GOVT
2302 Exam
1Take Home Essay
Dr. Garrison
Fall 2009
(50 points)
(sheatx2e/fall9)
revised
9-22-09
Please type your
essay per Writing & Documenting
& Experiential Tasks Explained.
Bring your completed essay to the
exam. You will need the Mini Essay /Scantron booklet and a number 2 pencil for the
multiple-choice questions and bonus points in class.
Professor
Charles King's essay "Battling the Six Evil Geniuses of Essay
Writing," PS Online, March 1998 available at the
Ereserves is recommended reading for essay writers.
Answer the question completely writing at least three
pages using legitimate scholarly and journalistic references. Do not cite the
professor.
Please document your essay
with internal citation and a reference list. Please submit
your writing to
Turnitin for analysis. Revise your writing if needed before submitting your
paper to the professor on exam day.
THE
QUESTION:
Choose
one:
a. Explain the idea of
due process
of
law and its
evolution. Explain the
relationship of
due process to the
Bill of Rights and
illustrate these ideas with major Supreme Court cases and issues.
OR
b. "We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges
say it is." -- Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes.
Comment astutely.
Include the notions of
judicial temperament, judicial restraint and
judicial
activism, the role of ideology and politics, and the various modes of constitutional
interpretation. Illustrate your points with specific Supreme Court cases and
current issues.
Some suggested references:
Adam Liptak, "U.S.
Court, Long a Beacon, Guides Fewer Nations," New York Times,
September 18, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/us/18legal.html
David Von Drehle, "The
incredible shrinking court," Time, October 11, 2007.
Jeffrey Rosen, "The
dissenter," New York Times Magazine, September 23, 2007.
Jeffrey Rosen, "Robert's
Rules," Atlantic Monthly, January/February 2007.
Judicial
temperament
Michiko Kakutani, "Power
lineup, swings from the right," New York Times, September 21, 2007.
Linda Greenhouse, "Supreme
Court memo: Clues to the new dynamic on the Supreme Court," New York
Times, July 3, 2007.
Adam Liptak, "Nuance
and resolve in rulings by Attorney General nominee," New York Times,
September 23, 2007.
Michael Dorf, "The
Supreme Court and the butterfly effect," Findlaw.com, September 25,
2007.
Jon Meachum, "A
nation of Christians is not a Christian nation," New York Times,
October 7, 2007.
OR
c. Fully explain the
role of the state and federal courts and the
14th Amendment notion of equal protection of the law as revealed in the Texas case Plyler v. Doe
(1982).
Barbara Belejack, "A
Lesson in Equal Protection," Texas Observer, July 13, 2007
&
Plyler v.
Doe
(1982) at Oyez,
Katherine Leal Unmuth, "Tyler
case opened schools to illegal migrants," Dallas Morning News,
June 11, 2007 &
Video
OR