The President and Executive Privilege
by Fidel Andrada
★★★ Background of the Case ★★★
During President Nixon’s 1972 re-election campaign, several men were caught breaking into the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters in the Watergate apartment and office complex in Washington, D.C. It turned out that the burglars were associated with the president’s campaign. A nationwide political and public outcry mushroomed into what became known as the Watergate scandal.
Racial Discrimination in Privately Owned Facilities
★★★ Background of the Case ★★★
The ground-breaking Brown decision of 1954 banned racial discrimination in public schools and was gradually extended to other public facilities. The ruling did not apply to privately owned places such as hotels and restaurants. As a result, many of these places continued to refuse to accommodate African Americans. Professional baseball teams, for example, which had become racially integrated in 1947, could do nothing when their African American players were not allowed to register at the same hotels as the white players.
Civil liberties lawyers tried to find some constitutional way to make these discriminatory practices illegal. The lawyers first had…
The Exclusionary Rule
by Fidel Andrada
★★★★★★★★ Background of the Case ★★★★★★★★
Weeks was arrested at his place of business on a charge of sending lottery tickets through the mail. The police had turned over to a United States marshal the various papers found there. The marshal in turn had searched Weeks’s premises in the company of police officers and took still other papers. No warrant had ever been issued for any of the searches or for Weeks’s arrest.
Prior to his trial, Weeks asked that his papers be returned to him. The request was denied. These documents were used…
Denial of Right to Counsel
by Fidel Andrada
★★★★★★★★ Background of the Case ★★★★★★★★
On March 25, 1931, a fight took place between seven young African Americans and seven young white men. Ozie Powell and six friends — all African Americans — were on a freight train traveling through Alabama. Also on the train were seven white boys and two white women. In the fight all but one of the white boys were thrown off the train. A message was sent ahead reporting the fight, and the African Americans were asked to get off the train. …
A Woman’s Right to Abortion
by Fidel Andrada
★★★★★★★★ Background of the Case ★★★★★★★★
One of the most widely debated issues in recent times has been over whether a woman may legally have an abortion. Many religious groups have vigorously opposed abortion, while women’s rights organizations and civil libertarians, as well as many unaffiliated individuals, have supported that right.
An unmarried pregnant woman, Jane Roe (a pseudonym), brought suit against District Attorney Wade of Dallas County, Texas. She challenged a Texas statute that made it a crime to seek or perform an abortion except when, in a doctor’s judgment, abortion…
A Poor Defendant’s Right to a Lawyer
by Fidel Andrada
★★★★★★★★ Background of the Case ★★★★★★★★
“From time to time in constitutional history an obscure individual becomes the symbol of a great movement in legal doctrine. Character and circumstances illuminate a new understanding of the Constitution. So it was in the case of Clarence Earl Gideon,” according to Anthony Lewis, a noted civil libertarian.
In 1961 Clarence Earl Gideon, a petty thief who had served four prison terms, was arrested for breaking into a poolroom in Panama City, Florida, and stealing a pint of wine and some change from a…
The Right to Freedom of Enslaved Persons
By Fidel Andrada
★★★★★★★★ Background of the Case ★★★★★★★★
John Emerson, a United States Army surgeon, took enslaved African Dred Scott to live at military posts in Illinois, a free state in 1834, and then to posts in the territory of Upper Louisiana (now Minnesota), where slavery had been forbidden by the Missouri Compromise of 1820. In 1838 Emerson and Scott returned to Missouri.
In 1846 Scott won a suit for his freedom against Emerson’s widow in a Missouri court. Scott claimed that by having lived in free territory, he had earned his…
Flag Salute Requirement
By Fidel Andrada
★★★★★★★★★ Background of the Case ★★★★★★★★★
Barnette was a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a religious group whose members refuse to participate in government, bear arms, serve in the military, or salute the flag. The flag salute is forbidden on grounds that it constitutes idol worship, which is forbidden in the Bible.
After the Gobitis decision of 1940, West Virginia instituted a compulsory flag salute in public schools. …
Power of the Federal Government v. Power of the State Government
By Fidel Andrada
★★★★★★★★ Background of the Case ★★★★★★★★
The Supreme Court first settled a dispute between a national and a state law in 1819. The Second Bank of the United States had been chartered by Congress in 1816. Large sections of the country, especially the West and South, bitterly opposed the Bank. The Bank’s tight credit policies contributed to an economic depression, and many states reacted against what they saw as a “ruthless money trust” and “the monster monopoly.” Two states even prohibited the bank from operating within…
The Rights of the Accused
By Fidel Andrada
★★★★★★★★ Background of the Case ★★★★★★★★
Ernesto Miranda had been arrested at his home in Phoenix, Arizona, and accused of kidnapping and rape. Questioned at the police station by two police officers, he was not advised of his right to an attorney nor his right to remain silent. After two hours of interrogation, he signed a written confession to the crimes. At his trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to 20 to 30 years in prison. He took his case to the United States Supreme Court.
★★★★★★★ Constitutional Issue ★★★★★★★
The…
Fidel Andrada
I am interested in publishing ONE PAGE Landmark Supreme Court Cases and other educational information.
