Part I: How the Courts Address or Respect Our Rights as Citizens – Outline
Assignment
Required Resources
Read/review the following resources for this activity:
· Textbook: Greenberg, E. S & Page, B. I. (2018).
The Struggle for Democracy, 2018 Elections and Updates Edition. (12th ed.). Pearson Chapter 11, 12
· Lesson
· Minimum of 4 scholarly sources in addition to the textbook.
Instructions
This assignment is comprised of 2 parts, the first of which is due this week. Part II will be due in Week 7.
In Part I this week, choose a Federal Supreme Court case that originated in your state that involves civil rights or civil liberties that was heard by the United States Supreme Court, and a decision was rendered. If your state does not have a case that was decided by the United States Supreme Court, choose a civil rights case from another state for which the United States Supreme Court issued a decision.
Here is a brief description of civil rights and civil liberties: Civil rights refers to equal social opportunities under the law. It gives you these freedoms, such as the right to vote, the right to public education, or a fair trial, among other things, regardless of your wealth or race. Civil liberties mean freedom of religion, equal treatment and due process under the law, and the right to privacy.
You should be able to go online and look up your state (Maryland) and famous cases decided by the Supreme Court. For example, Brown v Board of Education (1951) started in Topeka, Kansas, and ended up in the Supreme Court of the United States. Another example would be Calvary Chapel Dayton Valley v Steve Sisolak, Governor of Nevada (2020), which started in Nevada and ended up in the United States Supreme Court. A good source of information about cases decided by the United States Supreme Court is www.scotusblog.com, www.justia.com, or www.oyez.org.
Some other examples of cases include
Lau v Nichols, Tinker v Des Moines Independent Community School District, Terry v Ohio, Regents of California v Bakke, Schenck v United States, Plessy v Ferguson, Shelley v Kraemer, Texas v Johnson, Ysleta del Sur Pueblo v Texas, Korematsu v United States, Obergefell v Hodges, Laird v Tatum and Loving v Virginia.
Other sources can be researched online using search terms for “civil rights cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.” Be sure to use a case
actually decided by the United States Supreme Court, and not a case decided by your state’s supreme court or a different court. A case that is still pending before the United States Supreme Court should
not be used. If you are unsure, please contact your Professor
BEFORE you pick your case and submit the assignment
as this is a significant part of your overall grade.
Research your court case and write an outline of the case that you will be using to prepare a presentation, which will either be a narrated PowerPoint, a Kaltura Video, or some other format as approved by your instructor.
If you are unsure, then verify the presentation format with your instructor before starting work on this assignment.
This week’s assignment should include (a) summary of the case; (b) a case outline; and a summary.
Summary of the Case
In one or two paragraphs, provide a general overview of the case that serves as a snapshot of what the case is about and how it ended up in your state high court. A summary is using your words to write a brief history of the case. Do not give your opinion or your interpretation but stick to the facts only.
Case Outline
Your court case outline should include:
Title: Name of the case
Facts of the case: Provide key facts involving the case.
History of the case: What legal action was taken based on what your state laws say about this case?
Legal questions: What were the legal issues the court had to decide?
Decision or holdings: Did the court decide for the plaintiff or the defendant? Explain the reason behind the decision?
Verdict and opinion (judgement): What were the concurring and dissenting opinions? How many judges decided for the defendant and how many justices decided against the defendant? What was the final verdict from the judge or the jury, if it was a jury trial?
Conclusion:
What was the resulting impact of the ruling? How did the citizens of your state benefit from it? Was this a good decision?
Requirements
· The length of your outline will vary. Usually an outline is anywhere from 2-4 pages long. Make sure to write full sentences to explain your case. It is a concise list to be used as a reference for you during the presentation.
Using the outline, you will be describing the court case in your presentation and the scenario around the court case. The use of Wikipedia as a primary source of information is to be avoided – it is not a reliable source of information.
Search for an example of a case outline in the Internet. Without going into much detail at this state, each of the items listed above has a subject sentence with 3-6 bullet points that can help you expand on the topic.
2.
Part II will be due in Week 7.
Part II: How the Courts Address or Respect Our Rights as Citizens – Presentation
For Week 7, you will be creating a narrated PowerPoint, or a video as approved by your instructor, from this week’s outline.
· 1-inch margins
· Double spaced
· 12-point Times New Roman font
· Title page
· References page (minimum of 2 scholarly sources in addition to textbook if cited)
This is Part II of the assignment you submitted in Week 6.
Using the case outline (Part I: How the Courts Address or Respect Our Rights as Citizens) you submitted in Week 6, prepare and submit a presentation, either a narrated PowerPoint, a Kaltura Video, or some other format approved by your instructor.
Verify the presentation format with your instructor before starting work on this assignment.
Here are some helpful resources from the GenEd Resource Center to assist you with the technological aspects of the assignment:
·
KalturaLinks to an external site.
PowerPointLinks to an external site.
The presentation will include:
· Name the case
· Discuss the facts of the case
· Discuss the history of the case (what laws or legal action was taken)
· Discuss the issues or the facts of the case and legal questions the court must decide
· Discuss if the court’s decision or holdings were for the plaintiff or the defendant and the reasons for the decision.
· Discuss the concurring and dissenting opinions from the judge or if a jury trial, the jury
· References slide with a minimum of 4 scholarly sources.
Important: In this assignment, you are expected to elaborate on the points you made in the prior assignment in Week 6. This assignment will be graded on your strength to elaborate and explain the facts of the case, proper use of visual aids, good narration, presentation of the case, and how well you stick to the case. Do not copy-paste the outline into this and call it complete.
Requirements
· Length: The presentation should be 7-8 slides long if using PowerPoint excluding the title and reference slide. If you choose to do a video or narration, the length requirement should not exceed 5 minutes.
· Font should not be smaller than size 16-point
· Parenthetical in-text citations included and formatted in APA style
· Title/Introduction slide required
· References slide minimum of 2 scholarly sources in addition to textbook if cited)
· You can either narrate your presentation, make a video, OR use speaker notes to elaborate on the content on the slides.
