Landmark Cases
The Bill of Rights is not self-interpreting. These cases gave it meaning.
“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” Proverbs 31:8-9 (NIV)
The text of the Bill of Rights is short. Its meaning has been shaped by the Supreme Court, case by case, over more than a century. These are the decisions that defined what the amendments actually protect.
The First Case of Incorporation
Holding: The First Amendment's protections for speech and press apply to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.
Significance: Gitlow was the first case to incorporate a provision of the Bill of Rights against the states. Benjamin Gitlow was convicted under New York's criminal anarchy law for publishing a left-wing manifesto. The Court upheld his conviction but held that the First Amendment applied to the states. The incorporation doctrine was born.
The Exclusionary Rule
Holding: Evidence obtained through an illegal search cannot be used in state criminal trials.
Significance: Dollree Mapp was convicted of possessing obscene materials after police entered her home without a warrant. The Supreme Court reversed her conviction, holding that the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches applies to the states. The exclusionary rule — which prevents prosecutors from using illegally obtained evidence — became binding on state courts.
The Right to Counsel
Holding: The Sixth Amendment requires states to provide a lawyer to criminal defendants who cannot afford one.
Significance: Clarence Earl Gideon was charged with breaking into a pool hall in Florida. He could not afford a lawyer, and the state refused to appoint one. Gideon represented himself, was convicted, and appealed to the Supreme Court. In a unanimous decision, the Court held that the right to counsel is fundamental and essential to a fair trial. Gideon was retried with a lawyer and acquitted.
The Right to Remain Silent
Holding: Police must inform suspects of their rights before custodial interrogation.
Significance: Ernesto Miranda was arrested in Phoenix and interrogated without being told he had the right to remain silent or the right to an attorney. He confessed. The Supreme Court ruled 5–4 that the Fifth Amendment's protection against self-incrimination requires police to give what became known as the "Miranda warning." The confession was excluded, and Miranda was retried.
Student Speech
Holding: Students do not lose their First Amendment rights at school.
Significance: Mary Beth Tinker and other students wore black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War. The school suspended them. The Supreme Court ruled 7–2 that the students' speech was protected, famously stating that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." The case remains the foundation for student speech rights.
Symbolic Speech
Holding: Burning the American flag is a form of symbolic speech protected by the First Amendment.
Significance: Gregory Lee Johnson burned a flag outside the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas. He was convicted under a Texas law prohibiting flag desecration. The Supreme Court ruled 5–4 that Johnson's actions were protected expression. The decision was deeply controversial — and Congress responded with a statute that the Court also struck down — but it established that even offensive symbolic speech is protected.
Your Turn
Pick one case from this page. Read the full opinion online (they are all available on the Supreme Court's website or Cornell's Legal Information Institute). What were the facts? What did the Court hold? What was the reasoning?
Then ask: do you agree with the outcome? Would you have decided the case differently? Why or why not?
Finally, read the full text of the Constitution and the Ten Amendments article to see the text these cases interpret.