50 Pivotal U.S. Supreme Court Cases

Film critics call The Miracle: "beautiful," "artistic," "courageous." New York's State Board of Regents calls it "sacrilegious," and bans it. 

To protest the Vietnam war, Mary Beth Tinker wears a black armband to junior high school. The principal orders her to take it off. She will not, and is suspended.

The state convicts the Ku Klux Klan for giving speeches about revenge on the government. The Klan asserts their right to free speech. 

A Long Island school board removes, from school libraries, all books on a list compiled by political conservatives.

Joey Johnson sets an American flag on fire. Texas convicts Johnson of "the desecration of a venerated object."

Congress passes the Communications Decency Act, outlawing "indecent" online messages that minors can access. As the President signs the bill, the ACLU challenges it.

The state shuts down a newspaper, using a law that prohibits "malicious, scandalous and defamatory" publications."

The U,S. Department of Justice gets a court order to prevent publication of a document leaked to the press by a Pentagon analyst about the history of the Vietnam War.

Every morning, senior high students hear a Bible reading. A Unitarian family considers this school prayer policy contrary to their faith. 

An old state "anti-evolution" statute means that biology teachers in Little Rock who use the school's new science texts could lose their job. 

Three Amish families pull their children from school for religious reasons. The parents are convicted of violating the compulsory-attendance law. 

What Alabama law calls legal voluntary school prayer, Ismael Jaffree calls unconstitutional "religious indoctrination."

Louisiana's Creationism Act permits public schools to teach evolution, but only if "creation-science" is taught with it. 

Before every Santa Fe High varsity football game, a student chaplain delivers a prayer over the public address system. Mormons and Catholics object. 

After two hours in an interrogation room, police emerge with Ernesto Miranda's signed confession. But the police never mentioned his right to counsel.

Air Force servicemen may claim dependent wives without proof. Servicewomen must document their husband's financial dependence.

Investigating a break-in at Democratic headquarters, President Nixon's recordings are subpoenaed. The President will not turn over the tapes.

After a disturbance, 75 Columbus high school students are suspended. They are given no hearing, nor a reason why the school believes them guilty. 

Jehovah's Witness ministers go door-to-door. They are arrested for soliciting religious donations without a state certificate.

2000 children of Jehovah's Witnesses are expelled for not saluting the flag. Their parents are charged with causing delinquency.

South Carolina State labor laws allow workers to refuse to work on Sunday for religious reasons, but not on Saturday. 

Daniel Seeger says he's a Conscientious Objector. His local draft board does not believe him. He is convicted of refusing induction into the Armed Services.

Ten workers at Jones & Laughlin Steel are fired. All are leaders in the local labor union -- that, they say, is why they were fired.

Police break down Dollie Mapp's door. She asks to see a search warrant. They put her in handcuffs.

Estelle Griswold and Dr. Jack Buxton, are convicted of violating the state's birth control law. Their crime: prescribing contraceptives to married couples.

The FBI places a recording device, without a warrant, on a public telephone to convict Charles Katz of illegal gambling. 

To stop a suspect from getting away, police shoot 15-year old Edward Garner, in the back of the head, dead. In Tennessee, that is legal.

A road sign reads "Narcotics Checkpoint Ahead. Be prepared to stop." When James Edmond is stopped, he sues to stop the checkpoints. 

Clarence Gideon is arrested for breaking and entering. Clarence cannot afford a lawyer, so he asks the court to appoint one for him. The judge refuses.

Under state law, all jurors must be white. Taylor Strauder, a black man, is sentenced to be hanged for murder. He challenges the whites-only jury rule. 

Eighty whites apply to run a laundry business in San Francisco; all but one are approved. Two hundred Chinese apply; all are denied. 

Yetta Stromberg leads summer camp children in a daily flag ceremony -- only her flag is Communist Party red. In California that's illegal.

Two white girls accuse nine black teenagers of rape. Until minutes before their trial, the boys have no lawyer. All but the youngest are sentenced to death.

The residents of a Saint Louis neighborhood sign an agreement: "No property shall be occupied by any person not of the Caucasian race."

James Avery is black. Sixty potential jurors' names are selected for his trial; all are white, even though the county is 25 percent black.

Linda Brown wants to go to the nearest public school. But Linda is black, the school is for whites only.

Due to outdated voting district boundaries, voters in Alabama cities and suburbs charge that their votes have only one-sixteenth the power of rural voters.

To vote in this Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, or Texas, you have to pay a poll tax.

Gerald Gault is accused of making an indecent phone call. He is not allowed a lawyer; no evidence presented. The 15-year-old boy is sentenced to six years.

Mildred Jeter marries Richard Loving. They return to their home state of Virginia, and are arrested. The crime: interracial marriage.

With no warning, the state cuts off welfare benefits for single parent Angela Velez. She and her four children are evicted from their home.

Richard Reed dies with no will. His parents, now separated, both ask to administer the estate. The judge finds them equal, so, by Idaho law, chooses Mr. Reed.

Under the name "Jane Roe," a woman sues the state of Texas for depriving her of her Constitutional right to have a safe, legal abortion.

Kenneth Donaldson has done nothing criminal or dangerous, yet he is held for against his will for 15 years in Florida State Hospital.

The mother of a severely developmentally disabled adult sues a state hospital for her son's right to be kept safe, and to move about freely.

In Texas free public education is the right of every child -- except for the children of undocumented Mexican farm workers.

Virginia Military Institute is Virginia's only single-sex state school. No women need apply. 

A Colorado referendum outlaws all existing laws that "protect the status of persons based on their homosexual orientation." 

When Lonnie Smith tries to vote in the Democratic Primary, he is denied a ballot because he is black.

The State Legislature redraws the city of Tuskegee from a square into strange 28-sided polygon, and from 400 black voters to five.