Supreme Court of Illinois Decisions 1960. Civil action case files, civil dockets, and civil case record books from US District Courts throughout the Midwest include lawsuits from the 1930s onward.Beauharnais v. Illinois. The case presents two important questions of criminal procedure. The Civil Rights Act of 1960 strengthened the provisions of the 1957 act for court enforcement of voting rights and required preservation of voting records. FindLaw provides an overview of some of the notable U.S. Supreme Court cases that have affected civil rights law in the United States through the years. We receive many requests for help, so please bear with us as we try to get to your request. Facts: Clarence Earl Gideon was an unlikely hero. He was a man with an eighth-grade education who ran away from home when he was in middle school. Career attorneys carried out the investigation with assistance from experienced law enforcement, legal, and data experts.