1. Three Landmark Court Cases
Name and Date of the Case Facts of the Case Summary of the Decision Significance of the Decision
• William Marbury, appointed to a • The Court struck down as • Established the principle of
federal judgeship by outgoing unconstitutional the law on which judicial review.
Marbury v. Madison, 1803 president Adams, was denied his Marbury had based his case.
commission by incoming
President Jefferson. Marbury
argued that the Supreme Court
could force Secretary of State
Madison to perform his official
duty to deliver Marbury his
commission.
• After Congress created a Second • The Court held that the power to • Asserted a broad expansion of the
Bank of the U.S., several states, create a national bank was powers of Congress and that
including Maryland (which supported by the Elastic Clause, federal law trumps state law
McCulloch v. Maryland, 1819 opposed the creation of a but that states did not have the
national bank), charged a tax on power to tax a national bank as
the bank’s branches. James that would put state law above
McCulloch, cashier of the federal law.
Maryland branch, refused to pay
the tax.
• Senate discovers that President • The Court decided against Nixon, • Reinforced the principle of rule of
Nixon secretly recorded saying that executive privilege law—that even presidents are
United States v. Nixon, 1974 conversations in the Oval Office. must be considered in light of the subject to the law
President Nixon claimed executive circumstances.
privilege after the Senate asked
him to hand over the recordings.