The Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, commonly referred to as the Warren Court, is considered the most liberal Supreme Court in US history. The Warren Cout delivered a number of landmark decisions that reverberate to this day, especially as it relates to Civil Rights and civil liberties. Learn more about Earl Warren's Supreme Court's decisions and the long-term Warren Court's significance in this article.
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Jetzt kostenlos anmeldenThe Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, commonly referred to as the Warren Court, is considered the most liberal Supreme Court in US history. The Warren Cout delivered a number of landmark decisions that reverberate to this day, especially as it relates to Civil Rights and civil liberties. Learn more about Earl Warren's Supreme Court's decisions and the long-term Warren Court's significance in this article.
The Warren Court came after the Vinson Court. Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren Chief Justice of the Supreme Court on October 5, 1953, and Warren took his seat in January 1954.
The Warren Court is often considered, along with the court of John C. Marshall earlier, to be one of the two most important and influential Supreme Courts in US history. Interestingly, this court that is considered the most liberal in US history was headed by a chief justice appointed by the only Republican president elected between 1932 and 1968.
Justice Warren presided over the court until his retirement in 1969, when he was replaced by Warren Burger, beginning the Burger Court. The Warren Court therefore lasted from 1954 to 1969.
Other members of the Warren Court for all or part of its time included:
Thurgood Marshall, appointed in 1967 was notably the first African American to serve on the court.
The Warren Court's significance can be seen in the impact of its decisions in a range of cases that pushed forward the Civil Rights Movement and expanded civil liberties.
The Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case, commonly referred to as Brown v. Board, is the most famous of the Earl Warren Supreme Court decisions, handed down in 1954.
This decision effectively ended the doctrine of separate but equal, used to justify racial segregation in public schools. The decision argued that this doctrine in fact made schools that were separate, but not equal, and it overruled the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson.
Plessy v. Ferguson and Separate but Equal
This 1896 Supreme Court case concerned a Louisiana law that required separate train cars for African Americans and Caucasians. In it, the court ruled that this law was constitutional so long as the separate cars were equal in conditions. This decision affirmed segregation based on race as legal and contended that segregation did not imply a lesser status to African Americans. It effectively protected the Jim Crow laws implemented in the post-Reconstruction era.
In practice, separate facilities were rarely equal. The decision in Brown v. Board of Education directly repudiated the notion of separate but equal, recognizing that it did imply discrimination and led to inequality in practice.
Importantly, the decision was unanimous with the entire court siding 9-0 with the majority opinion deciding racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional and violated the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. It paved the way for the integration of schools.
Thurgood Marshall, later appointed to the Warren Court, was the lead lawyer for the plaintiffs.
The Brown decision was reaffirmed in the 1958 Cooper v. Aaron case. In this decision, also decided unanimously, the Warren Court rejected the notion that state officials did not have to comply with the decision in Brown.
In addition to further pushing along desegregation, this Warren Court decision also affirmed the power of the Supreme Court over state governments, expanding the power of the court.
This 1964 decision dealt with the principle of one man, one vote. It concerned the formation of legislative districts, stating that every effort should be made to ensure they were equal in population. This composition would ensure that voting power was not diluted in urban areas where there were larger populations, giving more power to rural voters.
There were three cases that show the importance of the Warren Court's case decisions related to civil liberties. Warren had been a former prosecutor, but he still remained concerned about abusive police practices.
This 1961 case held that police could not use evidence they obtained illegally at trial. This strengthened the constitutional protection against improper search and seizure and right to due process.
In this 1963 decision, the Warren Court ruled that the right to due process and legal representation of the 6th Amendment meant that defendants who were unable to afford an attorney should have one provided to them free of charge. This decision required the creation of public defense attorneys and ensured any criminal defendant could be represented in court, regardless of their economic status.
This 1966 decision is often considered the most important of Earl Warren's Supreme Court decisions related to civil liberties. It ruled that police must inform a person of and ensure they understand their rights, most notably their right to an attorney and the right not to incriminate themselves or remain silent.
Did you know?
The common phrase of "you have the right to remain silent" or reading of the rights you have surely seen countless times in movies and TV shows stems directly from Warren Court's decision in Miranda and are officially known as the Miranda rights or the Miranda warning.
In this 1962 decision, the Warren Supreme Court ruled that requiring students to participate in religious services or activities in public schools was unconstitutional. The court argued it violated the Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment, and the decision effectively outlawed mandatory prayer in schools.
In this 1965 case, the Warren Court ruled that personal privacy was an inherent constitutional right. The case dealt with a law restricting the prescription of birth control and was challenged with the argument that people had a right to privacy regarding their healthcare decisions and discussions with a doctor.
The right to personal privacy, besides the 4th Amendment's protection from unreasonably search and seizure, is not specifically established in the US Constitution. However, the court ruled in this case that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment as well as portions of other amendments did, in fact, imply and establish a basis of a right to privacy.
The Warren Court's significance was enormous. It had a broad impact on US politics and institutions. Learn more about the Warren Court's significance and controversy over its role as what some accuse of being an "activist" court in the sections that follow.
As noted above, the decision in Brown v. Board is often considered of the most significant regarding the importance of the Warren Court cases.
The decision effectively ended the legality of enforced segregation of schools. While the case did call for segregation to occur, it did not provide defined mechanisms of integration. Many hardline segregationist state legislators and governors in the south resisted integration for years to come. However, the decision, and the subsequent on in Cooper, was used as a basis for forcing integration.
The unanimity of the decision also indirectly encouraged Congress to act on broader desegregation initiatives such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and ending discriminatory practices with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Therefore, the decision can be seen as a key moment in the Civil Rights Movement, providing a judicial repudiation of segregation.
Exam Tip
The progression of the Civil Rights Movement was influenced by court decisions, legislation, and the actions of activists like Martin Luther King, Jr. Consider the relative importance and impact of each in achieving the movement's goals and how you might construct historical arguments for each.
The expansion of civil liberties under the Warren Court also changed the power dynamics between police and criminal defendants, ensuring due process for all US citizens. These decisions were sometimes criticized as weakening the power of police to stop crime, but they were also celebrated by others as important checks on potentially abusive behavior.
The importance of the Warren Court's case decisions can also be seen indirectly on the polarizing issue of abortion. The establishment of the right to privacy in Griswold was used as the basis to uphold the constitutionality of the right to an abortion in the later 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. It was also cited as an important precedent in the Obergefell v. Hodges decision that made same-sex marriage a constitutional right.
More recently, a 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization reversed Roe v. Wade while upholding Griswold. However, at least one justice argued in favor of reconsidering Griswold and other decision like Obergefell based on it.
Warren had been Governor of California before his appointment to the Supreme Court. He is remembered for being an effective consensus builder due to this time as a lead executive. However, his belief that the court should be a source of social change and justice has been criticized by some.
In addition to the debates over controversial issues like abortion that were indirectly impacted by the Griswold decision, the Warren Court was accused by critics of overstepping the judiciary's boundaries. Earl Warren and judicial activism are often linked, especially by conservative critics of the Warren Court's decisions.
Warren believed the ultimate purpose of the judiciary should be to promote justice and, when necessary and appropriate, favor the expansion of rights and liberties in line with the ideals of the US Constitution. He, in essence, believed the Supreme Court should right wrongs that the states and federal government had failed to right on their own.
This view of the court's responsibility contrasts with more conservative interpretations of the Supreme Court's role in US government. These views hold that judges should practice what they call self-restraint and defer to the states and federal government to the extent that their actions do not directly violate the US Constitution.
Criticism of what this interpretation considers Earl Warren's judicial activism became a bedrock of conservative political ideology in the post-Warren Court era. This is best represented by the Federalist Society, an influential organization that argues in favor of a strict reading of the US Constitution contrary to the Warren Court's more expansionary view.
The criticism of what was considered Earl Warren's judicial activism has been an important factor in Republican appointments to the court since. In fact, in 2022, 6 of the 9 justices on the court were members of the Federalist Society.
This conservative reaction on the one hand detracts from the Warren Court's significance by threatening the legacy of some of its decisions. On the other hand, it also marks the importance of the Warren Court's case decisions as an exceptional period in US history where the Supreme Court played an active role in the expansion of rights and liberties.
The Warren Court was the US Supreme Court presided over by Chief Justice Earl Warren.
The Warren Court was known for being the most liberal court in US history, making a number of decisions expanding civil rights and liberties, including the Brown v. Board of education decision outlawing school segregation.
The Warren court was so controversial because conservative critics of some of its decisions consider it to have engaged in judicial activism rather than deferring to the US Congress and state governments.
The Warren Court brought about vast social change primarily through its decision in Brown v Board of Education, which made racial segregation in schools illegal, providing a boost to the Civil Rights Movement and influencing the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
The largest accomplishment of the Warren Court is usually considered to be its ending of legal racial segregation in schools in the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954.
What year did Earl Warren take his seat as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court?
1954 (he was appointed in 1953)
What year did Earl Warren retire, ending the Warren Court?
1969
What doctrine did the Brown v Board decision determine was unconstitutional?
Separeate but equal
Which case did the Brown decision overturn?
Plessy v. Ferguson
How did the Warren Court contribute to the principle of one man, one vote in the Reynolds decision?
It required all people over 18 to be registered to vote.
Which of the following civil liberties did the Warren Court establish? (check all that apply)
The right to a publicly provided attorney
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