Two grids on the same template. The first is empty - print it, fill in each cell with a one-line note while you revise. The second is a worked example to check yourself against.
Each cell asks one question: does this row strengthen the column quality (mark +) or weaken it (mark -)? Then add a one-line note saying why. The plus and minus columns are deliberately not pre-printed - your judgement is the work.
| Case+ - | Rights extended | Precedent respected | Activist ruling | Federal power strengthened | Elected branches could respond | Still good law | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brown v Board (1954) |
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| Roe v Wade (1973) |
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| Shelby County (2013) |
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| Obergefell (2015) |
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| Dobbs (2022) |
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| Students for Fair Admissions (2023) |
| Case+ - | Rights extended | Precedent respected | Activist ruling | Federal power strengthened | Elected branches could respond | Still good law | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brown v Board (1954) |
+Desegregated schooling - the foundation of the modern rights era. | -Overturned Plessy v Ferguson's separate-but-equal doctrine. | +The Court moved where Congress would not. | +Imposed a national standard on the states. | -Enforcement needed a decade of federal action and the Civil Rights Act 1964. | +Untouchable - the benchmark ruling. | +The case every rights essay starts from. |
| Roe v Wade (1973) |
+Created a national abortion right from the right to privacy. | -Recognised a right the text never names - contested from the day it was decided. | +The classic Court-created right. | +Constrained all fifty states at once. | -States could regulate at the edges only - until the Court itself changed. | -Overturned by Dobbs in 2022 after 49 years. | +The proof Court-made rights last only as long as the Court that made them. |
| Shelby County (2013) |
-Weakened the Voting Rights Act - Sections 4 and 5 disabled. | -Disabled the centrepiece of a landmark statute the Court had repeatedly upheld. | +Struck down the key provision of the most effective civil rights law. | -Returned electoral control to previously covered states. | +Congress could restore the formula by statute - and has not. | +Stands - and Callais (2026) cut deeper. | +The voting-rights case for any protection-of-rights essay. |
| Obergefell (2015) |
+Nationalised same-sex marriage under the 14th Amendment. | -Recognised a right no previous Court had found. | +Moved ahead of many state legislatures. | +A national standard imposed on the states. | -Only amendment or a later Court could undo it. | +Stands - though Dobbs reopened the durability question. | +The most recent major rights extension. |
| Dobbs (2022) |
-Removed a constitutional right held for 49 years. | -Overturned Roe and Casey together. | +Reversing half a century of precedent is activism by any neutral test - its authors call it restraint. | -Returned the question to the states under the 10th Amendment. | +States legislated immediately, in both directions. | +Stands - the defining ruling of the current Court. | +The case that turned rights protection into a federalism question. |
| Students for Fair Admissions (2023) |
-Ended race-conscious admissions - equal-protection framing on both sides. | -Departed from Grutter's affirmative-action settlement. | +Moved the law against decades of admissions practice. | +A national rule imposed on universities everywhere. | -No statutory route around a constitutional equal-protection ruling. | +Stands. | +Completes the Roberts Court pattern with Dobbs and Shelby. |