All 27 AP US Government flashcards. Free.
The whole deck, not a sample — AP US Government is 27 cards, which is no longer than the 30 we give away on every deck, so there is nothing left to charge for. 13 pages, US Letter, black and white. Grades 11–12.
No account, no email, no card details.
13 pages, and the backs are already right
Every front sheet is followed by its own back sheet with the rows reversed. Print double-sided, flip on the long edge, and answer number 7 is behind question number 7. Print a deck you built yourself, flip on the short edge, and every answer lands on the wrong card — which nobody finds out until sixty cards have been cut apart.
- 27 cards — counted out of the file, not rounded up
- Eight cards a sheet, with cut guides
- US Letter PDF, black and white, photocopier-friendly
- Print a set per student, every class, every year
27 cards, because the College Board's AP U.S. Government and Politics Course and Exam Description effective Fall 2026 names exactly 14 required Supreme Court cases and 13 required foundational documents. That is not the older 15-and-9 set: the Fall 2026 CED drops Roe v. Wade (1973) from the required cases — it now appears only as essential knowledge, noted there as overturned by Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022) — and adds four documents (Emancipation Proclamation, Federalist No. 39, the Gettysburg Address, and core principles from Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations). Nothing is padded; the deck is exactly the closed official set.
Every card here is cited to two independent sources
Two different organisations — not a standards body and a website reprinting it — and a script refuses the card if the two disagree, so the check runs on every card rather than on the ones somebody remembered to look at. A second specialist then re-verified this deck from sources of their own, without reading our citations first. A further 5,420 cards across 30 other decks were read end to end by a subject specialist instead, and we say which is which on every deck rather than averaging the two into one flattering word.
What 27 printed cards do that a screen does not
A phone deck is one card at a time. A printed deck is a pile you can split: the ones you know, the ones you nearly know, and the ones you keep missing. That third pile is the entire study session, and it is the thing a scrolling app hides from you.
- Print once, use all year. The licence covers a set per student, every class, every year.
- No device, no login, no data. Works in a cover lesson, on a bus, or at a kitchen table. Grades 11–12, filed under social studies.
- Change what you disagree with. Every card loads into the free maker on this site. Reword it, drop it, add your own, reprint.
Here are all 27 cards
Check them against your own textbook before you spend anything.
- Marbury v. Madison (1803) — holding?
- Established judicial review — courts may strike down acts of Congress or the executive as unconstitutional
- McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) — holding?
- Congress has implied powers under the Necessary and Proper Clause; states may not tax a federal instrument
- Schenck v. United States (1919) — holding?
- Speech posing a “clear and present danger” could be punished — that test was replaced by Brandenburg (1969)
- Brown v. Board of Education (1954) — holding?
- Race-based school segregation is inherently unequal — it violates the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause
- Baker v. Carr (1962) — holding?
- Legislative apportionment is justiciable, not a political question — federal courts may hear redistricting suits
- Engel v. Vitale (1962) — holding?
- School-sponsored prayer violates the Establishment Clause, even when voluntary and nondenominational
- Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) — holding?
- The 6th Amendment right to counsel binds state felony courts through the 14th Amendment
- Tinker v. Des Moines Ind. Comm. School Dist. (1969) — holding?
- Students keep First Amendment speech rights at school — armbands were protected, absent substantial disruption
- New York Times Co. v. United States (1971) — holding?
- Prior restraint carries a heavy presumption against it — the government failed to justify blocking publication
- Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972) — holding?
- Free Exercise outweighs compulsory schooling past 8th grade for the Amish
- Shaw v. Reno (1993) — holding?
- A district so bizarre it is explainable only by race states an Equal Protection claim and faces strict scrutiny
- United States v. Lopez (1995) — holding?
- Gun possession in a school zone is not economic activity — Congress exceeded its Commerce Clause power
- McDonald v. Chicago (2010) — holding?
- The 2nd Amendment right to bear arms for self-defense applies to the states via the 14th Amendment
- Citizens United v. FEC (2010) — holding?
- Independent political spending by corporations and unions is protected speech — overruled Austin (1990)
- The Articles of Confederation — what does it establish or argue?
- The first US national government — a “league of friendship” of sovereign states that could not tax or regulate trade
- Brutus No. 1 — what does it establish or argue?
- Antifederalist — a free republic cannot survive over so vast a territory; central power would swallow the states
- The Constitution of the United States — what does it establish or argue?
- Replaced the Articles — a federal government of separated and checked powers, vesting the union's power in the people
- The Declaration of Independence — what does it establish or argue?
- Declares independence from Britain on natural-rights grounds — equality, unalienable rights, consent of the governed
- Emancipation Proclamation — what does it establish or argue?
- Lincoln's 1863 order freeing enslaved people in areas still in rebellion — a wartime measure, not nationwide
- Federalist No. 10 — what does it establish or argue?
- Madison — a large republic cures the mischiefs of faction: “extend the sphere” so no majority faction can dominate
- Federalist No. 39 — what does it establish or argue?
- Madison — the Constitution is strictly republican and a composition: partly federal, partly national
- Federalist No. 51 — what does it establish or argue?
- Madison — separation of powers and checks: “ambition must be made to counteract ambition”
- Federalist No. 70 — what does it establish or argue?
- Hamilton — “energy in the Executive” requires a single President rather than a plural executive
- Federalist No. 78 — what does it establish or argue?
- Hamilton — the judiciary is the “least dangerous” branch: judgment, not force or will; it voids unconstitutional acts
- Gettysburg Address — what does it establish or argue?
- Lincoln recasts the war as a “new birth of freedom” — government of, by and for the people, founded on equality
- “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” — what does it establish or argue?
- King defends nonviolent direct action and disobeying unjust laws, and rebukes the white moderate's call to wait
- Core principles from Adam Smith's “The Wealth of Nations” — what does it establish or argue?
- Free enterprise — self-interest, competition and efficient allocation, with limited government regulation of markets
Questions
- How do I print them double-sided?
- Double-sided, flip on the long edge. Every front sheet is followed by its own already-mirrored back sheet, so print them in the order they come and every answer lands on its own card.
- Can I edit the cards?
- Yes, and that is half the point. Once you own the deck, the "Buy & edit" button here opens all 27 cards in the free flash card maker on this site — reword a definition, delete the ones you do not teach, add your own, and print at anything from two to nine cards a page, rather than the fixed eight of the PDF.
- Can I print a set for every student?
- Yes. Personal and classroom licence: unlimited printing, every class you teach, every year you teach it. It does not cover reselling the file or passing it on to a colleague.
- What if I find a card that is wrong?
- Tell us and we fix it, and we publish what changed. We have withdrawn a whole deck from sale for being out of date rather than quietly patch it.
- Do I need an account?
- No. The file downloads straight away — no account, no email, no card details.