Tuesday, February 27, 2007

More about the Supreme Court

This listing of cases shows all of the caes decided so far by the U.S. Supreme Court this term.

The fifth case on the list, Carey v. Musladin, is a good example of a 9-0 decision with concurring opinions.

Also, this article from today's N&O shows a case where the court denied cert.

We can look up the case name using the online docket.

Plug in the name Blackwater v. Nordan, 06-857, and you get this summary.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Supreme Court Simulation

This is the main site for the U.S. Supreme Court.

The court's calendar shows that, as we discussed in class, it begins on the First Monday in October, and ends in June. Here is the detailed schedule for this week's cases.

Here is a FANTASTIC resource to help us understand the case of Earls v. Board of Education.

In general, the Oyez website is extremely useful for learning about the Court.

You can take even take a virtual tour of the Supreme Court. Here, see a picture Michael Jordan signed for Justice Stevens on his birthday. Here's a hole-in-one that Justice Stevens once shot.

Here's another summary of the Earls case, from Cornell Law School.

Friday, February 09, 2007

Supreme Court Simulation

Read this article about drug testing in a public high school.

Then, watch this video from the ACLU about the case.

Here is some additional background information about the case and the Fourth Amendment.

Here are some precedent cases to explore. Lower court cases are not binding on the Supreme Court, but Justices are welcome to consider the lower court's arguments.


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

As we have discussed, the process for getting on the Supreme Court is to be nominated by the President and confirmed by a majority vote in the Senate after the Senate Judiciary Committee holds confirmation hearings to learn about the nominee's qualifications.

Once seated, a Justice serves for life, unless he or she is impeached. Only one justice, Samuel Chase, was ever impeached by the House of Representatives. That happened in 1804, but Justice Chase was not convicted by the Senate, so he stayed on the bench until he died in 1811.

Not that "impeach" means to accuse -- to be removed from a position, an official must be impeached and convicted. For instance, President Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998, but acquitted in early 1999.

In the 1960s, some people in the South wanted to impeach Chief Justice Earl Warren, but that never happened. Warren was one of the few Supreme Court Justices not to be a judge before being appointed to serve on the Supreme Court (he was Governor of California when he was nominated to the Court).


Note: While I was looking up the link to the Senate Judiciary Committee, I foung this hearing the Judiciary Committee just held about the Darfur genocide.

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