Multiple Perspectives Lesson Plan
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MN BOT Standards: Time, Continuity, and Change: Through the study of the past and its legacy,
learners examine the institutions, values, and beliefs of people in the past, acquire skills in
historical inquiry and interpretation, and gain an understanding of how important historical
events developments have shaped the modern world
Understandings: Historical knowledge and the concept of time as socially influenced
construction that lead historians to be selective in questions they seek to answer and in the
evidence they use
Learning Objective:
o Different interpretation of the influences of social, geographic, economic, and cultural
factors on the history of local areas, states, nations, and the world
o Contributions of philosophies, ideologies, individuals, institutions, and key events and
turning point in shaping history
o Importance of knowledge of the past to an understanding of the present and to
informed decision-making about the future
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o Course Level: 9 - 12 grade (more so 11 and 12 grade)
Assessment Evidence
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What do you want the students to know?
o Understand the how the Supreme court gets a court case
o Analyze the importance a decision is on the nation and as a citizen/student
o Recognize and comprehend vocabulary (can be confusing)
o Recognize importance of a swing vote and the affect it can play in the judiciary system
o What do you want your students to be able to do?
 Apply the court decisions to how it affects the students' lives
 Go beyond the decision and think of the consequences if it was an alternate
decision
 Group Accountability (Formative)
 Presentation points
 Group answers all the questions from worksheet
 Individual Accountability (Summative)
 Person answers their question during their presentation for
points
 Grade on participation quiz at end for listening
Learning Plan
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Key Vocabulary/Language:
o Dissenting decision
o Petitioner/Appellant
o Respondent/Appellee
o Affirmative action
o Precedent
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Swing Vote
Judicial Review
Supremacy clause
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How does key vocabulary help enable students meet learning objective?
o There are many key words that have special meaning into the judiciary courts. Students
must understand the vocab before they can understand the trial they will be reading.
o Guideline:
 What is the importance of the Supreme Court?
 How does the Supreme Court's decision affect an individual, the population, and
nation?
 What if the ruling was alternate?
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How differentiate for all learners?
o I will divide the classroom into groups upon learning capability and student's individual
interest (help keep certain students interested in the project).
o Materials needed/resources required
 4 separate court case papers
 Worksheet guideline
 http://womenshistory.about.com/od/abortionuslegal/p/roe_v_wade.htm
 http://civilliberty.about.com/od/abortion/qt/roe_wade_whatif.htm
 http://www.gale.cengage.com/free_resources/whm/trials/roe.htm
 http://civilliberty.about.com/od/guncontrol/tp/District-of-Columbia-vHeller.htm
 http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20080915monda
y.html
 http://uspolitics.about.com/od/supremecourt/p/swing_vote.htm
 http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/supreme-court-case-study-bush-vgore.html
 http://www.npr.org/news/specials/michigan/
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Schedule of Activities
Day One
Read How a Case Gets to the United States Supreme Court handout as in introduction to
the topic as a class (Group reading). This will familiarize the students with the judiciary courts.
I'll ask questions to see how much the kids understand and what we need to focus on before we
go to the cases. Cover all the questions and the vocabulary.
Divide the classroom into five groups (But they don't have to separate because there
won't be enough time to get to questions). Each group will be given a specific Supreme Court
case and material for the case. The students should individually read their case. Student's should
have examined the questions and wrote down ideas and bring to class the next day.
(Cases material later in lesson plan)
Day Two
Have students get into groups. As a group they must become experts on their case and
be able to present it to the class. Each student must answer one question and be in charge of
telling the class the answer to room. Today the students work on project together and present
next day.
(See below for worksheet for presentation)
Day Three
Each group presents and class discussion after each case. End of the hour I will ask
five random questions from the presentations for participation points.
Summary
We often hear and learn the rulings of the Supreme Court. But what does that
matter? This lesson plan was implanted for exactly that question. What does this ruling mean
and what becomes of it is what I want the students to draw to realize. I want them to go beyond
just learning but rather applying it to their lives. The cases they individually read and the one's
their classmates will be learning about will allow them to grasp a larger perspective one five
different Supreme Court cases. I chose cases that became a 5-4 vote. This way the emphasis of
what if the split Justice ruled the other way would make the question more possible.
The students have to independently conclude how a court case could affect them. That
draws in to aspects of political opinion, personal beliefs and values impacted in their lives
through culture. Because it is focusing on political organization the students must learn and
understand the concept of where the power is coming from and how and who these laws affect
society to stay cohesive.
My Notes
dissenting opinion- a decision written by a justice in the
minority in a particular case in which the justice wishes to
express his/her reasoning in the case
A petitioner is a person who pleads with governmental institution for a legal remedy or a redress
of grievances, through use of a petition.
In the courts the petitioner (sometimes called the plaintiff) may seek a legal remedy if the
state or another private person has acted unlawfully. Then they will submit a plea to a court to
resolve the dispute.
TO the government: On the other hand, the petitioner may be complaining against the law it to
"... make no law... abridging... the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the
government for redress of grievances".
A petitioner need not seek a change to an existing law. Often, petitioners speak against (or in
support of) legislative proposals as these progress.
Respondent: one who answers in various legal proceedings (as in equity cases) (2) : the
prevailing party in the lower court
appellee n. in some jurisdictions the name used for the party who has won at the trial court level,
but the loser (appellant) has appealed the decision to a higher court. Thus the appellee has to file
a response to the legal brief filed by the appellant. In many jurisdictions the appellee is called the
"respondent".
appellant
n
1. a person who appeals
2. (Law) Law the party who appeals to a higher court from the decision of a lower tribunal
adj
Affirmative action: government policies or programs that seek to address past injustices against
specified efforts to provide members of these groups with access to educational and employment
opportunities
Judicial Review- power of the courts to review and, if necessary, declare actions of the
legislative and executive branches invalid or unconstitutional
Supremacy Clause-Article VI of constitution-laws passed by the national government and all
treaties "shall be the supreme Law of the Land" and superior to all laws adopted by any state or
any subdivisions, reviewed by the Courts
Precedent- prior case whose principles are used by judges as the basis for their decisions in
present cases
*most cases reach the supreme court through writ of certiorari -is granted whenever four of the
nine justices agree to review a decision of a lower court. An individual who loses in lower
courts can file a petition within 90 days for a writ of certiorari
CASE WORKSHEET AND PRESENTATION OUTLINE
What year did your court case take place? ________________________________________
Who (people, state, institution, organization) was involved in your case?
______________________________________________________________________________
Who was the appellant? _________________________________________________________
Who was the appellee? __________________________________________________________
Who won in the first court hearing?
______________________________________________________________________________
Second court? ____________________________________________________________
Supreme Court Ruling?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
What was the Supreme Court's reasoning (think of precedents and laws of the land)?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
What if the Supreme Court ruled the decision the other way?..... so answer these questions:
What would have been the alternative ruling?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
What consiquences would it had on the parties involved in the
case?_________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
How would have the ruling affected the nation
(America)?____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
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How would have it affected you personally (each person in the group needs to have a answer on
this. This is where each person's answer can be different)?
GROUP ONE - CASE 1: Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) (5-4) decision affirmative action
Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)
Issue: Affirmative Action in College
Bottom Line: Colleges Can Use Race as a Factor in Admissions
Background
In 1997, Barbara Grutter, a white Michigan resident, was denied admission to the University of
Michigan Law School. Grutter, who had a 3.8 undergraduate grade point average and good
standardized test scores, sued the university over the law school's affirmative action policy,
which considered race as a factor in admissions. Michigan and many other universities use
affirmative action to increase the number of minority students admitted. Grutter claimed that
Michigan admitted less-qualified minority applicants in violation of federal civil rights laws and
the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees citizens "equal protection" under the law.
Ruling
The Supreme Court upheld the use of affirmative action in higher education. "Student-body
diversity is a compelling state interest that can justify the use of race in university admissions,"
the Court said. But the Court emphasized that the University of Michigan's policy was acceptable
because the school conducted a thorough review of each applicant's qualifications and did not
use a racial quota system, meaning it did not set aside a specific number of offers for minority
applicants.
Impact
Affirmative action, which has its origins in a 1961 executive order issued by President John F.
Kennedy, continues to be a contentious issue, with critics charging that it amounts to reverse
discrimination. Since 1996, voters in three states; California, Washington, and, most recently,
Michigan have approved laws banning affirmative action in public education, in state
government hiring, and the awarding of state contracts. (At Upfrontmagazine.com: a look at the
Court's decision in June limiting the use of race in public school integration plans.)
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20080915monday.html
June 23, 2003 -- In its first ruling on affirmative action in higher education admissions in 25
years, the nation's highest court ruled Monday that race can be used in university admission
decisions. But the narrowly divided court also seemed to put limits on how much of a factor race
can play in giving minority students an advantage in the admissions process.
The U.S. Supreme Court justices decided on two separate but parallel cases -- they voted 5-4 to
uphold the University of Michigan's law school affirmative action policy, which favors
minorities. But in a 6-3 vote, the justices struck down the affirmative action policy for
undergraduate admissions, which awards 20 points for blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans
on an admissions rating scale.
The cases tested whether the university is allowed to discriminate because it values diversity in
its student body, or whether discrimination is only justified to reverse past racial injustice.
The pivotal case, Grutter v. Bollinger, involved the university's law school. Barbara Grutter, who
is white, applied for admission there in 1996. She was rejected. She investigated and found out
that African Americans and ethnic minorities who had lower overall admissions scores were
admitted. Grutter sued, saying she was a victim of illegal discrimination.
Grutter's lawyers argued that the admissions program at the university's law school was
unconstitutional. They based the argument on a 1978 case, Regents of the University of
California v. Bakke, where the court ruled that a school could take race and ethnicity into
account -- but couldn't use quotas. Instead, admissions programs must be "narrowly tailored" to
harm as few people as possible.
Grutter and her supporters won the first round in U.S. District Court, but lost in a close decision
in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers the states of Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and
Tennessee. The majority of appellate court justices sided with the university view that a diverse
student body has its own benefits, and that a "points" system for admission that takes the race of
the applicant into account in an overall score wasn't a quota. Grutter appealed that ruling to the
Supreme Court.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was the eventual deciding vote in Grutter, saying that affirmative
action is still needed in America -- but hoped that its days are numbered. "We expect that 25
years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest
approved today."
http://www.npr.org/news/specials/michigan/
GROUP TWO- CASE TWO: District of Columbia v. Heller (2008)
In 2002, Robert A. Levy, a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, began vetting plaintiffs for a
planned Second Amendment lawsuit that he would personally finance.
In February 2003, six residents of Washington, D.C. filed a lawsuit in the District Court for the
District of Columbia, challenging the constitutionality of provisions of the Firearms Control
Regulations Act of 1975, a local law (part of the District of Columbia Code). This law restricted
residents from owning handguns.
It challenged the law in federal enclaves like the District of Columbia and did not apply to the
states.
The Court ruled 5 to 4 a total ban on operative handguns in the home is unconstitutional.
In District of Columbia v. Heller, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a law on Second
Amendment grounds for the first time in U.S. history.
Case Background
The Firearms Control Regulation Act of 1975, a local DC law, bans the possession of handguns
within the District of Columbia. Six residents challenged it in 2003; their case was initially
dismissed, but was upheld 2-1 by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals in 2007. The U.S. Supreme
Court agreed to hear the case, and issued a ruling on June 26th, 2008.
The Majority Opinion
In an exhaustive 5-4 majority opinion that examines the history of gun laws, and textual evidence
from the British colonial era supporting a right to bear arms, Justice Antonin Scalia held that
"[t]he Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with
service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes." Firearms may be only
banned if they are "unusual and dangerous"--a standard that the handgun, the most common
firearm in the United States, does not meet.
The majority opinion was joined by justices Alito, Kennedy, and Thomas, and by chief justice
Roberts.
Impact on Existing Gun Control Legislation
In the opinion, Scalia is careful to point out that the ruling should not be read as striking down
most gun control laws. "[N]othing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding
prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws prohibiting the
carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws
imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms." All laws completely
prohibiting the possession of handguns are, however, struck down by this opinion.
Justice Stevens' Dissent
In a dissent that is almost as comprehensive and exhaustive as that of Justice Scalia, Justice
Stevens (joined by justices Breyer, Ginsburg, and Souter) argues that the majority's broad
interpretation of the Second Amendment is inconsistent with the Framers' original intent. "The
Court would have us believe," Stevens writes, "that over 200 years ago, the Framers made a
choice to limit the tools available to elected officials wishing to regulate civilian uses of
weapons, and to authorize this Court to use the common-law process of case-by-case judicial
lawmaking to define the contours of acceptable gun control policy ... [and] I could not possibly
conclude that the Framers made such a choice."
Justice Breyer's Dissent
In a separate dissent, joined by justices Ginsburg, Souter, and Stevens, Justice Stephen Breyer
argues that preventing urban gun violence is a compelling state interest met by the handgun ban.
"In my view," Breyer writes, "there simply is no untouchable constitutional right guaranteed by
the Second Amendment to keep loaded handguns in the house in crime-ridden urban areas."
The Second Amendment
The Supreme Court has weighed in on most civil liberties issues, but has been conspicuously shy
about enforcing the Second Amendment. This is partly because there is considerable
disagreement among legal scholars about what the amendment actually says (see "Does the
Second Amendment Protect the Right to Bear Arms?"), a disagreement that is not helped by the
fact that it is poorly written and refers to an institution (the "well-regulated militia") that may or
may not technically still exist.
Robert Longley of About.com: U.S. Government Info has produced a useful short timeline of
Second Amendment history.
The Gun Control Debate
In the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy, About.com: U.S. Liberal Politics guide Deborah White
and I had a brief exchange about the role of gun rights in our democracy. You can read it here:
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Does America Value Gun Rights More Than Students? (Deborah White / About.com: U.S. Liberal
Politics)
Our Freedoms, Our Lives (Tom Head / About.com: Civil Liberties)
http://civilliberty.about.com/od/guncontrol/tp/District-of-Columbia-v-Heller.htm
GROUP THREE- CASE THREE: Near v. Minnesota 1931
Appellant: J.M. Near
Appellee: State of Minnesota, ex rel. Floyd B. Olson, County Attorney of Hennepin County
Appellant's Claim: That a state "gag law" preventing publication of his newspaper violated the
First Amendment freedom of the press.
Chief Lawyers for Appellant: Weymouth Kirkland and T.E. Latimer
Chief Lawyers for Appellee: James E. Markham and Arthur L. Markve
Justices for the Court: Louis D. Brandeis, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Evans Hughes
(writing for the Court), Owen Josephus Roberts, Harlan Fiske Stone
Justices Dissenting: Pierce Butler, James Clark McReynolds, George Sutherland, Willis Van
Devanter
Date of Decision: June 1, 1931
Decision: The law violated the freedom of the press.
Significance: This was the first time the Supreme Court declared that "prior restraints" on
publication violated the First Amendment.
True or false?
In 1925, Minnesota passed a law called the Minnesota Gag Law. The law allowed judges to stop
the publication of any newspaper that created a scandal or defamed (lied about) a person. The
law was designed to fight "yellow journalism," which was a trend in the newspaper industry in
the 1920s to print exaggerated or false stories.
J.M. Near published a newspaper in Minneapolis, Minnesota, called The Saturday Press. Near's
prejudice against Catholics, Jews, and African Americans showed through in The Saturday
Press. The newspaper, however, also printed articles about corruption in city politics, and many
of them were true.
From September through November 1927, The Saturday Press published a series of articles that
said Minneapolis was being controlled by a Jewish gangster. The articles accused the city mayor,
county attorney, and chief of police of accepting bribes and refusing to stop the gangster. On
behalf of the state of Minnesota, the county attorney sued Near and The Saturday Press. He
charged them with violating the Gag Law by publishing scandalous and defamatory (untrue)
material that lied about public officials.
Near tried to get the lawsuit thrown out of court. He argued that the Gag Law violated the First
Amendment freedom of the press, which says "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the
freedom . . . of the press." Under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, states
also must obey the freedom of the press.
The trial judge rejected Near's defense and decided that The Saturday Press was scandalous and
defamatory. He issued an order preventing Near from publishing the newspaper in the future.
Near appealed the order all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
No prior restraints
In a close decision, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to declare the Minnesota Gag Law
unconstitutional. Writing for the Court, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes started by
confirming what the Court had decided six years earlier. The First Amendment freedom of the
press is one of the liberties, or freedoms, protected by the Fourteenth Amendment from state
interference. This means that all states, including Minnesota, must obey the freedom of the press.
Chief Justice Hughes went on to explain the meaning of the freedom of the press. He told the
story of how publishers in England used to need approval from government or church officials
before publishing books. Justice Hughes said that the First Amendment was designed to avoid
such "prior restraints" on publication. America's founders did not want the government to have
the power to stop a publisher from printing what the government did not like. In fact, America's
founders thought it was important for the public to be informed about the government's bad
deeds so the public could be aware of and fight any government corruption.
Justice Hughes decided that the Minnesota Gag Law violated the First Amendment. Preventing
Near from printing The Saturday Press in the future was a prior restraint on publication. Justice
Hughes said that if the newspaper lied about public officials, those officials could sue for libel.
(Libel is the publication of false information that hurts a person's reputation.) The public,
however, had a right to hear about government misconduct, and the First Amendment allowed
The Saturday Press to print such stories.
Decency denied
For himself and three others, Justice Pierce Butler wrote a dissenting opinion, meaning he
disagreed with the Court's decision. Justice Butler thought the freedom of the press only protects
the right to print "what is true, with good motives and for justifiable ends." He did not think it
gave publishers the right to print material that ruins another person's reputation.
In fact, Justice Butler said that the Minnesota Gag Law was not a "prior restraint." The law
punished Near and The Saturday Press only after they printed defamatory (untrue) material. It
told them they could not print such material again. Justice Butler said the Court's decision
threatened peace by allowing publishers to print lies about anyone.
Near's Legacy
Near has had the effect that Justice Hughes predicted and that Justice Butler feared. On the good
side, it has allowed the press to be a government watchdog. For example, in 1971, the Supreme
Court used Near to rule that the federal government could not stop newspapers from printing an
embarrassing report about the government's involvement in the Vietnam War.
Like Justice Butler feared, however, some "tabloid" publishers today abuse the freedom of the
press by printing crazy stories about people with animal bodies and babies that weigh 1,000
pounds. When these tabloids print lies about actual people, like politicians or celebrities, the
injured person must file a libel lawsuit to protect his reputation.
FOUR HORSEMEN
The dissenters in Near, Justices Pierce Butler, James Clark McReynolds, George Sutherland, and
Willis Van Devanter, often voted together. By convincing just one more justice to vote with
them, they were able to control the result in many of Supreme Court cases. Because of this
power, they were called the Four Horsemen. This name was a comparison to Notre Dame's
undefeated football offense in 1924, and to the horsemen described in the Bible's prediction of
the end of the world.
In the 1930s, the Four Horsemen frequently voted against laws passed by Congress to help
America get out of the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a time when many
Americans lost their jobs and had trouble providing food for their families. Despite the severity
of the Great Depression, the Four Horsemen saw a greater danger from passing laws that violated
the U.S. Constitution. In Near, however, they were unable to stop the Court from strengthening
the freedom of the press.
http://www.enotes.com/supreme-court-drama/near-v-minnesota
GROUP FOUR -CASE FOUR: California v. Ciraolo (1986)
and Florida v. Riley
Petitioner: State of California
Respondent: Dante Carlo Ciraolo
Petitioner's Claim: That the police did not violate the Fourth Amendment by searching
Ciraolo's backyard from an airplane without a warrant.
Chief Lawyer for Petitioner: Laurence K. Sullivan, Deputy Attorney General of California
Chief Lawyer for Respondent: Marshall Warren Krause
Justices for the Court: Warren E. Burger, Sandra Day O'Connor, William H. Rehnquist, John
Paul Stevens, Byron R. White
Justices Dissenting: Harry A. Blackmun, William J. Brennan, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Lewis F.
Powell, Jr.
Date of Decision: May 19, 1986
Decision: The Supreme Court said the search did not violate the Fourth Amendment.
Significance: With Ciraolo, the Supreme Court said people in enclosed yards cannot expect
privacy from air traffic above.
A person's right to privacy is guaranteed under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The Fourth Amendment requires any searches and seizures by the government to be reasonable.
In most cases, law enforcement officers must get a warrant to search a house or other private
place for evidence of a crime. To get a warrant, officers must have probable cause, or believe the
place to be searched has evidence of a crime.
In Oliver v. United States (1984), the Supreme Court said people can expect privacy not just
inside their houses, but in the curtilage too. The curtilage is the yard that a person encloses or
considers to be private. Because the curtilage is private, law enforcement officers usually must
have a warrant and probable cause to search it. In California v. Ciraolo, the U.S. Supreme Court
had to decide whether the police violated the Fourth Amendment by searching a backyard from
an airplane without a warrant.
Flying Low
Dante Carlo Ciraolo lived in Santa Clara, California. On September 2, 1982, Santa Clara police
received an anonymous tip that Ciraolo was growing marijuana in his backyard. The police could
not see the backyard from the ground because Ciraolo enclosed it with a six-foot outer fence and
a ten-foot inner fence. Later that day, Officer Shutz hired a private plane to fly him and Officer
Rodriguez over Ciraolo's backyard at an altitude of 1,000 feet.
Shutz and Rodriguez both were trained in marijuana identification. From the airplane they saw
marijuana plants growing eight- to ten-feet high in a fifteen-by-twenty-five-foot plot. The
officers photographed Ciraolo's backyard and those of surrounding neighbors. Six days later they
used the photographs and their observations to get a warrant to search Ciraolo's entire house and
yard. During the search they seized seventy-three marijuana plants.
Florida charged Ciraolo with cultivating, or growing, marijuana. At his trial, Ciraolo asked the
court to suppress, or get rid of, the marijuana evidence against him. When the government
violates the Fourth Amendment, it may not use the evidence it finds to convict the defendant.
Ciraolo said Officers Shutz and Rodriguez violated the Fourth Amendment by searching his
backyard from an airplane without a warrant.
The trial court denied Ciraolo's motion, so he pleaded guilty to the charge against him and
appealed to the California Court of Appeals. That court reversed his conviction, saying the police
violated the Fourth Amendment. Faced with having to dismiss its case against Ciraolo,
California took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
High Court Rules
With a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court reversed and ruled in favor of California. Writing for the
Court, Chief Justice Warren E. Burger said the Fourth Amendment only protects reasonable
expectations of privacy. By putting a fence around his yard, Ciraolo had a reasonable expectation
that nobody would invade his privacy from the ground.
FLORIDA V. RILEY
Three years after deciding Ciraolo, the Supreme Court decided another case involving aerial
surveillance. In Florida v. Riley, police used a helicopter to hover 400 feet over a greenhouse
that had two panels missing from its roof. From the helicopter they were able to see and
photograph marijuana plants through the open panels. At his trial for possession of marijuana,
Michael A. Riley asked the court to suppress the marijuana evidence because the police violated
the Fourth Amendment.
The trial court ruled in Riley's favor, but the Supreme Court reversed. Relying on its decision in
Ciraolo, the Court said Riley could not expect privacy from helicopters hovering above his
greenhouse. In a dissenting opinion, Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., warned that the Court was
creating a dictatorial society such as George Orwell described in his novel 1984:
The black-mustachio'd face gazed down from every commanding corner. There was one on the
house front immediately opposite. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said. . . .
In the far distance a helicopter skimmed down between the roofs, hovered for an instant like a
bluebottle, and darted away again with a curving flight. It was the Police Patrol, swooping into
people's windows.
Ciraolo did not, however, cover his yard from the airspace above. It was unreasonable for
Ciraolo to think that nobody would see his yard from airplanes and other flying machines. After
all, public airplanes were allowed to fly over Ciraolo's yard at the same height flown by Officers
Shutz and Rodriguez. Quoting from a prior Supreme Court case, Burger said, "What a person
knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of Fourth
Amendment protection."
Because Ciraolo could not expect privacy from above his backyard, the police did not need a
warrant to search from the airplane. "The Fourth Amendment simply does not require the police
traveling in the public airways at this altitude to obtain a warrant to observe what is visible to the
naked eye."
Low Down Dirty Shame
Four justices dissented, which means they disagreed with the Court's decision. Justice Lewis F.
Powell, Jr., wrote a dissenting opinion. He said Ciraolo did all he needed to do to protect privacy
in his backyard by erecting fences. The Court's decision called Ciraolo's privacy expectation
reasonable on the ground but unreasonable from the air. That meant police could not use a ladder
to see into Ciraolo's yard, but they could use an airplane.
Powell said that in reality, public and commercial airplane passengers cannot see backyards very
well from the air. That means people do not expect invasions of privacy from airplanes. The
police were able to see Ciraolo's backyard only because they hired a plane that positioned them
to see the marijuana plot. Letting them do that without a search warrant was unfaithful to
privacy, which is what the Fourth Amendment is supposed to protect.
http://www.enotes.com/supreme-court-drama/california-v-ciraolo
GROUP FIVE - CASE FIVE: Bush v. Gore (2000)
Perhaps no event better illustrates the power of the United States Supreme Court than the
resolution of the 2000 presidential election. Just when you thought the separation of powers issue
had been settled once and for all, the Court stepped in to adjudicate who had won the biggest
political contest of all. Legions of Court watchers, law professors, media commentators, and
armchair legal analysts across the country thought the Court's willingness to step into the fray
was a major misstep. Still, somebody had to decide who's in charge!
Background info
Election night 2000 was a cliffhanger that went on for weeks. Many people went to bed that
night thinking that Al Gore had won, only to discover in the morning that George W. Bush had
been declared the winner. In fact, the election was simply too close to call. Several states were up
for grabs, but in the end it came down to one: Florida, where Bush's younger brother, Jeb, was
governor. Florida electors were unable to commit themselves to either Bush or Gore owing to the
closeness of the vote. Brush fires erupted in several precincts where the candidates' surrogates
traded allegations about various improprieties. Recounts were started, then stopped as
Republicans and Democrats wrangled over what standards to apply. It was more than a little
chaotic.
The Court steps in
The Supreme Court actually interposed itself into the election contest three times. Only the last
two are known as Bush v. Gore. In the first of these cases, Bush v. Palm Beach County
Canvassing Board, the Court hoped to end the election crisis by putting a stop to the Florida
Supreme Court's decision to extend the time for certifying the vote past the period set by state
law. But by the time the Court began hearing arguments in the appeal on December 1, the
certification had already occurred. The embarrassed justices sent the case back down to the
Florida Supreme Court, instructing the lower court to rewrite its opinion so that it would not
create a conflict between state and federal law.
A week later, the Florida Supreme Court ordered a statewide recount of ballots. Unlike its earlier
decision, however, this one was not unanimous. With the Florida justices split 4-3, the U.S.
Supreme Court once again exercised its discretionary appellate review jurisdiction and granted
certiorari, or review, to Bush v. Gore. The day after the Florida Supreme Court had ordered a
recount, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a temporary stay, or delay, in enforcing the Florida
Supreme Court's order. The U.S. Supreme Court justices, too, were narrowly divided, 5-4. The
five justices voting in favor of the stay were the same five conservatives who had been moving
the Rehnquist Court to the right for more than a decade. The first hearing of Bush v. Gore
telegraphed to the nation what would happen if the Court took further action in the case.
The Court's third and final intervention in the 2000 presidential election came just days later. In
its unsigned opinion, the Court explained that it had voted 5-4 to put a stop to the Florida
recount. Allowing the recount to go forward, the Court said, would violate the Equal Protection
Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court sent the case back down to the
Florida Supreme Court, which had no alternative but to dismiss it. The presidential election of
2000 had been decided, in essence, by the vote of one Supreme Court justice.
Needless to say, the George W. Bush camp was jubilant. Al Gore supporters were incensed.
Many people were simply happy to have things settled. But others worried that the Court had
gone too far. In the past, in landmark cases like Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which put
an end to legal segregation, and United States v. Nixon (1974), which led to the first presidential
resignation under threat of impeachment, were unanimously decided. After Bush v. Gore, the
concern was that the Court had not only overreached itself but undermined its authority by not
speaking with one voice. That split decision, 5-4, suggested that Bush v. Gore was a political, not
a judicial, decision.
Precedents
Bush v. Gore wasn't the Court's first foray into the realm of king making. The election of 1876
pitted Samuel J. Tilden, the Democratic governor of New York, against Rutherford B. Hayes, the
Republican governor of Ohio. After the votes had been counted, it seemed that Tilden had won
the popular vote and had 184 uncontested electoral votes to Hayes's 165. The magic number was
185 electoral votes. Twenty votes of the Electoral College were still up for grabs, however - all
but one of them in the southern states of Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina. (The exception
was Oregon. They always have marched to a different drummer.)
The Twelfth Amendment stipulates that in a contested presidential election, "The President of
the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives, open all the
certificates and the votes shall then be counted." Because in 1876 Congress was equally divided
between Democrats and Republicans, the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democratcontrolled House set up an electoral commission to decide who would become president. The
Senate chose three Republicans and two Democrats to sit on the commission, and the House
chose two Democrats and three Republicans. The remainder of the commission was to consist of
five justices of the Supreme Court. The bill setting up the commission named two Republican
justices and two Democratic justices, but let those four select their own nonpartisan tiebreaker.
The only truly neutral member of the Court at the time was David Davis. But Davis resigned
from the Court almost immediately, leaving only Republican justices as alternatives. Joseph
Bradley, seemingly the least partisan of those remaining, was selected as the final member of the
commission. To no one's great surprise, the commission voted along party lines, selecting the
Republican Hayes. Democrats, who were mostly Southerners, cried foul, claiming that Davis,
and perhaps Bradley, had been subjected to political blackmail. When the uproar threatened to
derail the orderly transfer of power, a deal was struck. The Republicans agreed to withdraw the
federal troops still occupying the South in the wake of the Civil War, to appropriate funds for
Southern improvement, and to appoint at least one Southerner to the cabinet. In return, the
Democrats agreed not to delay Hayes's inauguration. It was a flat-out political deal, and ever
since its implementation, the Court has been criticized for having played a part in what many
saw as outright log rolling.
And the winner is . . .
Why, then, did the Supreme Court agree to get back into the fray after the election of 2000? In a
sense, the justices had no choice. When the contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore
proved too close to call, the contestants resorted to a series of lawsuits in an effort to settle the
matter. These suits proceeded simultaneously in the state court system and in federal court. The
cases largely concerned the matter and manner of vote counting (and recounting) in the pivotal
state of Florida. There were charges of voter intimidation, ballot rigging - all manner of political
shenanigans. Something had to be done.
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/supreme-court-case-study-bush-v-gore.html
How a Case Gets to the United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States is often referred to as the "Court of Last Resort,"
because it is the highest court in the United States; there is no court with higher authority. Also,
except for specific limited case types specifically listed in Article III of the Constitution, all cases
that reach the Supreme Court have been heard and are on appeal from the decisions of lower
courts across the nation.
Once a case works its way through the lower courts, a party may petition to have their case heard
by the Supreme Court. However, the Supreme Court of the United States has great latitude in
which cases it will hear. The Supreme Court receives thousands of requests to hear cases, which
are called petitions for certiorari. Of these many requests, the Justices will agree to hear only a
handful, generally less than 100, cases per term. The Supreme Court's term begins the first
Monday of October and ends the first Monday of October the following year. In 2010, the
Supreme Court term begins on October 4th. In order for a case to be heard before the Supreme
Court, four of the nine Justices of the court must agree to hear the case.
If certiorari is granted, the time frame for the parties involved in the case is set. The petitioner
(the party that has requested the Court review the case), has 45 days to file their "brief on the
merits", which lays out their arguments to the court. The respondents (the other party) then has
30 days to respond. Amicus (friend of the court) brief filing deadlines are a few days after the
deadline for the side that they support. These times are set by the rules of the Court, and may
only be extended with the permission of the Court.
The next step for the case will be oral arguments before the Supreme Court. The case will be
placed on the Court's calendar for some time in the Fall or the Spring. And when the day comes,
one attorney for each side will stand before the Justices for their oral argument and will present
their case to the Justices. The attorneys will have only a set time (generally 30 minutes apiece) to
plead their case before the Court. However, any Justice may interrupt at any point to ask
questions or debate a point with the attorney; so the attorney must think quickly on their feet, and
know the law and their case inside and out. So even though an attorney has 30 minutes to plead
their side of the case, Justices' questions and attorneys' answers can go on for much longer.
After oral arguments, the Court will deliberate on the matter, and will release a written opinion at
some point before the term in which the case was argued ends. Opinions are generally released
on Thursdays, but it is not known when the opinion for a specific case will be released. Once the
opinion is released, it will represent the law of the land, and creates precedence that will shape
future laws and court decisions that are binding throughout the United States of America.
http://www.theeca.com/how_a_case_gets_to_the_united_states_supreme_court