Civil liberties and the Supreme Court

Throughout American history, the Supreme Court has acted on cases that have impacted the civil rights and liberties of citizens.  For this activity you will create a chart of information about 20 of these cases and gain a deeper understanding of the impact these cases have had on Americans.

A good place to get started with your research is the YouTube Channel for LawyersAndCoffee.  He posts the “Two Minute Supreme Court Case Summary” videos that provide a great overview of many of the major cases.

Steps to complete:

Create a chart to display information you will find on the cases you will research.  There are 20 cases in total and you will answer five questions about each case.  Create your chart however you’d like. It can be a table in a Word document, a PowerPoint with one slide per case, a website containing your chart, etc.  You can display the information however you would like.
For the list of cases at the bottom of this page, find answers to the following questions:
When did the case occur?
Who was involved?
What was in question? In other words, what part of the Constitution was being interpreted (ex. the First Amendment, the Establishment Clause, etc.)
How did the court rule?
How does the decision impact individuals rights?
Fill in your chart and submit it here as a a file upload or URL.
Course Cases to Research

Plessy v. Ferguson
Brown v. Board of Education
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
Griswold v. Connecticut
Roe v. Wade
Mapp v. Ohio
New Jersey v. T.L.O.
Gideon v. Wainwright
Miranda v. Arizona
Gregg v. Georgia
Furman v. Georgia
Tinker v. Des Moines
New York Times Co. v. United States
Miller v. California
Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier
Engel v. Vitale
Abington School District v. Schempp
Lemon v. Kurtzman
Lee v. Weisman
United States v. Windsor