Contents

Reviewer Acknowledgments

Introduction

Volume 1: To 1896

Chapter one

The Case of the Disappointed Office-Seeker: Marbury v. Madison (1803)

The Judiciary Act of 1801 and the Midnight Judges

William Marbury

The First Step—Repeal of the 1801 Judiciary Act

Marbury v. Madison

The Politics and Logic of Marshall’s Opinion

The Republicans Continue Their Attack

The Impeachment of Justice Chase

Defining Treason

Aftermath

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Chapter two

The Case of the Larcenous Cashier: M’Culloch v. Maryland (1819)

Interpreting the Constitution: Jefferson versus Hamilton

James McCulloh—Cashier Extraordinaire

Arguments before the Court

Decision

The States’ Rights Attack

John Marshall’s Defense

Citizen McCulloh

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Chapter three

The Case of the Rival Steamboat Operators: Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

Mr. Fulton’s Steamboat

The Steamboat Monopoly

Enter Gibbons and Ogden

Creating a Question for the Federal Courts

Arguing before the Supreme Court

The Decision

The Legacy of the Case

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Chapter four

The Case of the Missionary to the Cherokee: Worcester v. Georgia (1832)

Setting the Stage

Taking Indian Land

Challenging Georgia Law in the Supreme Court

Samuel Worcester Goes to Georgia

The Georgia Law before the Supreme Court

The Failure of Law and a Political Compromise

Cherokee Removal

Aftermath

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Chapter five

The Case of the Zealous Slave Catcher: Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842)

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793

Personal Liberty Laws

Edward Prigg and Margaret Morgan

The Supreme Court Rules

After Prigg: George Latimer

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Chapter six

The Case of the Slave Who Would Be Free: Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

Dred Scott and His Travels

The Case in the Missouri State Courts

The Growing Storm over Slavery

The Compromise of 1850

Dred Scott in the Missouri Supreme Court

A Diversity Case—or Not

Before the Supreme Court

“The Self-Inflicted Wound”

Aftermath

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Chapter seven

The Case of the Antiwar Agitator: Ex parte Milligan (1866)

The Making of a Copperhead

Opposing the War

Military Trial

Ex parte Merryman

Ex parte Vallandigham

Arguing the Case

The Court’s Decision

Milligan in History

Milligan after the Case

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Chapter eight

The Case of the New Orleans Butchers: The Slaughterhouse Cases (1873)

A Simple Health Regulation in an Unhealthy City

The Butchers Fight Back

Defining Rights

In the Louisiana Courts

Justice Joseph Bradley, on Circuit

Before the U.S. Supreme Court

A Closely Divided Court Decides

Aftermath

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Chapter nine

The Case of the Woman Who Wanted to Be a Lawyer: Bradwell v. Illinois (1873)

Myra Bradwell

The Chicago Legal News

The Nascent Women’s Movement

A History of Legal Discrimination

Small Doors in the Wall

A Person of Good Character—but Not Eligible

On Appeal to the Supreme Court

The Decision

Moving On, and Triumphing

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Chapter ten

The Case of the Devout Bigamist: Reynolds v. United States (1879)

Mormon Beliefs

The Growing Opposition to the Faith

George Reynolds

The Test Case

The Supreme Court Decides: Belief versus Practice

Reaction to the Decision

The Persecution and Prosecution of the Mormons

The End of Plural Marriage

Continuing Questions

George Reynolds’s Last Years

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Chapter eleven

The Case of the Reluctant Strike Leader: In re Debs (1895)

George M. Pullman and the Palace Car

Pullman, Illinois

Eugene Victor Debs

The American Railway Union

The Pullman Workers Strike

The Boycott

Violence

Judge Grosscup Issues an Injunction

The Trial of Eugene V. Debs

The High Court Rules

Aftermath

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Volume 2: Since 1896

Chapter twelve

The Case of the Almost-White Traveler: Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

The Freedmen after the Civil War

The Beginnings of Jim Crow

Challenging the Separate Car Act

Enter Homer Adolphe Plessy

The Separate Car Act in the Courts

The Supreme Court Decides

Justice Harlan’s Dissent

Plessy’s Bitter Fruits

Coda

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Chapter thirteen

The Case of the Stubborn Baker: Lochner v. New York (1905)

Industrialization and Protective Legislation

Substantive Due Process versus the Police Power

Bakeshops at the Turn of the Century

Trying to Clean Up the Bakeshops

Joseph Lochner Challenges the Law

The Supreme Court Hands Down a Surprise Decision

Lochner’s Aftermath

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Chapter fourteen

The Case of the Gentle Anarchist: Abrams v. United States (1919)

World War I and Speech

Jacob Abrams Opposes the War

Theories of Speech and the Bad Tendency

Schenck and “Clear and Present Danger”

Holmes Learns from His Critics

Abrams: Fighting Faiths

Reaction to Holmes’s Dissent: Pro and Con

The Sad End of Jacob Abrams

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Chapter fifteen

The Case of the High-Tech Bootlegger: Olmstead v. United States (1928)

The Road to the Noble Experiment

Prohibition in Practice

The Olmstead Ring in Seattle

The Meaning of the Fourth Amendment

Chief Justice Taft’s Opinion

Justices Butler and Holmes Dissent

The Brandeis Dissent and the Right of Privacy

Roy Olmstead Reforms

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Chapter sixteen

The Four Horsemen’s Last Ride: The New Deal Cases (1930s)

The Great Depression

The Court and State Measures to Combat the Depression

The New Deal Begins

Going Off the Gold Standard

The National Industrial Recovery Act

The Schechter Case

The New Deal Farm Program and the Court

The Attack on the New Deal Continues

The Court-Packing Plan

Elsie Parrish Wants Her Money

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Chapter seventeen

The Case of the Conscientious Schoolchildren: The Flag-Salute Cases (1940 and 1943)

Lillian Gobitas Acts on Her Faith

The Witnesses in Federal Courts

The Witnesses in the High Court: Round I

The Violent Response to the Decision

Expanding the Boundaries of the First Amendment

The High Court: Round II

Aftermath

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Chapter eighteen

The Case of Too-Long-Delayed Equality: Brown v. Board of Education (1954 and 1955)

Linda Brown and the Other Plaintiffs

From Plessy to Brown

The Arguments

The Decision

The Response

Remedies and Brown II

Moving—but Slowly

Ike and Little Rock

The Beginnings of Desegregation

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Chapter nineteen

The Case of the Robust Press: New York Times v. Sullivan (1964)

Merton Nachman Reads the Newspaper

The Struggle for Civil Rights in Alabama

L. B. Sullivan and Law Enforcement in Montgomery

The Sit-in Movement Comes to Alabama

“Heed Their Rising Voices”

A Brief History of Libel Law

The Sullivan Case

The Supreme Court and the Press Clause

“Debate on Public Issues Should Be Uninhibited, Robust, and Wide-Open”

Aftermath

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Chapter twenty

The Case of the Uninformed Rapist: Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

The Victim

Ernesto Miranda and His Confession

The Due Process Revolution Begins: Gideon v. Wainwright

The Fifth Amendment’s “Great Right”

Connecting the Fifth and Sixth Amendments: Massiah

Strengthening the Connection: Escobedo

“You Have the Right to Remain Silent”

The Success of Miranda

Refining Miranda

Miranda’s End

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Chapter twenty one

The Case That Aroused Great Passions: Roe v. Wade (1973)

Abortion Legislation: A Brief History

Growing Support for Abortion Rights

Establishing the Right to Privacy

Sarah Weddington Meets Norma McCorvey

Jane Roe Wins Round One

Abortion in the Supreme Court before Roe

Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton

The Response to the Decisions

Aftermath

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Chapter twenty two

Coming Out of the Closet and into the Courts: The Gay Rights Cases (1986–2003)

Michael Hardwick Is Arrested

Hardwick Goes to Court—Charting Unfamiliar Territory

The Gay Rights Movement

Hardwick in the Supreme Court

The Court Tries to Find Its Way

A Ray of Hope—Romer v. Evans

John Geddes Lawrence Is Arrested

The Supreme Court Decides

The Aftermath of Lawrence

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Chapter twenty three

The Constitution Besieged: The War on Terror Cases (2000s)

Rounding Up Suspected Aliens

Zacarias Moussaoui

Enemy Combatants

The Prisoners of Guantánamo

The Supreme Court Issues a Warning

Hamdan v. Rumsfeld

Another Rebuke from the Court

Aftermath

Cases Cited

For Further Reading

Constitution of the United States

Glossary

Index