Summer I 2008 
Dr. Garrison

Subject to revision; last revised 6-5-08
 

     Task 1 is worth 100 points and is due in class no later than Monday, June 16, 2008.  Write at least three full pages of thoughtful commentary and critical analysis of your choice listed below. Also please find New York Times news stories and op-ed writing regarding the most recent Supreme Court cases about your chosen topic. Write in your own words. Use legalese as little as possible. Quote sparingly. Some of the television programs, streaming video, movies, films, etc. are available in the Library. Please submit your writing to Turnitin for analysis. Revise your writing if needed before submitting your paper to the professor.

     Choose one:

Choice a. Choose one of the following from your MyPoliSciLab civil liberties chapter:
Simulation: You Are a Police Officer
Simulation: Balancing Liberty and Security at a Time of War
Visual Literacy: What Speech Is Protected by the Constitution?
Visual Literacy: Race and the Death Penalty
Participation: Civil Liberties in Today's World: Privacy and Rights of the Accused

Choice b.  Choose one of the following from your MyPoliSciLab civil rights chapter:
Simulation: You Are the Mayor
Timeline: The Struggle for Equal Protection
Participation: Civil Rights and Gay Adoption

Choice c Television program/Online viewing: Spying on the Home Front             

      Watch this Frontline program (60 minutes) and consider the topic and the Fourth Amendment in particular.

Choice d.  Television program/Online viewing: The Last Abortion Clinic    
      "Sometimes I do fantasize about Roe being overturned," admits the abortion clinic owner interviewed by FRONTLINE. "Because then I think that there would be this real threat, this real enemy. Many young women who take all these rights for granted would suddenly realize what they've lost and the consequences of that."

     Watch this Frontline program (60 minutes) and consider Roe v. Wade, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Ayotte case, and the right to privacy in particular. Update this issue with the partial birth abortion ban case of 2007.

Choice e. the PBS documentary television series The Supreme Court.
      Watch the television series The Supreme Court in streaming video. The series is also available on DVD at the SCC LRC. Also utilize the materials at the accompanying web site. Concentrate especially on the civil liberties and civil rights issues and cases mentioned in the programs and web site.
    Choose one of the landmark cases at The Supreme Court web site for critical comment and analysis. Preferably choose a civil liberties or civil rights landmark. Also choose a famous dissenting opinion for consideration and comment in your paper.
     Play the games at the web site and include them in your written comments and analysis. What is the point of the "Just Change" section of The Supreme Court web site? Cite one example of change including the two cases involved.
     Where do the Supreme Court justices seek instruction and insight when preparing their decisions? Cite one or two examples.  Choose the biography of a sitting Justice that interests you. Include some of the interesting biographical facts in your paper. Choose one of the famous quotations etched in stone at the web site. Include it in your paper and write a commentary about it.  What does Professor Rosen say about the future of the Supreme Court?

Choice f. The Supreme Court web site
      Utilize the materials at the web site. Test your knowledge with Talking About My Constitution and each of its parts: First Amendment Freedoms, Civil Rights, Right to Privacy, and The Death  Penalty. Write about the cases and rulings. Where do the Supreme Court justices seek instruction and insight when preparing their decisions? Cite one or two examples. Choose the biography of a sitting Justice that interests you. Include some of the interesting biographical facts in your paper. Choose one of the famous quotations etched in stone at the web site. Include it in your paper and write a commentary about it.
   

Choice g. Movie: North Country
     See the movie about Jenson v. Eveleth Taconite Co., the first court case regarding sexual harassment inspired by the book titled Class Action: The Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law by Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy Gansler.   Concentrate on the law of sexual harassment and the Constitution and Joanna Grossman, "U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Undercuts Sexual Harassment Victims' Rights: How the Decision Underlines Problems with the Supreme Court's Approach To Hostile Environment Harassment," Findlaw.com, April 3, 2007.  For movies write so specifically that there is no doubt that you viewed the film. The movie is available in the Library and elsewhere.

Choice h. Movie: "Dirty Pictures"
     See the movie available in the Library and elsewhere based on a art museum controversy about Robert Mapplethorpe's photography.  See Mapplethorpe's photographs on line or in library books.  What is the Supreme Court's current definition of obscenity? Concentrate on the law of obscenity and the First Amendment's freedom of expression. For movies write so specifically that there is no doubt that you viewed the film.

Choice i.  Documentary film: "Unconstitutional "
     See the Robert Greenwald film "Unconstitutional" now available in the LRC and on DVD. Also comment on the U. S. Patriot Act and "the war on our civil liberties."  See also www.disinfo.com.

Choice j. Motion Picture: Gideon's Trumpet
     See the Hollywood film of the case  or if you wish read the popular book Gideon's Trumpet. The film is one of the last roles of the distinguished actor Henry Fonda about the famous case Gideon v. Wainwright (1964).