Pop Quiz, hotshot
Quick, right now, click on the comments to this post here and list for me all the Supreme Court cases you can think of by name. Partial names will be accepted. Do not scroll down, do not Google, just name the ones you can think of relatively quickly. When you're done posting them as a comment, come back and read the rest of this post. We'll wait.
(spoiler space)
Apparently as part of the not yet shown Katie Couric interview of Sarah Palin, Palin was asked about Supreme Court cases. She could name only one: Roe v. Wade. There has been much discussion about whether your average American could name more than that, and I think it's true that most non-lawyer people would be pretty satisfied to get that one right. (I asked 2 secretaries here how many they could name--the first named Roe and Brown v. Board, the second could name only Roe.) But shouldn't someone who is running for Vice President maybe be a little more familiar with some of the major cases that have shaped our history over the last 220 years, or even just the hot buttons of the last 10? Here's a list of cases I am surprised a good arch conservative like Sarah Palin couldn't name:
Marbury v. Madison: established the concept of judicial review of government action
Plessy v. Ferguson: allowed segregation where it was "separate but equal"
Brown v. Board of Education: found segregation was inherently unequal and overturned Plessy, required desegregation of public education
Dred Scott v. Sanford: ruled that those of African descent could not achieve citizenship even if they obtained freedom
Miranda v. Arizona: required advice of availability of counsel and warning of right against self-incrimination before interrogation in police custody
Kelo v. City of New London: allowed eminent domain laws to be used to take private property not for public projects but for a private redevelopment supported by public financing
Korematsu v. US: Refused a challenge to the detention of Japanese-American citizens during WWII.
Bowers v. Hardwick: let stand laws against homosexual sodomy
Lawrence v. Texas: overturned Bowers, invalidated laws against homosexual sodomy
Gideon v. Wainwright: extended right to indigent defense for all felonies
Bush v. Gore: stopped the Florida recount and gave George W. Bush the presidency
NY Times Co. v. U.S (the Pentagon Papers cases): refused to prevent the publication of documents from U.S. government regarding US action in Vietnam that allegedly contained state secrets
Loving v. Virginia: case overturning Virginia's laws prohibiting interracial marriage
Griswold v. Connecticut: overturning laws restricting access to birth control
Stenberg v. Carhart: overturned Nebraska law prohibiting partial birth abortion
Gonzales v. Carhart: upheld federal law prohibiting partial birth abortion
Planned Parenthood v. Casey: permitted laws requiring 24 hour notice provision before obtaining an abortion, and requiring parental consent. Overturned spousal notification provision.
Reno v. ACLU: overturned laws outlawing obscenity on the internet
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld: found that the military tribunal system set up by Congress for Guantanamo detainees was unconstitutional
Boumedienne v. Bush: found that Congress had not constitutionally suspended habeas corpus for Guantanamo detainees
Kennedy v. Louisiana: prohibiting application of the death penalty to those convicted of child rape alone
Here is a great list of major Supreme Court cases over the years. Learn up, so you can be smarter than a Vice Presidential candidate!
20 comments:
I only got two, which means I'm mildly retarded, but twice as smart as Palin.
plessy v ferguson, roe v wade, dred scott, brown v boe, hamdan v rumsfeld, Boumedienne :). Loving. Bush v. Gore (2000 election case). Credit to you for jarring my brain on both Hamdan and Boumedienne.
The ones that came to mind for me:
Plessy & Brown (total gimmes...she should be slapped for at least not knowing Brown);
Hamdan ought to be fresh in the mind of anyone who listens to political news;
Marbury v Madison resurfaced from like 8th grade history class, hello (even if the salient details were fuzzy);
two Millers stick in my mind b/c I could never keep them straight (one about obscenity, one about guns...yay obscenity and guns!);
and Miranda, which takes a while to remember is a case and not just a word on cop shows.
I can't believe I didn't think of Bush v. Gore. Duhr.
And I'm still trying to remember the name of the free speech one with the "clear and present danger" criterion. Damnit.
Another good one is Tinker!!
High schoolers allowed to wear black armbands to protest Vietnam. But unfortunately, I can't remember the full case name.
The one I cannot remember is the "Fuck the Draft" shirt. It's ____ v. California and it is driving me nuts. I refuse to Google.
Roe v. Wade,
Dred Scott,
Marbury v. Madison,
Plessy v. Ferguson,
International Shoe,
Kiramatsu,
Griswold v. Connecticut,
Mapp v. Ohio,
Miranda,
Boumedine,
Hamdan,
KSR v. Teleflex,
Graham v. John Deere,
Festo,
Ledbetter,
Massachussetts v. EPA,
Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife,
Raich,
Lopez...
Dammit, Korematsu not Kiramatsu. Amazing the ones I forgot.
Lawyer showoff.
Brown v Board of Education
Plessey v Ferguson
Roe v Wade (I once a met a woman who that was the plaintiffs name, pinkey swear)
Miller - landmark gun decision in the 1930's
Madison v Marbury
Kelo V New London - idiotic eminent domain decision
Plessy v. Ferguson
Dred Scott v. Sanford
Gideon v. Wainwright
Miranda v. Arizona
Roe v. Wade
Santa Clara cases (can't remember the v.)
Ex parte Milligan
Kelo vs. New London
Heller (recent gun control decision)
Griswold v. Connecticut
Brown v. Board of Education
Bush v. Gore
Bakke v. Regents of the University of California
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
Marbury v. Madison
OK, that's enough.
WF
Oh! I think I remembered! I think the Fuck the Draft shirt is Cohen v. California. That has been driving me nuts ALL day.
GAH. Ledbetter v. Goodyear is another good one that was recent, I gave in this morning and googled it b/c I could remember the circumstances but not the names in the case.
Brady v Maryland
Giglio v United States
Crawford v Washington
Kelo v New London
DC v Heller
Plessy v Ferguson
Brown v B of E
International Shoe
Terry v Ohio
Mapp v Ohio
Dred Scott
Bush v Gore
Miranda v Arizona
Gideon v Wanewright
Marbury v Madison
Loving v Virginia
Shoot the hostage
I was waiting for someone to get the Speed reference!
Just to be a PITA lawyer showoff (hey, Richard started it), the other cases that would come to mind without a Google and that haven't already been mentioned would be:
Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Commission (source of my blog subtitle)
Daubert v. Merrell Dow (experts)
Kumho Tire v. Carmichael (experts)
Buckman v. Plaintiff's Legal Commission (preemption)
Riegel v. Medtronic (preemption)
Bates v. Dow Agroscience (preemption)
Batson (can't remember the whole case name but it's the case prohibiting racial preference in exercise of peremptory challenges)
Anderson v. Liberty Lobby (for everyone who's ever drafted a motion for summary judgment)
BMW v. Gore (execessive punitive damages)
Ellerth
Farragher (both employment discrimination claims cases)
Furman v. Georgia (death penalty)
I may think of more, but those are the ones that spring to mind.
Alright, I have to set myself on fire now b/c I'm inclined to come to Palin's defense (sort of) on this one. I was led to believe by the leaked rumors about the footage that she was asked to name any SCOTUS case besides Roe, and that was followed by stunned silence. But when I finally saw the question was, "What other SC decisions do you disagree with," I myself sat there in front of the TV racking my brain for an answer. That requires an opinion and a good justification to select one or two cases, and frankly I don't contemplate my reaction to certain cases all that much; case law is case law, move on. Now, maybe that's b/c I'm not a conservative, and apparently it's one of the membership requirements of the Conservatives Club to have a set of SC cases that you can rant about for hours, I dunno. But while I could pop off a half dozen cases from basic civics, it's not like I sit around thinking, Damn they sure got it wrong with Marbury v Madison! And if I had an inclination, I couldn't explain it on TV b/c I'm not a lawyer. So it's pretty easy to see that Palin realized she needed time to come up with an answer she didn't have and did her trademark "political gibberish" trying to fill the dead air hoping an answer would materialize. This was SO not the big fumble I was expecting.
Wonder how her supporters feel about her saying she believed there's an inherent right to privacy in the Constitution though.
You still would've been able to come up with at least one case you disagreed with (Bush v. Gore). She should have been able to easily cite to numerous decisions over the past 10 years that she disagreed with--Kennedy v. Louisiana, Boumedienne v. Bush, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld...these would not have been difficult for a reasonably informed politician to name. Even if she didn't name the case (I note Biden discussed the VAWA case Brzonkala but did not name it), she should still have been able to reference a specific Supreme Court case holding that she disagreed with. That isn't expecting very much.
And yes, I suspect that her agreement that the Constitution contains a right to privacy is going to raise a few eyebrows on the right.
People on the Right know their is a right to privacy and understand it to be, as with all Constitutional rights, limited. We just don't think it applies to things like international calls to known terrorists or the premeditated killing of an unborn child.
While I'm bad with names and thus case names of supreme court cases, I remember several important cases by concept at least.
Miranda
Roe V Wade ( who wouldn't remember that one, really? It's so polarizing )
Dred Scott ( thanks you social studies class )
Brown V Board of Edu
The forced bussing in Charlotte one
The teaching of evolution in schools one
The Watergate one where Nixon had to hand over tapes
The students who sued over banning of books at school library
The first amendment case on flag burning
The Internet obscenity first amendment case
I don't know if you'd count concept but that's what I got after 30 minutes of wracking my brain sans google.
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