The World of Narnia Timeline
1803	Marbury v. Madison — The importance of the Marbury case is the assumption of several powers by the Supreme Court. One was the authority to declare acts of Congress, and by implication acts of the president, unconstitutional if they exceeded the powers granted by the Constitution. The Court became the arbiter of the Constitution, the final authority on what the document meant. As such, the Supreme Court became in fact as well as in theory an equal partner in government, and it has played that role ever since.
1819	McCulloch v. Maryland — In this case, Chief Justice Marshall not only endorsed the constitutionality of a national bank, but went on to uphold a broad interpretation of the federal government's powers under the Constitution. In doing so he paved the way for the modern national state that would emerge after the Civil War. Many have disagreed and continue to disagree with the Marshall opinion, but over the years it has gained the approval not only of subsequent courts but of the American people as well.
1841	The Amistad Case — Former President John Quincy Adams argued for the defendants in this case. The Supreme Court upheld nearly all of the previous Circuit Court's opinion stating the Africans were free men and women, illegally taken from Africa. They ruled that they were never citizens of Spain and were not guilty of murder for the deaths of the crewmen during the Amistad takeover.
1857	The Dred Scott Case: Dred Scott v. Sandford — After a decade of appeals and court reversals, Dred Scott's case was finally argued in one of the most infamous cases in its history. The court decided that all people of African ancestry -- slaves as well as those who were free -- could never become citizens of the United States and therefore could not sue in federal court. The court also ruled that the federal government did not have the power to prohibit slavery in its territories. A bewildered Dred Scott remained a slave.
1863	Berg v. British & African Steam Nav. Co — Congress does not have the power to declare war against a domestic state. However, the President, as the chief executive, has the statutory power to suppress insurrection and to ensure that the law is enforced. The president has the constitutional duty and obligation to protect the union. In this case, the court ruled that it is the President's decision whether force is necessary when it is authorized.
1896	Plessy v. Ferguson — In this early segregation case, Justice Billings Brown held that distinctions based on race did not infringe upon either the Thirteenth or Fourteenth Amendments, two of the Civil War amendments passed to abolish slavery and secure the legal rights of the former slaves. The phrase 'separate but equal' is not found within the language, but this ruling approved legally enforced segregation as long as the law did not make facilities for blacks inferior to those of whites.
1919	Schenck v. United States — The court ruled that anti-government speech must be allowed unless it creates a "clear and present danger" to the nation.
1954	Brown v. Board of Education — In this famous case, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." The decision effectively denied the legal basis for segregation in Kansas and 20 other states with segregated classrooms and would forever change race relations in the United States.
1963	Gideon v. Wainwright — The justices ruled that states must provide qualified counsel to defendants under the Sixth Amendment.
1964	New York Times v. Sullivan — This case established the actual malice standard before press reports could be considered to be defamation and libel; and hence allowed free reporting of the civil rights campaigns in the southern U.S. It is one of the key decisions supporting the freedom of the press. The actual malice standard requires that the publisher knows the statement is false or acts in reckless disregard of the truth.
1965	Griswold v. Connecticut — A woman named Estelle Griswold opened a birth control clinic to test Connecticut's law prohibiting the use of contraception by married couples. The Supreme Court overturned Griswold's conviction and invalidated the Connecticut law. The majority opinion purported to find a "right of privacy" in the penumbras of the first ten amendments of the Bill of Rights. A concurring opinion argued that the existence of the "right of privacy" was bolstered by the Ninth Amendment's protection of unenumerated rights.
1966	Miranda v. Arizona — The court held that police must inform suspects of their rights when taking them into custody.
1969	Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District — In December 1965, three students decided to wear banned black armbands to their schools in protest of the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court's 7 to 2 decision held that the First Amendment applied to public schools, and that administrators would have to demonstrate constitutionally valid reasons for any regulation of speech in the classroom. It found that wearing armbands did not cause disruption and the activity was constitutionally protected symbolic speech.
1971	New York Times v. United States — The court barred the prior restraint of free speech in a case involving the government's effort to stop newspaper publication of the "Pentagon Papers," a top-secret history of the U.S. role in southeast Asia.
1973	Roe v. Wade — In this highly controversial ruling the court ruled that laws against abortion violated the constitutional right to privacy, overturning all sate laws outlawing or restricting abortion. The decision sparked a decades-long national debate over whether or when abortion should be legal; the role of the Supreme Court in constitutional adjudication; and the role of religion in the political sphere.
1973	Doe v. Bolton — The same 7-2 majority (Justices White and Rehnquist dissenting) that struck down a Texas abortion law in Roe v. Wade, invalidated most of the remaining restrictions of the Georgia abortion law, including the medical approval and residency requirements. Together, Doe and Roe recognized abortion as a constitutional right and by implication overturned most laws against abortion in other U.S. states.
1973	FCC v. Pacifica Foundation — In 1973, a father complained to the FCC that his son had heard the George Carlin comedy routine, "Filthy Words" on a Pacifica Foundation FM radio station. Pacifica received a citation from the FCC, which sought to fine Pacifica for violating FCC regulations prohibiting "obscene" material. The Supreme Court upheld the FCC action, ruling that the routine was "indecent but not obscene" and the FCC had authority to prohibit such broadcasts during hours when children were likely to be among the audience.
1978	University of California Regents v. Bakke — The justices struck down the use of racial quotas in school admissions, but allowed schools to consider race as one of the many factors in deciding which students to accept.
1989	Cruzan v. Missouri Dept. of Health — Nancy Beth Cruzan suffered injuries in a car accident that left her in a vegetative state. She was artificially kept alive with a feeding tube. When Cruzan's parents wanted to terminate her life-support system, state hospital officials refused to do so without a court order. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the State of Missouri, saying that incompetent persons are not able to exercise the right to refuse medical treatment under the Due Process Clause.
1989	Texas v. Johnson — In this case, the Supreme Court invalidated prohibitions on desecrating the American flag in force in 48 of the 50 states. Justice William Brennan wrote for a five-justice majority in holding that the defendant's act of flag burning was protected speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
1989	Webster v. Reproductive Health Services — This United States Supreme Court decision in part weakened Roe v. Wade's protection of abortion rights. Specifically, it approved a Missouri law that imposed restrictions on the use of state funds, facilities and employees in performing, assisting with, or counseling on abortions. The Supreme Court thus allowed for states to legislate in an area that had been previously been thought to be forbidden under Roe.
1992	Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey — This case questioned the constitutionality of several Pennsylvania state regulations regarding abortion. The Court's lead plurality opinion upheld the right to have an abortion but lowered the standard for analyzing restrictions of that right, invalidating one regulation but upholding the others.
2000	Stenberg v. Carhart — By a vote of 5-4, the Court invalidated a Nebraska law that prohibited "partial birth" abortion unless the procedure is necessary to save the life of the woman, in part because it lacked any exception to protect women's health.