As our nation's founding document and the primary source of all legal rights, the U.S. Constitution is naturally of great interest to lawyers and judges. The U.S. Supreme Court has the final say on what the Constitution means, and this section lists several (but by no means all!) of its most important Constitutional decisions. You'll also find a list of important books on Constitutional law (again, it's far from a comprehensive list - there are hundreds out there!) and some links to websites that talk about how to interpret the Constitution.
The links and resources on this page will give you a great start if you want to learn more about how the legal system interacts with the Constitution.
Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 U.S. 419 (1793) - the case that sparked the creation of the Eleventh Amendment
Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803) - the first time a law was declared unconstitutional
McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316 (1819) - interpreted the Constitution to grant certain implied powers to the federal government
Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1 (1824) - greatly expanded Congress' power to regulate interstate commerce
Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857) - a major slavery case
Plessy v. Ferguson, 16 U.S. 537 (1896) - upheld state laws establishing "separate but equal" segregated facilities
Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) - abolished segregation in public schools
Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961) - prohibited law enforcement from using evidence obtained illegally under the Fourth Amendment
Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962) - struck down as unconstitutional school-sponsored prayers in public schools
Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963) - upheld the right to legal counsel for criminal defendants
New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964) - upheld the freedom of the press from libel suits by public officials
Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965) - established a right to privacy for married couples seeking contraceptives
Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966) - interpreted the Fifth Amendment and created the requirement for law enforcement to issue "Miranda warnings" advising arrested individuals of their rights
Tinker v. Des Moines, 393 U.S. 503 (1969) - famously stated that public school students "do not leave their rights at the schoolhouse door" and upheld student free speech rights
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973) - extended the right to privacy found in Griswold v. Connecticut to cover abortions
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978) - prohibited public universities from implementing affirmative action policies if they result in reverse discrimination
Bethel School District #403 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675 (1982) - limited the Tinker rule and granted public schools the right to place reasonable restrictions on students' free speech rights
Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003) - interpreted the Bakke holding to find affirmative action policies legal in some cases, even if they result in reverse discrimination. A related case, Gratz v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 244 (2003), struck down as unconstitutional a similar policy that did not take individualized factors into account
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010) - struck down restrictions on corporations' right to contribute to political campaigns
Arizona v. United States, 567 U.S. 387 (2012) - held that states cannot pass laws that conflict with federal immigration enforcement authority
Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 2 (2013) - struck down two sections of the Voting Rights Act
Riley v. California, 573 U.S. ___ (2014) - interpreted the Fifth Amendment to prohibit law enforcement from searching a cell phone without a warrant
Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. ___ (2015) - struck down as unconstitutional state bans on same-sex marriage
South Dakota v. Wayfair, 585 U.S. ___ (2018) - allowed states to require online retailers to charge state sales tax on purchases made by customers who live in that state, even if the retailer doesn't have a physical presence there
Shelley L. Dowling, The Jurisprudence of United States Constitutional Interpretation: An Annotated Bibliography, 1999
Lee Epstein, Constitutional Law for a Changing America: Rights, Liberties, and Justice, 2012
Sotirios A. Barber and James E. Fleming, Constitutional Interpretation: The Basic Questions, 2007
Phillip Bobbitt, Constitutional Fate: Theory of the Constitution, 1984
Laurence H. Tribe, American Constitutional Law, 2000
Thomas E. Baker, Constitutional Analysis in a Nutshell, 2003
Jerome A. Barron & C. Thomas Dienes, Constitutional Law in a Nutshell, 2013