The Judicial Branch, Day 4 - Class Recap

This is me in college, while I was studying abroad in London, which happened to coincide with a Star Wars convention! I was pretty excited to see a to scale model of an X-Wing! Photo taken in 2007.

Hi everyone,

Welcome back from your weekend! I enjoyed starting the mock trials today in class. Here's what happened today:

Learning Targets Addressed:

Knowledge LT 5: I can demonstrate an understanding of the principles, structures, and functions of different levels of U.S. government.

Soundtrack: "Duel of the Fates" from Star Wars. Selected because today is May The Fourth (Be With You) and because you had an epic battle awaiting you with the religion test. No lyrics, but listen here.

AGENDA 5/4/15:
News Brief – Kirstin
Mock Trial Prep
Present Cases
The National Judiciary

Homework: Read the blog. Look at your grade and improve it, if possible! Next news brief: Aldo.

News Brief: Kirstin had the news brief today and did not remember to bring it in, so we moved on, and I opened my Portland School Board election mail ballot in front of the class! This was fun for me to do as a Government teacher, and to explain how voting in Oregon works. If you are 17 and not already registered to vote, here's the online enrollment form:

Oregon Secretary of State: Voter Registration

Yay for participating in our democracy! :-)

Mock Trial Prep: I gave the class about 20-25 minutes to finish preparing to present the four cases in the mock trial. Again, I know this was somewhat complicated, but I think we got the hang of it eventually! To help with understanding the process for how the Supreme Court takes and decides cases, we watched these two videos:

These videos were pretty cheesy (and older), but did a good job of explaining what happens!

Present Cases: During class, we were only able to get to two cases. The first was Morse v. Frederick, involving the humorous (but serious Constitutional issue) of a student holding a "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" sign outside of a school in Alaska as an Olympic torch relay went by. In class, the judges found 4-1 for Frederick (the student) in being able to do this as protected free speech. In the actual case, the judges ruled for Morse. Here is the overview:

Oyez.org - Morse v. Frederick

Next, we did a mock trial for the Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 case. This was looking at issues of racial diversity in schools, as well as students being able to attend their own neighborhood school. In class, the judges split 3-2 on this, with the parents winning the case against more diverse schools. Here's the actual case overview:

Oyez.org - Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1

That was it for the day! Next class, we will do the last two trials and then move on with the rest of the judicial branch unit. Remember to hang on to all of your mock trial materials and notes - you will be turning them in! See you Wednesday!