Timeline of the Court

The Marshall Court

Caption: Chief Justice John Marshall

In Federalist #78, Alexander Hamilton wrote the Supreme Court was the “least dangerous” branch of government, because it lacked Congress’ power of the purse (taxing and spending) and the executive’s power of the sword (enforcing the law). In the earliest days of the American republic, the Court was indeed of little influence, hearing only a small number of cases for the first decade, nearly all of which were of relatively small significance. Most major legal disputes were heard in state courts. However, this began to change when President John Adams appointed John Marshall as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1801. 

The Marshall Court heard many more cases than its predecessors and released opinions in cases that became landmark precedents. In Marbury v. Madison (1803), perhaps the most significant Supreme Court decision in history, Justice Marshall established the Court had the power of judicial review, or the authority to strike down laws that are unconstitutional. He wrote, “It is a proposition too plain to be contested that the Constitution controls any legislative act repugnant to it.” 

Along with increasing the power and influence of the judiciary, the Marshall Court also released decisions that strengthened the power of the federal government. Its decision in McCullough v. Maryland (1819) ruled the Constitution gave Congress the authority to create a national bank and that states could not legally tax such an institution.  

Corresponding Timeline Event

Event	Year
Louisiana Purchase	1803
War of 1812	1812–1815
Missouri Compromise	1820

The Taney Court

President Andrew Jackson appointed Roger Taney as Chief Justice in 1836. Taney had an interpretation of the Constitution that limited the power of the federal government more than the Marshall Court. In a time when tensions over slavery were ramping up, the Taney Court issued multiple rulings that favored constitutional protections for slaveholders. Taney wrote the majority opinion in the most infamous Supreme Court decision in history, Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857). In that case, Taney said on behalf of the Court that Blacks could never become citizens in the United States. Additionally, in Dred Scott, the majority on the Court declared that the Missouri Compromise, which had banned slavery in the northern section of territories acquired in the Louisiana Purchase, was an unconstitutional violation of the property rights of slaveholders. 

Corresponding Timeline Events

Event	Year
Mexican-American War	1846–1848
Kansas-Nebraska Act	1854
Civil War	1861–1865

Caption: Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes

The Hughes Court

President Herbert Hoover appointed Charles Evans Hughes as Chief Justice in 1930. During the previous decades, the Supreme Court had struck down a variety of state and federal laws that attempted to regulate child labor, working hours, and union membership. The Court generally ruled the Constitution protected freedom of contract, and its decisions weakened the ability of the government to regulate the employee/employer relationship. But midway through the Hughes Court, the justices began to move away from the precedents in those rulings. The Court ended up making many decisions that later allowed President Roosevelt and Congress to carry out the New Deal, which led to the federal government immensely increasing its power to regulate the economy. 

Corresponding Timeline Events

Event	Year
Schenck v. U.S. decided	1919
Stock market crashes	1929
World War II	1939–1945

The Warren Court

President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren as Chief Justice in 1953. In one of the Court’s first major decisions of the “Warren Court,” it determined “separate but equal” racially segregated public schools are unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). The Warren Court also expanded constitutional protections for those accused of crimes, such as preventing evidence that was illegally obtained from being introduced by prosecutors, guaranteeing the right to an attorney for poor criminal defendants in Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), and requiring that law enforcement read suspects their Fifth Amendment rights, also called “Miranda Rights.” Additionally, the Warren Court continued the trend that began earlier in the 20th century of incorporating the Bill of Rights or applying the Bill of Rights to the states, so that state laws that violated the Bill of Rights would be ruled as unconstitutional. These rulings included the public-school establishment clause case in Engel v. Vitale (1962) and the free speech case of Tinker v. Des Moines (1969).  

Corresponding Timeline Events

Event	Year
Montgomery bus boycotts	1955
President John F. Kennedy assassinated	1963
Neil Armstrong walks on the moon	1969

Caption: Chief Justice Warren Burger

The Burger, Rehnquist, and Roberts Courts

In 1969, President Richard Nixon appointed Warren Burger as Chief Justice. The Burger Court issued several landmark rulings, including the controversial Roe v. Wade (1973) case, which determined the Constitution protected the right to have an abortion. The Court also decided the case of New York Times v. United States (1971) when it allowed the newspaper to publish classified documents related to the Vietnam War despite the government arguing that doing so threatened national security. Finally, the Court upheld the principle of checks and balances in United States v. Nixon (1974) when it unanimously ruled the executive branch did not operate outside and above the judicial system. 

William Rehnquist became Chief Justice in 1986 after Warren Burger retired. Shaw v. Reno (1993) was a case that drew much attention to the Court, with congressional districting in question again. The Rehnquist Court is notable for a shift toward a more conservative interpretation of the Constitution, limiting federal authority and granting more authority to the states. For example, in the case of United States v. Lopez (1995), the Supreme Court invalidated an act of Congress as a violation of the Commerce Clause for the first time in decades. The Court also waded into the contentious 2000 presidential election in the case of Bush v. Gore (2000) when it determined the state of Florida recounting votes without a statewide standard for how to do so violated the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause. 

John Roberts was appointed Chief Justice in 2005, and he remains in that position as of 2024. The Roberts Court continued the trend set during the Rehnquist Court of taking a more conservative interpretation of the Constitution. Under Roberts’ leadership, the Court made multiple landmark rulings on a variety of issues. In the case of District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the majority ruled the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to own a firearm. Another Second Amendment ruling would reaffirm the ruling of Heller; in McDonald v. Chicago (2010) the Court struck down Chicago laws banning handgun ownership. In Citizens United v. FEC (2010), the Court determined the First Amendment protects the right of unions and corporations to make independent expenditures in political campaigns as a form of free speech. Recently, the Roberts Court also overturned Roe v. Wade (1973) in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022).  

Corresponding Timeline Events

Event	Year
President Richard Nixon resigns	1974
Challenger space shuttle explodes	1986
September 11th terrorist attacks	2001
Barack Obama takes office as president	2008