Time's Top Ten

 Marking the 10th anniversary of Bush v. Gore, Time Magazine ranked the "Top Ten Landmark Supreme Court Cases:"

• Brown v. Board of Education
• Roe v. Wade
• Miranda v. Arizona
• Marbury v. Madison
• United States v. Nixon
• Loving v. Virginia
• District of Columbia v. Heller
• Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
• Plessy v. Ferguson
• Korematsu v. United States

It's hard to hold back once you start thinking about some alternatives, so I'll just add two: 

The Civil Rights Cases (1883), holding that  Congress lacked authority under the enforcement provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to prohibit discrimination by private individuals, as opposed to state actors.

Washington v. Davis (1976), requiring evidence of intentional racial discrimination in an equal protection challenge, as opposed to evidence of disparate impact.

Neither of these cases had the cultural impact of, say, Brown or Loving, but they certainly qualify as "landmarks" for establishing two defining principles that shape (and constrain) the Court's entire equal protection jurisprudence. 

Others notable omissions? 

Comments

[Alfred Brophy]

Dred Scott?

[Scott]

Criminal procedure is not really my area, but I would think that Gideon v. Wainwright would have to be on that list.

[Tung Yin]

Martin v. Hunter's Lessee -- establishing S. Ct.'s power to review state supreme court decisions of federal law

Steel Seizure Case

Brown v. Allen -- allowing relitigation via federal habeas corpus petition of federal issues already decided in state courts

I think those three are arguably more significant than Heller, Loving, and Citizens United. I agree with Scott that Gideon should be on the list and would be ahead on Miranda in my opinion.

[TJ]

Shows a huge bias toward recent cases. As Alfred notes, the omission of Dred Scott is unforgivable. And what about Lochner? Another potential candidate is Furman v. Georgia.

[Jordy Singer]

I would cut out Heller, Citizens United, and U.S. v. Nixon, and replace them (in no particular order) with Gideon, Lochner, and Wickard v. Filburn (which opened the door for Congress to legislate virtually anything under the guise of the Commerce Clause -- at least until the Rehnquist Court pushed back a bit in the 1990s).

[Joseph Blocher]

At the very least, I'd replace Citizens United and Heller with McCulloch and Dred Scott.

[Chris]

Baker v. Carr.

[Kathy Bergin]

I'd also add Brandenburg v. Ohio, distinguishing advocacy of violence as a doctrine (protected) from incitement to violence (not).

Not sure why Heller gets billing alongside Brown and Marbury?

[Procedure Fan]

Erie seems like it should make a top ten list.

[Kathy Bergin]

omg - sometimes the obvious escapes mention, even from a 1A Prof obsessed with Wikileaks:

NYT v. US

[S.E. Looper-Friedman]

Euclid v. Ambler Realty

[Ezra Rosser]

Not many people will agree with this perhaps, but Johnson v. M'Intosh seems important in the conquest of a continent.

[Anon]

Slaughterhouse Cases seem an obvious one.

Also, Gibbons v. Ogden.