Established supremacy of the U.S. Constitution and federal laws over state laws

School sponsorship of religious activities violates the establishment clause

Established the principle of judicial review empowering the Supreme Court to nullify an act of the legislative or executive branch that violates the Constitution

CON-5: The design of the judicial branch protects the Supreme Court’s independence as a branch of government, and the emergence and use of judicial review remains a powerful judicial practice.

LOR-2: Provisions of the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights are continually being interpreted to balance the power of government and the civil liberties of individuals. (pick 2)

CON-2: Federalism reflects the dynamic distribution of power between national and state governments.

Engle v. Vitale (1962)

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

Schenck v. United States (1919)

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

Congress has the power to make all laws “necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers”. Also called the Elastic Clause.

Constitution and federal laws made under it are supreme law of the land. In a fight between federal law and state/local law, federal wins

Prohibits federal government from establishing a national religion. Extends to appearing to favor one religion over the other. “Separation of Church and State” comes from this clause.

Judicial Review – not in Constitution

Facts: Facts: In the early 1960s, a group of Jewish families in New York brought suit against their children’s school district for imposing prayer in the classroom The New York court of Appeals upheld school prayer before the families took the case to the Supreme Court.

Facts: In the closing hours of his presidency, John Adams commissioned a man as a Justice of the Peace in the District of Columbia. Although the commission was approved by the Senate, president Thomas Jefferson, upon taking office, ordered Secretary of State James Madison not to deliver the commission.

Facts: During the First World War, the United Staes prosecuted thousands of dissenters. Near the end of the war, a man, a Socialist, was arrested in Philadelphia for handing out leaflets calling on men not to enlist. He was arrested and convicted of violation the Espionage Act of 1917. He appealed to the Supreme Court.

Facts: In 1816, the federal government created the Second Bank of the United States with branches in different states. In 1818, the Maryland legislature passed a law taxing the bank. A man, who managed the bank’s Baltimore branch, refused to pay. He sued first in state court before appealing to the Supreme Court.

Issue: Maryland argued that since the Constitution said nothing about banks, ,it was legal for the state to impulse a tax on a bank run by the federal government. Maryland also argued that a federal banking system was unconstitutional.

Issue: The families argued the school prayer violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause.

Issue: The man's attorney argued that the Espionage Act of 1917 violated the First Amendment.

Issue: What was the extent of the Supreme court’s power regarding judicial review as outlined in Article III, Section 2, of the Constitution ? Although the man filed his suit with the Supreme Court, did it have original jurisdiction over the case?

Holding: In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled that although Marbury was entitled to his position as Justice of the Peace, the provision was unconstitutional. The ruling, therefore, set a precedent that future courts have followed: when a law comes into conflict with the Constitution, the Supreme Court considers that law unconstitutional. This practice is the foundation of judicial review.

Holding: In a unanimous decision, the Supreme court ruled that the Second bank of the United States was constitutional and that since states are not truly sovereign over their territory, they cannot impose taxes on government entities of inter ere with its operations if they are legal. The case was a victory for those who believed that federal power superseded state power.

Holding: In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the man's conviction was constitutional and that his speech posed ”a clear and present danger” to the United States.

Holding: In a 6-1 decision, (one justice was ill and another recused himself based on the fact that he was not a member of the court during oral arguments), the court ruled that school prayer violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause. The lone dissenting justice argued that forbidding prayer in school denied children the nation’s “spiritual heritage.”

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