Supreme Court Landmark Cases Study Guide: 81 Flashcards from Dred Scott to Dobbs
Memorize 81 landmark Supreme Court cases with flashcards: Equal Protection, sex discrimination, privacy, Roe to Dobbs, congressional power. Deck XY1245 on Flip It.
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Eighty-one Supreme Court decisions, six constitutional themes, one deck. Supreme Court Landmark Cases (code XY1245, 81 cards) on Flip It is built for AP Government, pre-law and bar-prep students who need to attach a year, a holding and a doctrine to each case name.
Study this deck: Supreme Court Landmark Cases
1 / 10Which 1857 case ruled that African Americans could not be U.S. citizens?
Tap the card for the answer · swipe right if you knew it, left if not
Every card asks a which case question and answers with the name, year and a one-line holding:
| Front | Back |
|---|---|
| Which 1857 case ruled that African Americans could not be U.S. citizens? | Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) |
| Which 1896 case established the separate but equal doctrine? | Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) — upheld segregated facilities |
| Which landmark 1954 case declared school segregation unconstitutional? | Brown v. Board of Education (1954) — Equal Protection Clause |
| Which 1967 case struck down laws banning interracial marriage? | Loving v. Virginia (1967) |
| Which 1976 case established intermediate scrutiny for sex discrimination? | Craig v. Boren (1976) — different drinking ages for men and women |
| Which 1986 case prohibited race-based peremptory jury challenges? | Batson v. Kentucky (1986) |
| Which 1992 case replaced the Roe trimester framework with the undue burden test? | Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) |
| Which 2015 case legalized same-sex marriage nationwide? | Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) — Fourteenth Amendment |
| Which 2022 case overturned Roe v. Wade? | Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022) |
What the 81 cards cover
The deck is organised by doctrine, so you can study one line of precedent at a time:
- Race and Equal Protection (32 cards): Strauder v. West Virginia, Yick Wo v. Hopkins, Smith v. Allwright, Korematsu, Shelley v. Kraemer, Sweatt v. Painter, Hernandez v. Texas, Bolling v. Sharpe, Gomillion v. Lightfoot, Heart of Atlanta Motel, Swann, Griggs v. Duke Power, Lau v. Nichols, Runyon v. McCrary, Bakke, Adarand, Gratz and Grutter v. Bollinger, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023).
- Sex discrimination (14 cards): Muller v. Oregon, Reed v. Reed, Frontiero v. Richardson, Taylor v. Louisiana, Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan, Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, J.E.B. v. Alabama, United States v. Virginia, Oncale, Burlington Northern v. White.
- Sexual orientation (9 cards): One, Inc. v. Olesen, Bowers v. Hardwick, Romer v. Evans, Lawrence v. Texas, Goodridge, United States v. Windsor, Obergefell, Bostock v. Clayton County.
- Congressional power and civil rights enforcement (11 cards): the Civil Rights Cases (1883), Katzenbach v. McClung, South Carolina v. Katzenbach, Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer, City of Boerne v. Flores, Shelby County v. Holder, Monroe v. Pape, Pierson v. Ray (qualified immunity), Stump v. Sparkman, Monell.
- Privacy, reproduction and end of life (14 cards): Griswold, Eisenstadt v. Baird, Roe, Casey, Stenberg and Gonzales v. Carhart, Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, Dobbs, Cruzan, Glucksberg, Gonzales v. Oregon.
- Citizenship and movement (3 cards): United States v. Wong Kim Ark (birthright citizenship), Afroyim v. Rusk, Crandall v. Nevada.
Two study tips for case law
Learn cases in overruling pairs. Several cards cancel each other out: Plessy → Brown, Bowers → Lawrence, Roe → Casey → Dobbs, Grutter → Students for Fair Admissions. When you flip a card, say which later case modified or reversed it — exams love asking what a decision replaced.
Tag each holding with its standard of review. Korematsu introduced strict scrutiny, Craig v. Boren created intermediate scrutiny, Casey introduced the undue burden test, Adarand applied strict scrutiny to affirmative action. Grouping cases by the test they established is faster than memorising 81 isolated facts, and it is how essay questions are framed.
Study plan
Run the deck in three sittings by theme (race; sex and orientation; privacy and congressional power), then shuffle everything on day four. Cards you miss twice resurface sooner through spaced repetition, so the 1883 Civil Rights Cases and Katzenbach v. Morgan will not slip through.
Log in to Flip It, search deck code XY1245 in the library, and start with the Equal Protection cards.
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