Click any step to jump to it - the lit step is the one showing below. Rights expand under the Warren and Burger Courts, then the Roberts Court pulls them back. Green = expanded or strengthened · Amber = mixed or contested · Red = restricted or weakened.
Timeline tucked away while you test yourself. Close the quiz to bring it back.
What happened. In Plessy v Ferguson the Court upheld "separate but equal", legalising Jim Crow segregation.
What it shows. The Court at its worst, entrenching racial discrimination. Plessy: separate-but-equal
What happened. In Korematsu v US the Court upheld the wartime internment of Japanese Americans.
What it shows. Judicial deference to executive power over individual rights. Korematsu low point
What happened. In Brown v Board of Education a unanimous Court ruled segregated schools "inherently unequal" and overturned Plessy.
What it shows. The textbook example of the Court defending rights. Brown ends segregation
What happened. In Loving v Virginia the Court struck down state bans on interracial marriage under the Fourteenth Amendment.
What it shows. The Equal Protection Clause used to expand rights. Loving strikes marriage ban
What happened. In Roe v Wade the Court found a constitutional right to abortion in the Fourteenth Amendment privacy right.
What it shows. Peak expansion of implied rights by the Court. Roe finds abortion right
What happened. In DC v Heller the Court confirmed an individual right to bear arms.
What it shows. A conservative reading of the Second Amendment. Heller arms the individual
What happened. In Citizens United v FEC a 5-4 Court struck down limits on independent corporate political spending, creating the Super PAC era.
What it shows. The Court reshaping democracy in favour of money. Citizens United and money
What happened. In Obergefell v Hodges a 5-4 Court legalised same-sex marriage nationwide.
What it shows. The Court finding a right not written in the text. Obergefell wins marriage
What happened. In Dobbs v Jackson a 6-3 Court overturned Roe and Casey, returning abortion to the states.
What it shows. The Roberts Court contracting a long-settled right. Dobbs overturns Roe
What happened. In Students for Fair Admissions a 6-3 Court ruled race-conscious university admissions unconstitutional.
What it shows. The Court reversing a civil-rights-era policy. SFFA ends affirmative action
Roll up and down: use the arrows, scroll or swipe inside the box, the up and down keys, or click any step in the arc above.
Read top to bottom, the Court swings. From Plessy and Korematsu it deferred to discrimination and the executive; the Warren and Burger Courts (Brown, Loving, Roe) then used the Fourteenth Amendment to expand rights; and the Roberts Court (Heller, Citizens United, Dobbs, SFFA) has pulled several of those gains back.
The pattern is less about the law changing than about who sits on the Court. The same Constitution produced Roe in 1973 and Dobbs in 2022 - what changed was the majority. That is the heart of the "is the Court political?" debate.
The same events split by side. Build each paragraph around one point from each column, then judge.
Strongest answers concede the Court makes value choices but insist it does so through legal reasoning, then judge how political it has become under the Roberts Court.
For "is the Supreme Court too political / too powerful?", build one paragraph on rights expansion (Brown, Loving, Roe, Obergefell) and one on restriction (Dobbs, SFFA, Citizens United), then judge whether appointments have made it partisan.
Always pair a case with what it shows, not just its name: Dobbs = precedent overturned as the majority changed; Brown = unanimous, law-led. Pairing is the AO2 mark.