Can you name the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions?

Year	Court Case	Decision Summary
1803		The Supreme Court is allowed to strike down acts of congress which conflict with the U.S. Constitution.
1819		Maryland had no power to tax a federal bank. Reaffirmed supremacy of federal laws over state laws.
1824		Congress has the power to regulate interstate commerce.
1857		People of African descent could not become citizens and the U.S. could not prohibit slavery in federal territories.
1896		Segregated facilities for blacks and whites are constitutional. 'Separate but equal'
1919		Freedom of speech not protected for speech that caused a 'clear and present danger'.
1954		Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal and unconstitutional.
1962		Prayer in classrooms violates the First Amendment.
1963		Anyone charged with a criminal offense has the right to free legal counsel.
1964		Upheld freedom of press and required officials to prove malice, not just falsehood, in statements made against them.
1966		A suspect interrogated in custody must be read his rights under the Fifth Amendment.
1973		The practice of abortion is constitutionally protected.
1974		The President of the U.S. is not above the law.
1978		Quota systems based on race are unconstitutional, but affirmative action is constitutional.
2000		Florida's voting recount violated the Equal Protection Clause
2008		Foreign terrorism suspects have constitutional rights to challenge their detention by the U.S.

Javascript is not currently enabled on your browser.
If you do have Javascript enabled:
This site uses javascript to make the magic happen.
Please turn on javascript and reload this page, or use a more current browser (like Firefox)

You might also like these games:
US Presidents	US Supreme Court	Presidential Inaugural Quotes

There are 32 comments for this game.
(Warning: comments may contain spoilers)

U.S. Supreme Court Decisions Quiz

by Matt

Created Oct 2, 2008 in History
Featured Oct 2, 2008
Game Plays 48,668

Embed Game

Report a Mistake

Friend Scores and Standings

Loading friend results....

Top Games Today in History

Top Games with Similar Tags

Top User Games in History

Comment below threshold: show it

	BBonds54:	Oct 2nd, 2008 at 16:34 GMT		6 points
	Bush V Gore didn't give the Supreme Court the right to decide who wins a presidential election......It stopped the recount of FL's votes.... It was merely the first ruling to determine a presidential election.

Comment below threshold: show it

	Hal_10000:	Oct 2nd, 2008 at 17:08 GMT		8 points
	A few of these decisions could be available by guessing one side. Dred Scott vs. Sandford, for example, is almost always referred to as just "Dred Scott", rarely as Scott vs. Sandford.

	Jeremy:	Oct 2nd, 2008 at 17:41 GMT		23 points
	Sorry Ben, you're wrong. McCulloch v. Maryland has a two part significance. The first is that Congress has powers not specifically stated in the Constitution. The other, however, is that States cannot impede the Federal government in exercising its power. John Marshall wrote, "The Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof are supreme; they control the Constitution and laws of the respective states and cannot be controlled by them." While the specific case dealt with the State taxing a Federal institution, it set the precedence of Federal laws superseding State laws. ie. The Federal government can prosecute possession of Marijuana even if a State has legalized it. Court decisions do more than decide actual cases, they set precedent. This applies to Bush v. Gore as well.

	weizenugb:	Oct 2nd, 2008 at 18:56 GMT		6 points
	Shouldn't USA v Nixon also count for United States v. Nixon?

	Andrew:	Oct 2nd, 2008 at 18:57 GMT		7 points
	As a second year law student, i'm with Jeremy.

	Father_Time:	Oct 2nd, 2008 at 19:48 GMT		1 point
	wouldn't supreme court decisions become de jure law of the land and not de facto?

	Bri G:	Oct 2nd, 2008 at 20:22 GMT		13 points
	The timing of this quiz wouldn't have anything to do with Palin's interview with Couric, would it? ;-)

	Tchaikovsky08:	Oct 2nd, 2008 at 22:23 GMT		3 points
	Tim, in all law cases, the United States are the proper way to state USA or America in a case citation; if "United States" is used as an adjective, then "U.S." is sometimes sufficient. However, USA is never sufficient. P.S. ... Norris love.

Comment below threshold: show it

	nearlyextinct:	Nov 22nd, 2008 at 22:55 GMT		-3 points
	What about Scopes vs. State? It was later Epperson v. Arkansas.

	AKDforlife:	Jan 29th, 2009 at 02:49 GMT		6 points
	You could have been a little more lenient with "Regents of University of California v. Bakke". I entered Bakke v every school in California that I could think of without luck.

	RebeccaAMax:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 17:56 GMT		10 points
	The one on school prayer is wrong - that's Engel v. Vitale. Abington had to do with Bible readings.

Comment below threshold: show it

	Observer:	Mar 7th, 2009 at 06:26 GMT		3 points
	+1 @ Rebecca.

	aerodynamic:	Mar 7th, 2009 at 11:25 GMT		1 point
	you forgot sporcle vs. all

	Bretzky:	May 10th, 2009 at 18:52 GMT		3 points
	Gibbons v. Ogden did not hold that Congress has the power to regulate interstate commerce; the Constitution itself already says that. The actual holding of Gibbons is that certain state laws that regulate interstate commerce violate the Constitution even though the Constitution does not expressly prohibit states from regulating interstate commerce. Gibbons is important in Dormant Commerce Clause theory because Chief Justice Marshall seems to suggest in his opinion that states cannot ever regulate interstate commerce. Later Courts have held that the Commerce Clause is not, however, that restrictive of state power.

	Bretzky:	May 10th, 2009 at 19:01 GMT		6 points
	Not to mention that Bush v. Gore did not hold that the US Supreme Court has the right to decide who wins the 2000 presidential election. The Court held in that case, by a 7-2 margin, that the process by which the Florida Supreme Court decided to recount the votes violated the Equal Protection rights of the voters in Florida because the Florida Supreme Court failed to dictate to the local electoral boards how the re-count was to be carried out. This meant that votes would be counted using different standards in different counties, which necessarily meant that some votes that would be counted in some counties would not be counted if they had been recorded in other counties; so, whether your vote would count depended on where you cast it. The Supreme Court also held, by a 5-4 margin, that there was not enough time to establish a uniform re-count process because of the deadline that was approaching to finalize the results; so, the Court ordered the Florida Supreme Court to halt the re-count.

	NightOwl:	Jul 14th, 2009 at 03:16 GMT		4 points
	Brown v. Topeka Board of Education should be acceptable; in fact, Brown v. Board of Education is often used in history books.

	shakescene:	Jul 20th, 2009 at 02:57 GMT		2 points
	This didn't seem to take U.S. v. Schenck or Schenk v. U.S.

	RebeccaAMax:	Sep 23rd, 2009 at 04:57 GMT		3 points
	I see the school prayer one still hasn't been fixed.

	dudemanbearpig:	Nov 13th, 2009 at 14:10 GMT		1 point
	@Bobolinski: While you did correctly identify the decision as an awful one, you didn't correctly identify the name. It's Kelo v. New LONDON.

	Disclaimer:	Nov 25th, 2009 at 16:55 GMT		4 points
	"Times v Sullivan" should be sufficient. That's pretty universally the way the case is referred to. I would also accept "Bakke" "Plessy" and "Gideon" for the same reasons it already accepts "Dred Scott" and "Miranda".

	RebeccaAMax:	Jan 13th, 2010 at 01:30 GMT		3 points
	Hey, Sporcle, are you still reading this? The school prayer decision is Engel v. Vitale.

	mark_oh:	Jan 13th, 2010 at 18:10 GMT		3 points
	Engel v. Vitale!!!

	Scooch:	May 2nd, 2010 at 20:01 GMT		5 points
	If this quiz accepts "Dred Scott" and "Miranda," it should also accept "Bakke." On the other hand, maybe it shouldn't accept any of them and force us to know both sides for all the cases.

	diving:	Jan 15th, 2011 at 21:59 GMT		2 points
	Engel v. Vitale was a 1962 decision, not 1963, the year was not changed when the quiz was updated --- http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=370&invol=421 ---

	SaharaPrincess:	Feb 14th, 2011 at 17:26 GMT		1 point
	What about Mapp v. Ohio (1961)? That extended the 4th Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures to the states.

	stlameroz:	Jun 21st, 2011 at 23:23 GMT		5 points
	very frustrating that I can guess one side for some and get it but not for others

	ezgranet:	Nov 12th, 2011 at 01:21 GMT		1 point
	you might want to add citizens united and heller

	abard124:	Apr 27th, 2012 at 00:20 GMT		1 point
	Darn Lakhdar Boumediene for having an impossible to spell name! I so knew that one!

	Acid_Snow:	Mar 14th, 2013 at 00:07 GMT		1 point
	I learned Bakke as UC Regents v Bakke, and spent a lot of time trying to find the right permutation. We did a whole project on 40 notable cases, and all but one of these was there. Unfortunately I couldn't remember all of them.