Landmark Supreme Court Cases

Landmark Supreme Court Cases

This site was developed to provide teachers with a full range of resources and activities to support the teaching of landmark Supreme Court cases, helping students explore the key issues of each case. The 'Resources' section features basic building blocks such as background summaries and excerpts of opinions that can be used in multiple ways. The 'Activities' section contains a range of short activities and in-depth lessons that can be completed with students. While these activities are online, many of them can be adapted for use in a one-computer classroom or a classroom with no computer.

Depending upon the amount of time you have to teach the case, you may want to use one or more of the 'Resources' or 'Activities' in conjunction with one or more of the general teaching strategies.

The general teaching strategies include moot court, political cartoon analysis, continuum exercises, and Web site evaluation. Instructions for these strategies can be found by selecting a link from below:

-Case study

-Moot court activity

-Role play

-Continuum

-Community Resources

-Evaluating Web sites

-Political Cartoon Analysis

The standard resources available for each case include:

-Background summaries and questions for three different reading levels. The ? ? ? level is the highest reading level, the ? ? level is the average level, and the ? level features vocabulary for ESOL students.

-Diagrams of how the cases moved through the court system

-Excerpts from the majority (and where appropriate) the dissenting opinions

-Links to the full text of the Supreme Court's decisions

In addition, many case-specific activities have been developed, including a range of short activities and in-depth lessons that can be completed with students. These include moot court activities, political cartoon analysis, continuum exercises, and Web site evaluations.