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Talk:List of landmark court decisions in the United States

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Kennedy v. Bremerton School District

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In my opinion, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District is a landmark case. My reasoning:

  • Vox has stated that it overturned Lemon v. Kurtzman here The ruling in here also made multiple references that it sees Lemon as "ahistorical", "disfavored" and should be abandoned.
  • ACLU stated it erodes separation between church and state, an important concept, link is here WAPO also echoes similar statement.
  • While Lemon is not outright overturned by this case, the refusal of the SCOTUS to use the Lemon test for the Establishment Clause violations is a landmark point in American judicial history.

While the effect of this ruling may not be seen yet, unlike Roe v. Wade overturn, in my opinion this is a landmark case. ✠ SunDawn ✠ (contact) 03:39, 30 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

While your points are all valid, I think we should give this one a little time to marinate before adding it to the list. The list is getting quite long at this point and this case may, for whatever reason, turn out not to be the watershed moment we think it is. For example, in the next few terms, I think it's plausible that the Court explicitly overrules Lemon altogether and that future case would seem to be the more appropriate one for inclusion. Conversely, the court could walk this decision back in the next few years if the alignments of a few of the justices shift.
So, unlike Dobbs (which explicitly overruled ~50 years of precedent), I think we need to let this one stew for a bit and see what shakes out. Just my two cents. DocFreeman24 (talk) 05:44, 30 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I agree with the points made by ✠ SunDawn ✠. DocFreeman24 wrote "it's plausible that the Court explicitly overrules Lemon altogether and that future case would seem to be the more appropriate one for inclusion." Kennedy v. Bremerton School District overruled Lemon v. Kurtzman not explicitly, but in fact, because, as stated in the above linked WAPO article, "the court said that its history-only approach must be used “in place of Lemon and the endorsement test.” The majority opinion by Justice Neil Gorsuch did not use the words “overturn” or “overrule.” This word-choice surely reflects the influence of Chief Justice John Roberts, who joined the majority. Roberts prefers to overturn precedent without saying so too directly. But the “in place of” language is as clear an example of overruling as can be accomplished without using the word. The dissent, written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor and joined by the courts’ two other liberals, stated bluntly that the majority opinion “overrules” Lemon and “calls into question decades of subsequent precedents that it deems offshoots” of that decision. Given the way the majority phrased its “in place of” sentence, there is no credible basis to think the majority in any way preserved either Lemon or O’Connor’s endorsement test."". Kennedy v. Bremerton School District is therefore a landmark case which should be included in the list of landmark court decisions in the United States. --P3Y229 (talk • contribs) 14:46, 11 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Landmark cases should be lastingly (not just contemporaneously) considered "landmark"

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I suggest that a news source from the time of a decision is not necessarily reliable in determining whether the case ultimately ends up being considered a "landmark" decision. If it later appears that there are not subsequent sources to support the label, then it should be removed.
I am bringing this up mainly from SmithKline v. Abbott (9th Circuit 2014), which was described as landmark in a 2014 Reuters article, but does not even have its own Wikipedia page and is rarely mentioned today. (I also suggest a per se rule that a case should have its own Wikipedia article — and not a stub article – before being listed here.)
@P3Y229: You may be interested.
SilverLocust (talk) 03:20, 29 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I think that a news source from the time of a decision is a reliable factor in determining whether the case is a "landmark" decision. But there can be other factors such as news sources which are not from the from the time of a decision. A case can be a Wikipedia article or a stub article. See for example Berghuis v. Thompkins, 560 U.S. 370 (2010) and Salinas v. Texas, 570 U.S. 178 (2013) as an example for a Wikipedia article and a stub article. --P3Y229 (talk • contribs) 16:53, 30 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, it is a factor, but in the absence of subsequent support (lasting reasons to see it as landmark), it should be insufficient. Meanwhile, what support do you have for asserting that Salinas is a landmark decision? You added it back in July 2013, a month after the decision was released, which is another example of my point about premature inclusion based on recent decisions being seen as more landmark than they may merit. The decision expands Berghuis to some extent (but that doesn't make it landmark), plus there isn't a majority holding. Even Berghuis is pretty questionable as being landmark. (Also, Salinas ought to be split into its own article. There is enough content to support it.) SilverLocust (talk) 01:57, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I agree with the general proposition that a decisions should still be considered a "landmark" decision some years out. Sometimes it will be immediately obvious, as with Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturning Roe v. Wade, but for cases that get less coverage in the immediate term, perhaps at least a two or three year test is called for. BD2412 T 03:49, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]
It's correct that I added Salinas v. Texas on July 12, 2013. The reason for my addition remains a mystery to me because it's almost 10 years ago that I added Salinas v. Texas. The lead to the List of landmark court decisions in the United States states several criteria for a landmark court decision. A landmark decison can be based on the fact that it is distinguishing a new principle that refines a prior principle, thus departing from prior practice without violating the rule of stare decisis. The Supreme Court in Berghuis v. Thompkins (2010) decided that the right to remain silent during interrogation does not exist unless a suspect invokes it unambiguously. This was expanded in Salinas v. Texas (2013) by holding that a suspect's silence in response to a specific question posed during an interview with police when the suspect was not in custody and the suspect had been voluntarily answering other questions during that interview could be used against him in court where he did not explicitly invoke his Fifth Amendment right to silence in response to the specific question. --P3Y229 (talk • contribs) 06:38, 4 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Griggs v. Duke Power Co.

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I added this case as it defines what racial discrimination is in a modern sense and thus makes no sense as to why it isn't on the list. Few cases on this list could have been brought without citing this case due to its importance in the topic of racial discrimination. 76.133.68.82 (talk) 18:30, 18 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Would it be useful to have a duplicate article with the landmark cases listed by Court and year?

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Would it be useful to have a second Wikipedia article that lists these exact same landmark cases by year? I can see that this might be helpful to see how the landmark cases match up with the various courts (Roberts Court, etc.) and the ideological leanings of the courts. I imagine a new page with headers for each Court with subheads for each year with the cases decided in that year listed as they are on this page and then followed by the category headings shown on this page (as a way of linking the two articles). It would take some work, but this is something that I could probably do in the next month. Note that adding this page would add some work for contributors: If this page existed, then every time that someone added a landmark case here, they would need to add the same entry to this second article. Would that be too much effort and lead to article decay? Randy Schutt (talk) 11:17, 3 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Lists of pivotal/landmark cases by others

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There is a lot of discussion above about whether this Wikipedia page includes the right set of cases, so I thought it might be useful to see how it compares with other sites that claim to have a list of landmark Supreme Court cases.

I found 19 lists of landmark/pivotal/most-cited cases prepared by other organizations:


The Wikipedia List of landmark court decisions in the United States page currently has 461 landmark/pivotal cases (actually 459 since One, Inc. v. Olesen (1958) and Ford v. Wainwright (1986) are listed twice). Of these, 18 are not US Supreme Court decisions.

The Wikipedia page includes most of the 913 cases listed on these other sites. Of the 137 cases not on the Wikipedia page, here are the cases that are most often included on those other lists:

4 lists

  • Abrams v. United States (1919) (upheld sedition charges)

3 lists

  • Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918) (child labor not ok)
  • Olmstead v. United States (1928) (wiretapping ok)
  • United States v. Carolene Products Co. (1938) (ok to ban products shipped interstate)
  • Sherbert v. Verner (1963) (unemployment compensation ok for religious dismissal)
  • Gratz v. Bollinger (2003) (affirmative action not ok)

2 lists

  • Rex v. Zenger (1735)
  • Bradwell v. Illinois (1873)
  • Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge (1837)
  • Munn v. Illinois (1877)
  • Debs v. United States (1919)
  • De Jonge v. Oregon (1937)
  • Duncan v. Louisiana (1968)
  • Island Trees School District v. Pico (1982)
  • Rotary International v. Rotary Club of Duarte (1987)
  • R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul (1992)
  • McConnell v. Federal Election Commission (2003)

There are 200 Supreme Court cases on the Wikipedia page that are on at least one of these other 19 sites and 241 cases that are not on any of them.

You can see all the cases and my work on this Google spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jU6gQowW0jhabSBWPcDblKU8sNIw-3KJZSATyr44XF8/edit?usp=sharing

Note that the Justia website https://supreme.justia.com/ also has a list of Landmark Cases in 27 categories with about 30 in each category – around 800 or so. I assume that most (if not all) of the 441 Wikipedia Landmark Supreme Court cases are included there, but I didn't check.

Randy Schutt (talk) 20:45, 11 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

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