The purpose of this homework is to help you get to think about the effects of cases heard by the Supreme Court.
 

Your groups gets one of the cases below.  As a group, you will write the paper and do the presentation.  Divide the workload as you deem fair.

There are four sections to the paper: 

1. Give the background to the case. What caused it? What were the political and historical events leading up to it?
2.  What were the major questions the court had to answer in deciding the case?
3.  What were the findings of the court (the answers to the questions)?
4. What was the result of this case on the country, on the states, on ourselves, on our rights? 

In addition to the paper (which should be a few pages), your group will present your findings on Monday, March 14, 2005. This presentation should be very simple and should take about ten minutes to do. You will stand up there, without your paper, and explain the four parts.  You then answer any questions that arise.

The cases:

• Pierce v. Society of Sisters 1925
• Olmstead v. United States 1928
• L. A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States 1935
• Korematsu v. US 1944
• Engel v. Vitale 1962
• Baker v. Carr 1962
• Gideon v. Wainright 1963
• Furman v. Georgia 1972
• Wisconsin v. Yoder 1972
• United States v. Nixon 1974
• Buckley v. Valeo 1976
• Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan 1982
• Texas v. Johnson 1989
• Sutton v. United Airlines 1999
• Bush v. Gore 2000
• Virginia v. Black 2003
• Hamdi v. Rumsfeld 2004

Suggested sites:

Findlaw:
     http://www.findlaw.com

Cornell's Legal Information Institute:
     http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/

The Supreme Court of the US:
     http://www.supremecourtus.gov

InstaCase:
     http://www.instacase.com/

Oyez Project:
     http://www.oyez.org/oyez/frontpage