Supreme+Court

=Supreme Court Page=

Research question for the Supreme Court: What are the requirements to become a new justice and how does that differ from becoming a chief justice? who are the recent nominations/selections?

=Day 1- Monday July 12= __**Objectives:**__ Students will be able to: -Connect last week's unit on immigration to this week's unit on the Supreme Court -Identify prior knowledge about the Supreme Court -Create a list of questions students still have about the Supreme Court

__**Activities/Lessons**__
__**Connect last week's topic with our week**__

Discuss the Arizona immigration case that you learned about last week, and predict how this will connect with the Supreme Court President Obama is asking the Supreme Court to review the new Arizona immigration law to make sure the law is constitutional. If the court rules that the law is in fact constitutional, then the law will remain and the residents of Arizona must abide by it. However, if the court rules that the law is against the constitution, it must be abolished. -President Obama is suing the state of Arizona and the lawsuits will eventually reach the Supreme Court. - will offend many people
 * How would the new Arizona immigration law be connected to the Supreme Court? **

**__Vocabulary__**

**Precedent**-to take into consideration previous rulings and using them to interpret new laws **Chief Justice** – head of the Supreme Court **Confirmation Hearing** - a meeting to confirm (to accept) if something is constitutional **Conservative/Liberal –** Conservative – traditional, strict, interprets constitution literally – Liberal – favors change, interprets constitution more generally **Majority opinion –** the majority belief of the Supreme Court (9 justices so there will always be a majority)

**__List of Questions about the Supreme Court__**

What qualities must a justice have? How may one become a Supreme Court justice? **How is a new justice elected?** Why does a justice have to hold his/her position for life? How does a case go to the Supreme Court? How does the voting process work? Is bias regulated? How do the nine justices represent the entire country?

=Day 2 - Tuesday July 13=

**__Objectives__** Students will be able to - research a topic of personal interest on the Supreme Court - evaluate a variety of internet resources for research - organize research findings on to a Mind Map using the program Inspiration - present research findings within the classroom and virtually using video chat = __**Activities/Lessons**__ =

__**Mind Map**__

= Closing Reflections = =What did you learn?= own research: the supreme court consists of 8 justices and one chief justice. the justices are nominated by the president if a justice retires or resigns. then the nomination is brought to the senate to approve. if the senate disapproves of the nomination a new justice is nominated by the president. the president cannot unseat a justice to nominate a new one and once a justice takes on the postition, he/she has to hold the position for life.

video chat: the Sc is not that diverse. there are mostly white justices. throughout history, there have only been 16 african american justices and two women. right now there are two women on the court. there have not been, to this date, an asian american justice.

Video Chatting reflection
the picture lags and sometimes there was an echo which makes trying to hear the other person difficult. this feature could be used by teachers to pre-record assignments and lessons. this would be very convenient for students to go online and have access to lessons which they could rewatch and review.

=Day 3 Wednesday July 14=

= Do Now = “You have been elected the new Mayor of Malden. Before leaving office, the old mayor gave jobs to several of his political friends but the paperwork hasn’t made it to the personnel office yet.

**A.** Should you 1) honor the jobs promised by the old mayor, or 2) cancel the jobs since they aren’t “officially” in the system yet? **B.** What are the possible negatives to denying these people their jobs? What are the possible positives to allowing them to take these jobs? **C.** Would it make a difference if the perspective employees had worked against you in the mayoral elections? A. I would honor the jobs because i would not want to disrupt how the old government operrated. moreover this would encourage better relations with the "political friends" and a new mayor would need connections. technically, their paperwork were not completed yet,but people of authority should not go back on their word or it would undermine their ethos. B. Perhaps the political friends have great influence in Malden's government and denying these people the jobs would possibly anger them and prevoke them to work against me. Allowing the jobs would assure the friends that you are willing to cooperate with them and would lead to better relations. C. if the friends had worked agianst me in the elections, there would have been a greater chance that i would deny them their jobs because i would want to completely reformat the government to work in favor of me.

I See It Means
The Supreme Court Glog [|http://amyz001.glogster.com/Supreme Court Glog/]



=Day 4 Thursday July 15=
 * __ Title: Podcast/Video of a Political Talkshow on a recent Supreme Court decision __**


 * Guided Questions: **
 * What are the key components to a political debate?
 * How do bipartisan politics get involved in Supreme Court Case decisions and the Justice Nomination process?

After the lesson, students will be able to:
 * Objectives: **
 * research current trends/decisions of the US Supreme Court
 * analyze and annotate court documents (majority/minority opinions) and expert analysis reports
 * discuss the details and ramifications of recent court cases and justice nominations
 * create a podcast that incorporates students' knowledge and various viewpoints about the situation

Holland is convicted of murdering an officer but while on death row, his lawyer failed to meet the one year deadline for filing an appeal. Holland then sues the state of Florida to prolong his deadline for filing an appeal due to his incompetent lawyer. The case reaching the Supreme Court and the court ruled in favor of Holland. media type="file" key="Podcast Holland vs Florida.mp3" width="240" height="20"
 * Podcast Final Project - Holland v. Florida**