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Justice System Timeline
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Theodore Roosevelt
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Theodore Roosevelt
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Criminal records were created to help maintain offenders. It has the offenders criminal background.
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Theodore Roosevelt
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In 1909, Congress created the U.S. Court of Customs Appeals, with five authorized judgeship, to hear appeals from the Board of General Appraisers (later the U.S. Customs Court
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The Court holds for the first time that punishment must be appropriate and proportional to the crime.
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Supreme court Justice appointed by William Howard Taft
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Supreme court Justice appointed by William Howard Taft
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Supreme court Justice appointed by William Howard Taft
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Supreme court Justice appointed by William Howard Taft
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Supreme court Justice appointed by William Howard Taft
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To create a more efficient federal judiciary, Congress votes to abolish the US circuit courts and transfer their jurisdiction to district courts.
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Supreme court Justice appointed by William Howard Taft.
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The Sixteenth Amendment, granting Congress the power to impose a federal income tax, is enacted.
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The Seventeenth Amendment is enacted, establishing the direct election of U.S. Senators.
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The Court establishes the Exclusionary Rule.
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Woodrow Wilson
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The Court strikes as unconstitutional an Oklahoma "grandfather clause" limiting the right to vote to only those men whose grandfathers had been eligible to vote in 1867.
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Woodrow Wilson
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Woodrow Wilson
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The Court voids a federal statute that had prohibited the interstate shipment of goods produced by child laborers.
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The decision in Arver v. United States holds that compulsive military service does not fall within the definition of "involuntary servitude" prohibited by the Thirteenth Amendment.
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The Criminal Division is formally organized.
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The Nineteenth Amendment extends the right to vote to women.
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Warren G. Harding
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Warren G. Harding
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Warren G. Harding
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Warren G. Harding
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Calvin Coolidge
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The Supreme Court justices recommend the Judges' Bill to Congress for approval. Congress agrees to give the Court greater authority in determining which cases it will hear by eliminating direct appeals from district courts except in cases involving constitutional principles.
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Herbert Hoover
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Herbert Hoover
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Herbert Hoover
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The Twentieth Amendment shortens the interval between the election and inauguration of the President and Congress.
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The Twenty-first Amendment repeals the Eighteenth.
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American government opened Alcatraz prison for the nation's worst offenders. Located in the bay of San Francisco, this famous prison became part of the American history.
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the Court finds that white-only political primaries held, at the time, by the Democratic Party in several Southern states are constitutional.
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The Division is reorganized into three sections - Administrative, Appellate, and Trial.
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Chief Justice Hughes finds a "compelling" state interest in protecting workers from the "exploitation" of "unconscionable employers" like the West Coast Hotel Company, which had ignored the minimum-wage statute.
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The Court upholds a Georgia poll tax in Breedlove v. Suttles. The decision states that because it is applied to all races, Georgia's poll tax violates neither the Fourteenth nor the Fifteenth Amendment. Some Southern states continue to employ poll taxes until the mid-1960s.
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt
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The Court unanimously upholds the Fair Labor Standards Act. The act, which is the last major piece of the New Deal legislation, establishes minimum wage and maximum hour labor standards in all industries producing goods to be shipped in interstate commerce
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt
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The Attorney General sets up a special War Frauds Unit, later supervised by the Criminal Division, to prosecute all cases involving fraud upon the government in its war efforts.
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The Court holds that a federal judge may reject a jury's verdict and direct it to enter another verdict if the judge concludes that the jury had insufficient evidence to support its decision.
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In United States v. White, the Court holds that the Fifth Amendment, protecting citizens against self-incrimination, applies only to individuals
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The Twenty-second Amendment, setting a two-term limit for the office of U.S. President, is enacted.
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The Organized Crime and Racketeering Section (OCRS) is created to more systematically prosecute organized crime.
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The Fraud Section is established.
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The functions of the Civil Rights Section are transferred into the newly created Civil Rights Division.
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Dwight D. Eisenhower.
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Supreme court justice appointed by Dwight D. Eisenhower
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The Court rejects a black citizen's challenge to a state literacy test in Lassiter v. Northampton County Board of Elections, holding that because the test is applied equally to all races, it is not discriminatory.
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Supreme court justice appointed by Dwight D. Eisenhower
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In Mapp v. Ohio, the Court applies the Exclusionary Rule, which bars the admission of evidence obtained via an illegal search and seizure, to state courts.
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The Court upholds as constitutional a Florida statute exempting women from jury duty unless they voluntarily register to be called. Woman were still considered the center and home of family life.
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Supreme court Justice appointed by John F. Kennedy
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Supreme court Justice appointed by John F. Kennedy.
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In Gideon v. Wainwright, the Court held that states must provide a free attorney to all indigent criminal defendants.
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The process of urbanization has left rural districts in many states wielding disproportionate political power
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The Twenty-fourth Amendment prohibits poll taxes, making it illegal to charge any voter for the right to vote in federal elections
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Lyndon B. Johnson
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The Court issues its landmark decision in Roe v. Wade, striking as unconstitutional a Texas anti-abortion law. The 7-2 decision draws on the 1965 Griswold precedent in holding that the right to privacy extends, for women, to include the right to seek an abortion.
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The decision states that before questioning a suspect, police must explain that he or she retains the right to remain silent, that any statements he or she makes may be used as evidence against him or her in court, and that he or she has the right to an attorney, who will be appointed if the suspect cannot otherwise afford one.
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Supreme court justice appointed by Lyndon B. Johnson
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The Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section is created to maximize coordination between federal investigation and prosecution efforts.
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Supreme court justice appointed by Richard Nixon.
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Supreme court justice appointed by Richard Nixon
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The Twenty-sixth Amendment lowers the minimum voting age from 21 to 18.
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Supreme court justice appointed by Richard Nixon
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Supreme court justice appointed by Richard Nixon
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In McKeiver v. Pennsylvania, the Court holds that the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial does not apply to juveniles if they are tried in juvenile court.
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Supreme court justice appointed by Gerald Ford
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In the wake of the Watergate scandal, the Public Integrity Section is created.
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In Ingraham v. Wright, the Court holds that the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against "cruel and unusual" punishment applies only to criminal offenses and therefore does not bar the use of corporal punishment in schools.
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A university may use race as a criterion in its admissions process, as long as it is only one of many factors under consideration and no "fixed quotas" exist.
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Supreme court justice appointed by Ronald Reagan
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In an effort to further streamline the appeals process and to relieve growing pressure on the Supreme Court, Congress establishes a national court of appeals defined by its jurisdiction rather than by geography. This US Court of Appeals will screen appeal petitions and decide cases before they reach the Supreme Court.
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This year marked the first occurrence of "permanent lock down" mode in US prisons (23 hour long periods of cell isolation, with communal yard time for all inmates, work, educational programs and meals in cafeteria).
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The Office of Asset Forfeiture is created. In 1991, the Money Laundering Section would be created.
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In Wallace v. Jaffree, the Court overturns an Alabama law authorizing public school teachers to lead "willing students" in prayer to "Almighty God" at the start of the school day.
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In refusing to extend the right to privacy to include sexual acts between consenting homosexual adults, the Court holds that states may constitutionally proscribe "any kind of private sexual conduct between consenting adults."
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Supreme court justice appointed by Ronald Reagan
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The National Obscenity Enforcement Unit, later called the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, is created.
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Supreme court justice appointed by Ronald Reagan
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In Texas v. Johnson, a narrow 5-4 majority holds that burning the American flag is a form of "symbolic speech" protected by the First Amendment.
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Supreme court justice appointed by George H. W. Bush
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Supreme court justice appointed by George H. W. Bush
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The Twenty-seventh Amendment is enacted, banning Congressional pay raises from going into effect until after the next election.
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Denies a woman's right to an abortion.
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Supreme court justice appointed by Bill Clinton
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Supreme court justice appointed by Bill Clinton
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It is a public school requirement that student athletes consent to random drug testing is not a violation of the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure.
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The Court strikes the Gun Free School Zones Act of 1990, which had made it a federal offense "for any individual knowingly to possess a firearm at a place that the individual knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, is a school zone."
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The Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section is established.
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The Court votes 7-1 to strike the long-standing male-only admission policy at the Virginia Military Institute, the nation's last all-male public school as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
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The Court strikes the Texas "Homosexual Conduct" law (which criminalized sexual intimacy between gay couples but not similar actions by heterosexual couples).
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The Court holds that capital punishment for juveniles aged 17 and younger is "cruel and unusual" punishment and therefore a violation of the Eighth Amendment.
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Supreme court justice appointed by George W. Bush
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The Gang Unit is created to target gang-related crime. The Counter terrorism and Counterespionage Sections are transferred into the newly-created National Security Division.
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Supreme court justice appointed by George W. Bush
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Supreme court justice appointed by Barack Obama
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Supreme court justice appointed by Barack Obama
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Supreme court Justice appointed by Donald Trump
