Article III of the United States Constitution established the Supreme Court as the highest court in the land. Throughout the nation's history, the justices who served on this court have written decisions that changed the lives of many - and shaped the U.S. legal system. FindLaw's Supreme Court Insights is here to help everyone understand the court's most famous and impactful decisions.
International Shoe Co. v. Washington (1945) established the "minimum contacts" rule for personal jurisdiction.
The decision is best known for its narrow construction of the privileges and immunities clause and has been roundly criticized by Constitutional law commentators for rendering it essentially meaningless.
A landmark case in the movement for LGBTQ+ equality, Lawrence v. Texas established the constitutionally protected right for adults to consensually engage in private sexual acts of their own choosing.
Pennoyer is a case studied by many first-year law school students for two simple reasons. First, the case sets the foundation for shaping personal jurisdiction, sometimes called in-personam jurisdiction. Second, Pennoyer's long, convoluted journey to the Court is filled with no shortage of interesting twists and characters, making it a go-to case study for law professors and legal scholars alike.
An important case in its own right that gave all Americans access to birth control, Griswold v. Connecticut also helped establish the "right to privacy" line of cases that includes Lawrence v. Texas, Roe v. Wade, and others.
In 2020, the Supreme Court held in McGirt v. Oklahoma that crimes committed by Native persons on reservation land must be prosecuted by federal or tribal authorities. But it also acknowledged that much of the eastern half of Oklahoma is still, from a legal standpoint, reservation land.
In one of the most celebrated and notable decisions in U.S. Supreme Court history, Loving v. Virginia finally ended all state bans on interracial marriage.
In a unanimous decision written by Justice William Brennan, Jr., the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the New York Times - finding that public figures face a higher standard for proving libel (a type of defamation). Times v. Sullivan is widely seen as one of the most important Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century and an essential pillar of protection for the free press.
The Supreme Court's 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County found that the plain language of the statute prohibited discrimination against LGBTQ workers.