2. Who Was the Chief Justice at the Time?

1.02 Activity _4

Landmark Cases

In American History there have been several Supreme Court cases which are considered “landmark.” A landmark case is one in which a significant change to legal precedent (previous cases) or a significant change to law has been made. There are several which are important to understanding the evolution of American Law. You are to go to the following websites and read about each of the following landmark cases. Answer the questions listed about EACH of the cases. When you are done, please save your file and use the “Upload Landmark Cases” link from Moodle to upload the file so I can view it. Thank you!

Case: Marbury v. Madison

Web Site: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/antebellum/landmark_marbury.html

Questions:

1.  What is “judicial review?”

2.  Who was the Chief Justice at the time?

3.  Who were Marbury and Madison?

4.  What questions were raised in the case resolution?

5.  In which question was the subject of judicial review addressed?

6.  What is Original Jurisdiction?

7.  Why do you think this case was so incredibly important?

Case: Gideon v Wainwright

Web Site: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/landmark_gideon.html

Questions:

1.  What was the Supreme Court ruling in this case?

2.  Who was Gideon and what did he do?

3.  Why did Gideon not have an attorney?

4.  Why did the judge not grant him one?

5.  What is a habeas corpus petition?

6.  Which amendment was violated in Gideon’s Case?

7.  What amendment did the court note that the states must abide by because of the due process clause?

8.  What is an “adversarial” court system?

Case: Miranda v Arizona

Web Site: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/landmark_miranda.html

Questions:

1.  What was the ruling of the Supreme Court in this case?

2.  Who was Miranda and what did he do?

3.  Who was the Chief Justice on the case?

4.  What amendments were violated?

5.  What are “Miranda Rights?”

6.  Why is this such an important case?