List of the 100 Most Influential Legal Documents

List of the 100 Most Influential Legal Documents in the United States

The People’s Vote (http://www.ourdocuments.gov) invited U.S. citizens of all ages to vote for the most influencial documents drawn mainly from the holdings of the National Archives. They were invited all across the United States, to voice their opinion on documents that have shaped currently the U.S. history, culture and society. Nearly forty thousand people cast more than three hundred thousand votes.

Participants were also invited to write-in their own choices on the paper ballots. Some of the more popular write-in documents were:

  • President Ronald Reagan’s speech that implored “Mr. Gorbachav, tear down this wall;”
  • the Medicare Act;
  • the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade; and
  • President George W. Bush’s speech in the wake of the September 11th attacks.

The Top 100 Documents were:
1.Declaration of Independence (1776)
2.Constitution of the United States (1787)
3.Bill of Rights (1791)
4.Louisiana Purchase Treaty (1803)
5.Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
6.19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women’s Right to Vote (1920)
7.13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery (1865)
8.Gettysburg Address (1863)
9.Civil Rights Act (1964)
10.Social Security Act (1935)
11.Monroe Doctrine (1823)
12.Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
13.14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights (1868)
14.Marbury v. Madison (1803)
15.Articles of Confederation (1777)
16.Homestead Act (1862)
17.15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Voting Rights (1870)
18.Marshall Plan (1948)
19.Voting Rights Act (1965)
20.Federalist Papers, No. 10 & No. 51 (1787-1788)
21.United Nations Charter (1945)
22.Treaty of Paris (1783)
23.Thomas Edison’s Patent Application for the Light Bulb (1880)
24.Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)
25.President George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796)
26.National Interstate and Defense Highways Act (1956)
27.16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Federal Income Tax (1913)
28.President John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address (1961)
29.Joint Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War Against Japan (1941)
30.Manhattan Project Notebook (1945)
31.President Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address (1865)
32.Virginia Plan (1787)
33.Social Security Act Amendments (1965)
34.Check for the Purchase of Alaska (1868)
35.Lee Resolution (1776)
36.Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)
37.Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (1944)
38.Northwest Ordinance (1787)
39.Federal Judiciary Act (1789)
40.Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916 (1916)
41.Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)
42.Surrender of Germany (1945)
43.Act Establishing Yellowstone National Park (1872)
44.President George Washington’s First Inaugural Speech (1789)
45.Pacific Railway Act (1862)
46.Surrender of Japan (1945)
47.17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Direct Election of U.S. Senators (1913)
48.President Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points (1918)
49.Jefferson’s Secret Message to Congress Regarding the Lewis & Clark Expedition (1803)
50.Treaty of Alliance with France (1778)
51.Tennessee Valley Authority Act (1933)
52.Press Release Announcing U.S. Recognition of Israel (1948)
53.Truman Doctrine (1947)
54.Patent for Cotton Gin (1794)
55.Missouri Compromise (1820)
56.President Franklin Roosevelt’s Annual Message (Four Freedoms) to Congress (1941)
57.National Labor Relations Act (1935)
58.Theodore Roosevelt’s Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (1905)
59.Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
60.Executive Order 9981: Desegregation of the Armed Forces (1948)
61.Lend-Lease Act (1941)
62.Test Ban Treaty (1963)
63.Joint Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War Against Germany (1917)
64.General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Order of the Day (1944)
65.Aerial Photograph of Missiles in Cuba (1962)
66.President Andrew Jackson’s Message to Congress ‘On Indian Removal’ (1830)
67.Articles of Agreement Relating to the Surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia (1865)
68.Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)
69.McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
70.Morrill Act (1862)
71.Original Design of the Great Seal of the United States (1782)
72.Interstate Commerce Act (1887)
73.President Franklin Roosevelt’s Radio Address unveiling the second half of the New Deal (1936)
74.Joint Resolution to Provide for Annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the United States (1898)
75.Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
76.Official Program for the March on Washington (1963)
77.Compromise of 1850 (1850)
78.Executive Order 10730: Desegregation of Central High School (1957)
79.Transcript of John Glenn’s Official Communication with the Command Center (1962)
80.Telegram Announcing the Surrender of Fort Sumter (1861)
81.Treaty of Ghent (1814)
82.Zimmermann Telegram (1917)
83.President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Farewell Address (1961)
84.Tonkin Gulf Resolution (1964)
85.Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
86.Executive Order 10924: Establishment of the Peace Corps. (1961)
87.Senate Resolution 301: Censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy (1954)
88.Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
89.Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
90.Dawes Act (1887)
91.Executive Order 9066: Resulting in the Relocation of Japanese (1942)
92.Pendleton Act (1883)
93.Executive Order 8802: Prohibition of Discrimination in the Defense Industry (1941)
94.National Industrial Recovery Act (1933)
95.War Department General Order 143: Creation of the U.S. Colored Troops (1863)
96.Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)
97.Boulder Canyon Project Act (1928)
98.Platt Amendment (1903)
99.Armistice Agreement for the Restoration of the South Korean State (1953)
100.De Lôme Letter (1898)

The Documents in the American Legal Encyclopedia

Information about the above influential documents is available in the following entries of this Encyclopedia:

  • Lee Resolution
  • Declaration of Independence
  • Articles of Confederation
  • Treaty of Alliance with France
  • Great Seal
  • Treaty of Paris
  • Virginia Plan
  • Northwest Ordinance
  • Constitution History
  • Federalist Papers
  • George Washington’s First Inaugural Speech
  • Federal Judiciary Act
  • Bill of Rights
  • Patent for Cotton Gin
  • George Washington’s Farewell Address
  • Alien and Sedition Acts
  • Lewis and Clark Expedition
  • Louisiana Purchase Treaty
  • Marbury v. Madison
  • Treaty of Ghent
  • McCulloch v. Maryland
  • Missouri Compromise
  • Monroe Doctrine
  • Gibbons v. Ogden
  • Andrew Jackson
  • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
  • Compromise of 1850
  • Kansas-Nebraska Act
  • Dred Scott v. Sanford
  • Fort Sumter
  • Homestead Act
  • Pacific Railway Act
  • Morrill Act (Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges)
  • Emancipation Proclamation
  • Colored Troops
  • Gettysburg Address
  • Wade-Davis Bill
  • Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
  • Army of Northern Virginia
  • Abolition of Slavery
  • Purchase of Alaska
  • Treaty of Fort Laramie
  • Civil Rights History
  • Voting Rights
  • Yellowstone National Park Protection Act
  • Patent Application
  • Pendleton Act
  • Interstate Commerce Act
  • Dawes Act (Indians)
  • Sherman Act
  • Plessy v. Ferguson
  • De Lôme Letter
  • Annexing the Hawaiian Islands
  • Platt Amendment
  • Monroe Doctrine
  • Federal Income Tax History
  • Direct Election of Senators
  • Keating-Owen Act
  • Zimmermann Telegram
  • Declaration of War Against Germany
  • Woodrow Wilson
  • Women’s Right to Vote
  • Boulder Canyon Project Act
  • Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933
  • National Industrial Recovery Act
  • National Labor Relations Act
  • Social Security Act
  • New Deal
  • Four Freedoms
  • Lend-Lease Act
  • Executive Order 8802
  • Declaration of War Against Japan
  • Relocation of Japanese
  • Eisenhower’s Order of the Day
  • Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944
  • Manhattan Project Notebook
  • Surrender of Germany
  • United Nations Charter
  • Surrender of Japan
  • Truman Doctrine
  • Marshall Plan
  • Recognition of Israel
  • Desegregation of the Armed Forces
  • Restoration of the South Korean State
  • Joseph McCarthy
  • Brown v. Board of Education
  • National Interstate and Defense Highways Act
  • Desegregation of Central High School
  • Dwight D. Eisenhower
  • John F. Kennedy
  • Peace Corps
  • John Glenn
  • Missiles in Cuba
  • Test Ban Treaty
  • March on Washington
  • Civil Rights Act of 1964
  • Tonkin Gulf Resolution
  • Social Security Amendments of 1965
  • Voting Rights Act of 1965

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