Court Cases You'll Learn About During your Paralegal Studies

Paralegal Studies: What You'll Learn in Paralegal School

Any paralegal student will immediately learn that you've got to read a lot of court cases to understand the American legal system. The way we read, analyze and write about court cases teaches us a lot in our paralegal studies. And the way courts evaluate and overturn previous court decisions gives us our system of judicial precedent and lets our laws change with time. You may see some evidence of this in the court cases below.

Here are some of the most famous cases that the Supreme Court has ruled on:

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

The Supreme Court ruled in Marbury v. Madison that the judicial branch has the power to declare legislative acts unconstitutional if they conflict with the Constitution. The supremacy of the Constitution and the right of people to claim protection under it was decided by Chief Justice John Marshall.

He stated:

• "…[T]he Constitution controls any legislative act repugnant to it…"
• "It is, emphatically, the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is."
• "If two laws conflict with each other, the courts must decide on the operation of each."

Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)

The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution guarantees due process of law. It was intended to control Congress, and before the Civil War it was mostly used to protect property rights. The due process clause was interpreted by the Supreme Court to overrule those parts of the Missouri Compromise that prohibited slavery. In Dred Scott v. Stanford, the Supreme Court found that slaves were property and that the due process clause prohibited Congress from making slavery illegal.

Clearly, some laws are unconstitutional. Such was the case with Dred Scott. As you'll learn in your paralegal education, it is the job of the appeals courts and, ultimately, of the Supreme Court to overturn faulty court rulings.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark United States Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of racial segregation under the doctrine of "separate but equal."

In 1890, Louisiana law said that railroad companies must provide separate but equal train cars for whites and blacks. Homer Plessy, who was one-eighth black, purchased a train ticket, chose to sit in a "white" car and was arrested.

Plessy argued to the district court that the law violated the U.S. Constitution. The Thirteenth Amendment says that slavery is illegal anywhere in the United States, and the Fourteenth Amendment says that the government must treat all people equally. Plessy lost his case and appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld the decision of the Louisiana court.

As shocking as it seems today, "separate but equal" remained standard doctrine in U.S. law until the 1954 Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education (see below). As you'll learn in your paralegal studies, cases like this— as well as the cases that overturn themmdash;are historically significant decisions.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

A landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court, Brown v. Board of Education overturned earlier rulings going back to Plessy v. Ferguson, by finding that state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students denied black children equal educational opportunities. The Court's unanimous decision stated that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." As a result, de jure racial segregation was ruled a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. This victory paved the way for integration and the civil rights movement.

Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

The U.S. Supreme Court found that statements made in response to interrogation by a defendant in police custody are admissible at trial only if the defendant was informed of the right to consult with an attorney and of the right against self-incrimination.

Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered the opinion of the Court, ruling that due to the coercive nature of custodial interrogation by police, no confession could be admissible under the Fifth Amendment self-incrimination clause and Sixth Amendment right to an attorney.

Miranda was retried, this time without using his confession. He was convicted and served 11 years in prison. He was killed in a bar fight in 1976. The police arrested a suspect who, ironically, exercised his Miranda rights against self-incrimination, and the case was never solved.

Roe v. Wade (1973)

Roe is a controversial U.S. Supreme Court case that resulted in a landmark decision regarding abortion. According to the decision, most laws against abortion in the United States violated a constitutional right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision overturned all state and federal laws outlawing or restricting abortion that were inconsistent with its holdings. Roe v. Wade is one of the most controversial and politically significant cases in U.S. Supreme Court history, and continues to be debated today.

U.S. v. Nixon (1974)

In a unanimous ruling, the U.S. Supreme court ruled against then president Richard Nixon. This case is considered a crucial precedent limiting the power of U.S. presidents.

The special prosecutors in the Watergate case subpoenaed documentation of meetings held in President Nixon's offices related to the Watergate break-ins and cover-up. Nixon refused access to the tapes requested, claiming executive privilege. Jaworski, one of the prosecutors, tried to compel production, and the case went to the Supreme Court.

The unanimous decision held that the Supreme Court has both the power to rule a law invalid for conflicting with the Constitution and the power to decide how the Constitution limits the President's powers.

In other words, the Constitution is enforceable on a president, and executive privilege does not apply to evidence in criminal cases.

Related Articles:

• Paralegal Programs
• Paralegal Courses
• Paralegal Specialties

Sources: Grilliot's Introduction to Law and the Legal System, http://www.landmarkcases.org, wikipedia.org

Criminal Justice Home
Paralegal Articles & Resources | Find Criminal Justice Schools