20 Explosive Supreme Court Judgements that Changed History

1. A landmark decision concerning affirmative action in college admissions, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke laid the foundations for the ongoing political issue

Although the Supreme Court had outlawed segregation in schools in the 1950s, including the ordering of school districts to take reasonable steps to actively integrate students, the issue of voluntary affirmative action – that is to say the positive use of race as part of school admissions in an attempt to make up for past discrimination – remained unclear following the procedural dismissal of DeFunis v. Odegaard in 1974. In 1973, Allan Bakke, a thirty-five-year-old white male, sought admission to thirteen medical schools, facing rejection from all but one despite his outstanding candidature.

Following rejection by the University of California, Davis, Bakke, believing he was being unlawfully discriminated against in favor of minorities, challenged the constitutionality of the school’s affirmative action program. Fracturing the court, the contentious issue was addressed by six separate opinions from the nine justices. Ultimately ruling affirmative action was permissible within limits, with race allowed to serve as one of many factors in college admissions, the court determined explicit racial quotas, such as those used at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine, were unlawful. Davis had previously instituted a quota of sixteen out of one hundred seats for minority students and, following the ruling, the system was removed and Bakke ordered admitted.

Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:

“John Marshall: Definer of a Nation”, Jean Edward Smith, Henry Holt and Company (1996)

“The Supreme Court Fails Its First Test: Chisholm v. Georgia”, William Anderson LaBach, VDM Verlag (2009)

“Marbury v. Madison and Judicial Review”, Robert Lowry Clinton, University Press of Kansas (1991)

“John Marshall and the Heroic Age of the Supreme Court”, R. Kent Newmyer, Louisiana State University Press (2001)

“McCulloch v. Maryland: Securing a Nation”, Mark Killenbeck, University Press of Kansas (2006)

“Aggressive Nationalism: McCulloch v. Maryland and the Foundations of Federal Authority in the Young Republic”, Richard Ellis, Oxford University Press (2007)

“Gibbons v. Ogden: John Marshall, Steamboats, and the Commerce Clause”, Herbert A. Johnson, University Press of Kansas (2010)

“Gibbons v. Ogden: Law, and Society in the Early Republic”, Thomas H. Cox, Ohio University Press (2009)

“Slavery, Law, and Politics: The Dred Scott Case in Historical Perspective”, Don E. Fehrenbacher, Oxford University Press (1981)

“The Supremes’ Greatest Hits: The 44 Supreme Court Cases That Most Directly Affect Your Life”, Michael G. Trachtman, Sterling Publishing (2016)

“Separate and Unequal: Homer Plessy and the Supreme Court Decision That Legalized Racism”, Harvey Fireside, Caroll and Graf Publishing (2004)