GoPoPro Activities
Wheel of SCOTUS
Wheel of SCOTUS
Our Wheel of SCOTUS contains all 15 landmark Supreme Court Cases form the AP GoPo redesign.
Rules
You can play any way you like. Here are my rules.
Divide the class into 3 teams. Teams 1, 2, and 3.
Each students gets a Wheel of SCOTUS Review Sheet
Project the Wheel of SCOTUS so all the students can see.
The teacher spins the Wheel of SCOTUS.
Everyone must be silent. Anyone speaking out of turn is penalized one point for their entire team.
When the Wheel lands on a case, the first person to raise their hand gets to try first. Only that person may speak!
This lucky person has five seconds to state the main Constitutional significance of the case correctly.
You can play the role of fact checker, or you could assign two or three students to be the fact checkers (using textbooks, notes, or online resources to check facts) who determine if points are awarded. (Warning: You may need to fact check the checkers!)
If the person answers correctly their team gains one point.
If they are unable to answer in the allotted time, or if they answer incorrectly their team loses one point. (You might count double for Marbury v. Madison - just sayin’!)
If the case is correctly answered, remove it from the wheel with the REMOVE button from the online game board below.
If the case is not correctly answered, keep the case in the game with the CLOSE button from the online game board below.
All students should take notes on correct answers in their Wheel of SCOTUS Review Sheet.
At the end of class all students should have their review sheets completed.
Repeat until there are no cases left on the wheel. The team with the most points wins.
You could (if you believe in this sort of thing) award extra credit points base don the final score.
Required Supreme Court Cases
Marbury v. Madison, 1803*
McCulloch v. Maryland, 1819*
Brown v. Board of Education, 1954*
Gideon v. Wainwright, 1963*
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 1969*
Roe v. Wade, 1973*
United States v. Lopez, 1995*
Baker v. Carr, 1961*
Engel v. Vitale, 1962*
New York Times Company v. U.S., 1971*
Schenck v. United States, 1919*
McDonald v. Chicago, 2010*
Shaw v. Reno, 1993*
Wisconsin v. Yoder, 1972*
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC), 2010*
Selective Incorporation
Compelling Question
What civil liberties do you have and what's to stop the government from taking them away?
History of US Civil Liberties
1)What are your civil liberties?
Do BOTH of the following:
List as many civil liberties as you can:
Rank those civil liberties from most to least important:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
1 sentence, 45 words, 5 rights. This sentence is so important that we will spend a whole lot of time analyzing and discussing it.
Do BOTH of the following:
Turn those 45 words into a 140 character Tweet:
Use your phone or device to turn those 5 rights into emojis. For example, Freedom of religion =
2)How did we get the rights we have?
Our rights are guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. But the Constitution only prevents the federal government from infringing on your rights. Does the Constitution stop state & local governments from infringing on your rights?
No. It only protected your rights from being infringed by the federal government. It says nothing about state & local governments infringing on your rights.
So does that mean that the states can deprive you of your First Amendment rights today?
No. Because of a few major historical steps:
The 14th Amendment (1868)
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
What the heck does this mean?
This due process clause of the 14th Amendment states that the same rules that stop the national government from restricting your rights apply to the states as well.
Gitlow versus New York
In Gitlow versus New York (1925) The Court ruled that just as the national government could not violate your rights from the Bill of Rights, neither could the state governments.
After this the Court began to incorporate most of the provisions of the Bill of Rights to all people in all states through due process clause. This is probably the most important constitutional development since the writing of the Constitution.
Look at the following charts on Selective Incorporation
Then in 1961, Mapp v Ohio incorporated the 4th Amendment, and soon other amendments would follow.
Do ALL of the following:
Based on what you have learned, write a concise definition of selective incorporation:
Make a timeline of the expansion of civil liberties for all Americans with a picture or photograph for at least 8 major points on the timeline.
Write a letter to the governor and legislature of your state explaining to them whether they have to power to restrict your freedom of speech.
3)What is the state of our rights today?
Read the most recent State of the First Amendment, paying close attention to the charts and graphs.
Use your knowledge of American civil liberties, your reading of the State of the First Amendment, and the following charts to answer the questions below.
On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 meaning that our rights are absolutely protected, and 10 meaning that we have no rights, assign a number and then describe our current state of the First Amendment:
Imagine you are arguing a case before the Supreme Court. Construct a concise and compelling argument explaining exactly what can stop the government from taking away our civil liberties.
What would you say to a member of the public who says the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees?
Our civil liberties are guaranteed in the Consti - freaking - tution. Does it really matter what the public thinks about civil liberties?
Compelling Question Review
What civil liberties do you have and what's to stop the government from taking them away?
Hypothetical Extension
Imagine a U.S. where the ruling in Gitlow v New York was reversed, and selective incorporation never happened. Describe a road trip across this nation in a 1 page travel guide.
Action Extension
Use one of the following methods to explaining to your fellow citizens the state of civil liberties in America today.
Letter to the editor
v-blog
Prezi
infographic