| Question: Do any recent Supreme Court decisions deserve to be overturned
by amending the Constitution?
Many recent Supreme Court decisions have been controversial. Research
one or more famous decisions from the last forty years and consider whether
the Constitution ought to be changed in light of the Court's decision.
[The links below are to the Oyez
Project of Northwestern University. Oyez provides summaries of important
Supreme Court cases, links to the full text of the decision, and
RealAudio recordings of oral argument.]
Reno
v. ACLU (1997)
The Court ruled that certain provisions of the 1996 Communications
Decency Act which criminalized some types of internet communications violated
the First and Fifth Amendments.
Texas
v. Johnson (1989)
The Court ruled that the desecration of an American flag, by burning
or otherwise, is a form of speech that is protected under the First
Amendment.
Bowers
v. Hardwick (1986)
The Court upheld a Georgia law making some forms of consensual sex
illegal, holding that the Constitution does not confer a fundamental right
to engage in homosexual sex.
Buckley
v. Valeo (1976)
The Court found that provisions of the Federal Election Campaign Act
of 1971 which placed restriction of independent expenditures in campaigns,
limitations on expenditures by candidates from their own personal or family
resources, and limitations on total campaign expenditures violated the
First Amendment.
Gregg
v. Georgia (1976)
The Court ruled that the death penalty is not prohibited under the
Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments as "cruel and unusual" punishment.
This case clarified the Court's position after the Court ruled that Georgia's
and Texas's imposition of the death penalty was cruel and unusual in three
cases, including Furman
v. Georgia (1972).
Roe
v. Wade (1973)
The Court ruled that the Constitution protects a woman's right to abort
a pregnancy.
Engel
v. Vitale (1962)
The Court ruled that the reading of a nondenominational prayer at the
opening of the school day violated the "establishment of religion" clause
of the First Amendment.
Other Resources:
 
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