In the case of Lee v. Weisman (1992), the Supreme Court sided with Weisman and declared that the establishment clause was violated when a graduation speaker at a public school included prayer. The establishment clause of the 1^st Amendment protects against the government sponsoring religion and forcing it onto any person.

Buckley v. Valeo (1976) was significant because it was the next evolutionary step after the Federal Election Campaign Act was enacted into law. There was a blanket need for reform in politics – Nixon’s Watergate scandal put solving corruption in politics at a premium – and much of the Federal Election Campaign Act was perceived, by some, to be too extreme. The Supreme Court made impactful rulings in this case, and the debate over these rulings has raged in the Supreme Court to this day. Perhaps the most important judgment from this case was the Court’s decision that a limitation on a candidate’s spending was unconstitutional.

Perhaps the most landmark Supreme Court case in the nation’s entire history is Marbury v. Madison, which was undertaken by the Court in 1803, with lauded Chief Justice John Marshall presiding. Marshall’s historic ruling established the Supreme Court’s power of judicial review, which is the Court’s right to assess acts of Congress and the Executive Branch to make certain that they are in line with the Constitution. Judicial review also states that the Court has the complementary ability to declare Congressional and Executive actions unconstitutional and thus null and void. This principle was crucial in establishing the scope and power of the fledgling Supreme Court, thus ensuring that the Court would stand as the final legal interpreter of the Constitution, with the power to prevent actions undertaken by even the President himself.

Marbury v. Madison (1803) is a landmark Supreme Court case that defined the separation of power for the judicial branch. Defining the power of the courts to strike down laws and acts of the legislative branch that they deemed unconstitutional.

In McCulloch v. Maryland the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had the right to establish a national bank and that the states couldn't tax that bank. This expanded the implied powers of the national government. Although all of the other court cases are important, none of them expanded the implied implied powers of the national government.

In Goss v. Lopez the Supreme Court ruled that states that provide free education for all cannot deprive the right to due process from its students. Miranda v. Arizona established that people must be read their rights at the time of an arrest. Engle v. Vitale prohibited prayer in schools. Grutter v. Bollinger allowed colleges to promote diversity. 

The Supreme Court case of Marbury v. Madison (1803) centered around Secretary of State James Madison trying to block the appointment of certain court justices even though they had been approved by the Senate. The Court's ruling established several different precedents, but by far the most important was that the Court had the right to overturn acts of Congress and deem them unconstitutional. This was not a power explicitly given to the Supreme Court in the Constitution, and the decision was highly controversial at the time.

When Dollree Mapp was suspected of criminal activities, the police searched her home. During their search, they found obscene photos and subsequently arrested Mapp. Though she was sent to prison, Mapp appealed her case with the claim that the police violated her fourth amendment rights against unreasonable searches. The Supreme Court ruled in Mapp's favor, stating that evidence obtained when the police violated her fourth amendment rights was invalid. This is known as the exclusionary rule.

Lemon v. Kurtzman established the "Lemon Test," whose three criteria served to determine whether a law was constitutional or not as it related to religion. Engel v. Vitale dealt with prayer in school; Brown v. Board of Education involved the Equal Protection Clause; Near v. Minnesota involved freedom of the press; and Gitlow v. New York involved the Free Speech Clause.

The Supreme Court case, Rostker v. Goldberg (1981), held that the law requiring only men to register for the draft and for military service was constitutionally sound and could stand. The issue arose after President Carter reinstituted the draft in 1980, following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and recommended that women be included as possible draftees.