Smart conversation from the National Constitution Center
The United States Supreme Court is the highest court of the judicial branch of government—its duty is to interpret the law. Since 1803, the Supreme Court has been understood to have the power to declare national, state, and local laws unconstitutional. Article III of the Constitution defines the Supreme Court and which cases it can hear, and how other federal courts are established.
On May 28, 1935, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down an important part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s NIRA plan, when the Court invalidated poultry industry regulations.
Federal and state judges these days are finding a new assignment: reading up on what the Supreme Court once called “the infamous history of bills of attainder.” A federal judge in Sherman, Texas, is going to be doing that soon, and there is a real prospect that a judge in New York State will also be doing so shortly.
On May 20, 1996, the Supreme Court issued an early landmark decision supporting the right of gays under the Constitution to seek protection from discrimination.
On May 18, 1896, the Supreme Court’s Plessy v. Ferguson decision upheld the legality of racial segregation in America. Plessy was later overturned, and it holds a controversial place in the Court’s legacy.
The decision of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka on May 17, 1954 is perhaps the most famous of all Supreme Court cases, as it started the process ending segregation. It overturned the equally far-reaching decision of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896.
The 27th Amendment is the most recent amendment to the Constitution, and its existence today can be traced to a college student who proposed the idea in a term paper and was given a C by his professor for the idea.
Today marks the anniversary of an important Supreme Court case that helped to end the Hollywood studio system and fuel a young television industry in the late 1940s.
On Tuesday, the nine Supreme Court Justices heard arguments for and against including a citizenship question in the 2020 census, a case considered on an expedited basis due to a pending deadline to print the census form.
On April 25, 1906, future Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan was born in New Jersey. During his nearly 34 years at the Court, Brennan wrote the second-most opinions in the Court’s history, including several landmark majority decisions.
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to settle the meaning of a 1964 civil rights law that bans discrimination in the workplace based on sex – and, specifically, whether that law protects workers who are gay or lesbian, and those who are transgender.