US Law and Government

Schenck v. United States (1919) established that civil liberties could be restricted during wartime if they posed a clear and present danger to the nation. Justice Holmes used the example that falsely shouting fire in a crowded theatre could be regulated, creating a precedent for limiting free speech in emergencies.

The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 raised U.S. tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods to record levels, making it the highest protective tariff in American history.

The Sherman Antitrust Act was designed to prevent businesses from forming trusts or monopolies that restrained trade or commerce among states.

The Dawes Act aimed to assimilate Native Americans by breaking up tribal lands into individual allotments, similar to how the Homestead Act encouraged individual land ownership for settlers.

Roe v. Wade (1973) was the landmark Supreme Court case that ruled that the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment created a 'right to privacy' that protected a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion.

The Compromise of 1877 resulted in the withdrawal of the last federal troops from the South, effectively ending the Reconstruction era and allowing the return of Democratic control in Southern states.

Under Chief Justice John Marshall, the Supreme Court issued rulings (such as McCulloch v. Maryland and Gibbons v. Ogden) that consistently upheld and expanded the power of the federal government over the states.

In 1957, President Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas, to protect the Little Rock Nine and enforce the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which declared school segregation unconstitutional.

Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the South that enforced racial segregation in public facilities, schools, and transportation, effectively disenfranchising African Americans and maintaining white supremacy.

Gibbons v. Ogden established that the federal government has exclusive power to regulate interstate commerce. This reinforced the supremacy of federal law over state law in matters of trade.

In the case Korematsu v. United States (1944), the Supreme Court (the judicial branch) upheld the constitutionality of the internment of Japanese Americans, ruling it was a military necessity.

The 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education overturned the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which had established the 'separate but equal' doctrine.