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Creation of the Cabinet
George Washington established the Cabinet with four members: secretary of state Thomas Jefferson, secretary of treasury Alexander Hamilton, secretary of war Henry Knox, and attorney general Edmund Randolph -
Federal Judiciary Act
Judicial power vested in Supreme Court and inferior courts, federal judiciary established -
McCulloch v. Maryland
McCulloch v. Maryland arose when Maryland attempted to tax the Second National Bank of the United States. James McCulloch, the head of the bank's Baltimore branch, refused to pay the tax. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of McCulloch because, according to the Constitution, Maryland had no right to tax the national bank. -
Gibbons v. Ogden
Aaron Ogden and Thomas Gibbons had a dispute over the right to operate steamboats between Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and New York City. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Gibbons because, according to the Commerce Clause of the Constitution (assuming that navigation was a form of commerce), Congress had the right to regulate navigation between two states. -
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan
In 1960, the New York Times put out an ad with some inaccurate claims about the Civil Rights Movement (including that Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested seven times instead of four), which the Montgomery Public Safety commissioner, L. B. Sullivan, viewed as defamatory to himself. The Supreme Court ruled in the New York Times' favor after determining that the Times did not make the false statements with actual malice, thus supporting freedom of the press. -
Loving v. Virginia
Mildred Loving, an African-American woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, were sent to prison for marrying each other, violating Virginia's laws prohibiting interracial marriage. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Virginia's laws were unconstitutional because they were racially discriminatory.
