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Originally organized to revise the Articles of Confederation, but turned into creating an entirely new government structure.
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Granted the states powers not directly implied in The Constitution
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Ruled that Congress had implied powers under the Necessary and Proper Clause
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The Supreme Court held that the power to regulate interstate commerce was granted to Congress by the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution.
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The Supreme Court ruled that Americans of African descent, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court. The Court also ruled that Congress lacked power to ban slavery in the U.S. territories.
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4 year war over the precense of slavery within the Northern States
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Granted citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" which included former slaves who had just been freed after the Civil War.
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Advanced the controversial “separate but equal” doctrine for assessing the constitutionality of racial segregation laws.
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Established that the income tax is an indirect excise tax.
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Ruled that the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protection of free speech, which states that the federal “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech,” applied to state governments. Selective incorporation is a constitutional doctrine that ensures states cannot enact laws that take away the constitutional rights of American citizens that are enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
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The New Deal was a series of domestic programs enacted in the United States between 1933 and 1938 that included both laws passed by Congress as well as presidential executive orders during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
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A Supreme Court case concerning the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II regardless of citizenship.
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Eliminated school segregation in the states
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Authorized the formation of local Community Action Agencies that were directly related to the federal government as part of the War on Poverty.
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Outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
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Ruled that the U.S. Congress could use the power granted to it by the Constitution's Commerce Clause to force private businesses to abide by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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Legalized abortion nationally on the basis that Americans have an inherent right to privacy that includes the right of a woman to decide whether to have children and to make that decision with her doctor without state interference.
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Marked the beginning of what is called The Reagan Era, and signified a conservative realignment in national politics.
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The nation's first comprehensive civil rights law addressing the needs of people with disabilities, prohibiting discrimination in employment, public services, public accommodations, and telecommunications.
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A case decided by the Supreme Court in which the constitutionality of several Pennsylvania state statutory provisions regarding abortion were challenged. The Court's plurality opinion upheld the constitutional right to have an abortion while altering the standard for analyzing restrictions on that right.
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Set limits to Congress's power under the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution.
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Major events included passage of elements of the Contract with America and a budget impasse between Congress and the Clinton Administration that resulted in the Federal government shutdown of 1995 and 1996.
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Established the unconstitutionality of certain interim provisions of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.
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Ruled that parts of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 were unconstitutional because they exceeded congressional power under the Commerce Clause and under section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
