It wasn’t obvious at the time. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-significant-supreme-court-cases-in-us-history/734169/13 "2015-10-11T22:35:02Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Disagree, English law for near 200 years (since Dr Bonhom’s case) had recognised that a body could not act in excess of powers given to it. The US Congress was (and is) a creature of the US Constitution, and therefore could not pass legislation beyond what it was authorised to do., the decision was not surprising in retrospect. (Americans had used Dr Bonhom’s case as precedent throughout the arguments against the Stamp Acts). The Supreme Court is also a creature of the Constitution, however the States were (and are) sovereign outside of that instrument. It seems dubious that they would grant an absolute veto power over their own acts in a Supreme Court of their own creation. In essence, it could be argued that it is the Supreme Court acting “in excess of the powers given to it.” Nonetheless judicial review of state action has been around for 200 years and isn’t going anywhere. I just wanted to dispute that it “was not surprising.” Jefferson and Madison thought judicial review a very dangerous idea. But back to the OP, depending on what facet of life you are focused on, I think Wickard v. Filburn was the seminal case that forever changed the scope of the powers of the national government versus those of the states. Ogberfell v. Hodges may very well turn out to be a monumental opinion with far reaching consequences, but that is getting into GD territory. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-significant-supreme-court-cases-in-us-history/734169/14 "2015-10-12T01:59:43Z")
If you’d like a moderately long explanation of why each of the significant cases are indeed significant, I’d recommend listening to the 18-hour audio course sold by The Great Courses (The Teaching Company) called _The History of the Supreme Court_, the lecturer of which is Peter Irons. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-significant-supreme-court-cases-in-us-history/734169/15 "2015-10-12T02:06:47Z")
Kelo v City of New London New York Times v Sullivan Texas v Johnson Mapp v Ohio ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-significant-supreme-court-cases-in-us-history/734169/16 "2015-10-12T03:32:34Z")
IIRC in the recent AHCA decision, Roberts pulled a fast one. While saying that Obamacare was legal, since the no-insurance penalty was a tax the feds could legally mandate - I seem to recall he included in the decision language which put a more specific limit on the interstate commerce clause, in saying that “this exceeds the interstate commerce clause for the following reasons, but is legal as a tax…”. I wonder if that decision will be ammunition in future cases to limit the omnipotence of the federal government. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-significant-supreme-court-cases-in-us-history/734169/17 "2015-10-12T06:27:52Z")
Don’t forget Loving v. Virginia. And Citizen’s United.