Background: In the late 1800’s the United States imposed tariffs on imported vegetables at 10% ad valorem under the Tariff Act of 1883. Fruits were, however, exempt from this tariff. This was done to protect domestic truck drivers from foreign competition. At this time, John Nix & Co. was a business which imported produce. One of their imports was fresh tomatoes from the Caribbean. While entering the United States, the customs collector for the Port of New York, Edward L. Hed

Background: Leroy Reed was a Milwaukee resident with a prior felony conviction. This was due to his assistance as the getaway driver in an armed robbery. He was released early from his sentence as it was determined that he did not realize he was a part of a crime. After he was released, Reed lived a quiet and law abiding life, acting as what many would call a model citizen. Leroy Reed possessed cognitive abilities significantly below average, and was noted to have a second gr

Background: Prior to the American Civil War, states and territories in the United States were divided into two categories. Free states were states where slavery was prohibited, whereas slave states were states where slavery was legal. Born into slavery around 1799, Dred Scott was purchased in 1830 by Dr. John Emerson. Between 1833 and 1843, Emerson took Scott with him to various military posts, including Fort Armstrong in Illinois and Fort Snelling in the Wisconsin Territory.

Background: ​ After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, during World War II, fear of more attacks began to spread throughout the United States. Government and military officials began to argue that people with Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast of the U.S. could pose a security threat, despite the fact that there was little to no evidence of such widespread espionage. In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. T

Background: In the summer of 1984, the Republican National Convention was held in Dallas, Texas. In this conference, President Ronald Reagan was being nominated for reelection. Many groups organized demonstrations outside of the convention, criticizing Reagan’s policies, large corporations, nuclear weapons, and U.S. foreign policy. One of these protesters was Gregory Lee Johnson, a member of a political activist organization. During a march outside Dallas City Hall, Johnson

Background: In American history, few Supreme Court cases tested the limits of presidential power as directly as United States v. Nixon. The case emerged due to the Watergate scandal, beginning during the 1972 presidential campaign between President Nixon and his Democratic challenger, Senator George McGovern of South Dakota. On June 17, 1972, less than five months before the election, five men broke into Democratic National Committee headquarters, in the Watergate Office Buil

Background: Prior to Roe v. Wade, abortion laws were determined and controlled almost entirely by individual states. By the late 1800s most states had banned abortion, with the exception of saving the mother’s life. This was largely influenced by religious beliefs, concerns about morality, and the growing shift towards doctors over midwives. In the 1960s and early 1970s, American society was undergoing many changes, such as the women's rights movement and wider availability o

Background: Clarence Earl Gideon was a man with an 8th grade education, who ran away from home during middle school. He spent much of his early adult life spending time in and out of prisons for various nonviolent crimes. In 1961, he was arrested for breaking into a poolroom, with a witness later claiming to have seen him exiting the scene with alcohol and coins. He was charged with breaking and entering, with the intent to commit a misdemeanor, which under Florida state law

Background: The Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, proposed in 1864 and Ratified in 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except for those duly convicted of a crime. The Fourteenth Amendment, proposed in 1866 and ratified in 1868, defines birthright citizenship, guarantees equal protection under the law, and ensures due process against state violations. These amendments were made after the American Civil War, and were intended to expand the r

Background: After the American Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was adopted. It guaranteed equal protection and due process under the law to all citizens. Despite this, many states, primarily in the South of the U.S. enforced strict segregation through “Jim Crow” laws. The Supreme Court ruled in the previous Plessy v. Ferguson: racial segregation was constitutional under the doctrine of "separate but equal”. Contradictory to this idea, segregated p

Background: New York Times Co. v. United States began during the Vietnam War, when public trust in the U.S. government was at a decline Throughout the war, government officials made statements suggesting progress and success, while internally, reports showed reality to be much more complicated and often unsuccessful. Due to this, the Department of Defense created a classified study examining the United States’ history of involvement in Vietnam. This study later became known a

Background Students at a public high school in Des Moines, Iowa, planned to wear black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War. The goal was for it to be silent and non-disruptive, but still be political and hold meaning. However, school officials found out before it was planned, and banned students from wearing armbands, claiming they could cause disruption. Despite this action by the school, students such as Mary Beth Tinker and John Tinker still wore them. Due to thi

Background: Due to the heavy involvement of the United States in the Korean War, there was immense pressure on the steel industry to produce materials for the US military. In 1951, a dispute arose between steel companies and the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), which failed to meet a collective agreement. The dispute centered on the USWA demanding wage increases and a union shop, which steel companies refused to grant without a significant government-approved rise in st

Background: Marbury v. Madison was the first case in which the Supreme Court of the United States invalidated a law passed by Congress. I n the late 1790s and early 1800s, American political life was divided between Federalists, led by John Adams, and Democratic-Republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson. After losing the election, the outgoing President Adams attempted to appoint Federalist allies as a way to influence the government while they were out of political power. As a re