WES-DEL HIGH SCHOOL WARRIOR SOCIAL STUDIES



Name: ______________________ Date: _________

Case #1: Moment of Silence

“Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country”.

These 22 words raised a storm of protest in 1962. That year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public school students in a New York State public school could not be asked to recite those words every school day. The Court said that the requirement was illegal, even though students who objected could remain silent or leave the classroom.

The decision was made in a case called Engle v. Vitale. The Court said that the First Amendment forbids the government to establish a religion. By writing prayers for students to say, public schools legally gave their approval to religion.

In the years after that decision, many states looked for ways to legally allow school prayer. For example:

In 1981, Alabama passed a law allowing public schools to set aside a one minute “moment of silence” for student “meditation or prayer”. Ishmael Jaffree, a father of two, challenged this law in court.

The argument: Jaffree argued that this law promoted religious practice just like any school prayer law, because it suggested that students use the time to pray. The state of Alabama disagreed, saying that the law did not require students to spend that time praying.

You decide: Suppose you were on the U.S. Supreme Court in 1985 when this case came up. What would you decide?

Name: ______________________ Date: _________

Case #2: Justice for Gerald

Juvenile courts were set up to help young people in trouble with the law. Instead of having juries, these courts let a judge decide what is best for young people.

It did not work that way for Gerald Gault of Globe, Arizona. In 1964, Gerald was accused by a woman named Mrs. Cook of making an obscene phone call. Gerald was taken to juvenile court. However, he was not told what he was accused of and did not hear Mrs. Cook’s story because she did not go with him to court. Gerald did not have a lawyer. The judge was told by a police officer that Gerald had been arrested before for purse snatching. The judge found Gerald guilty and sent him to a reform school.

Is that justice? Not at all, said a retired lawyer who decided to take the case and fight for Gerald. Gerald’s case reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967.

The argument: Gerald’s lawyer stated that he was denied “due process” of the law. In other words, his case was not handled in a lawful way. The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments require that everyone receives due process when they are arrested. Gerald’s lawyer said that he was specifically denied rights guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment, the right to know the charges, the right to have a lawyer, and the right to confront your accuser.

Lawyers for the State of Arizona argued that Gerald was indeed treated properly. The juvenile courts do not hold trials, and witnesses are not required to go to the court and explain what they saw to the victim. Juvenile courts are only expected to do what is best for the young person who is arrested.

You decide: Do you feel that Gerald’s case was handled properly???

Name: ______________________ Date: _________

Case #3: A Question of Money

It is 1981. You are on the Supreme Court and the question that you are being asked is this: Should men and women receive equal pay for doing the same kind of work, even if their jobs are not exactly the same?

Alberta Gunther is a female guard in the Washington County Jail in Oregon. She and other some other female guards have a complaint. The average pay of the male guards is about 30% more than their average pay. Not only that, the county has ruled that women’s pay can never be more than 95% of a man’s pay.

The argument: Is the pay system unfair? Yes, say the female guards. It is not only unfair but illegal because the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids discrimination based on sex. The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees “equal protection” of citizens and so the women must get equal pay.

The lawyers for Washington County, however, disagreed. They point out that the jobs of the women are not exactly the same as those of the men. There are many male prisoners, so the male guards are on guard duty at all times. There are few female prisoners, so the female guards spend some of their time on the job doing office work instead.

You decide: Should the female guards be paid equally to the male guards???

Name: ______________________ Date: _________

Case #4: A Search at School

The rules were clear. Smoking is not allowed in school. But a girl known as T.L.O. (to protect her identity since she was underage) was caught holding a cigarette in the building by a teacher. The teacher took her to an office where the Vice Principal searched her purse. Inside of her purse, the Vice Principal found marijuana, drug equipment, and notes that showed T.L.O. was selling drugs. Police were called to the school and T.L.O. eventually was convicted of selling marijuana.

The argument: When the case of New Jersey v. T.L.O. got to the Supreme Court, the girl’s lawyers argued that her Fourth Amendment rights had been violated. The amendment outlaws “unreasonable search and seizure” of a person or property without a warrant. A warrant is written permission from a judge that gives specific information as to who and what a police officer can search.

The school’s lawyers argued that the Fourth Amendment does not apply to students in schools. Schools act as substitutes for parents and, like parents, schools do not need a search warrant when they have a real reason to believe a student might have something illegal on them.

You decide: Was the searching of the girl’s purse unconstitutional???

Name: ______________________ Date: _________

Case #5: Segregation

In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled that it was all right for states to make laws separating blacks from whites in public places. This ruling affected students because in many states blacks and whites went to separate schools. In the Court decision known as Plessy v. Ferguson, segregation was considered constitutional as long as white and blacks schools were “equal”.

In 1951, a black father named Oliver Brown of Topeka, Kansas, went to court on behalf of his grade school daughter Linda. He argued that it was unfair that Linda had to walk 20 blocks to a black school when a white school was closer to her home. It was not only the walking distance that bothered Oliver Brown. It was the hurt that black children suffered because they could not go to school with other students.

About the same time, black parents in other places also went to court to fight against “separate but equal” schools. Five cases ended up in the U.S. Supreme Court. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was the most famous of these cases.

The argument: Lawyers for the Topeka schools and others argued that there was nothing unconstitutional about separate schools for black students like Linda Brown. The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees “equal protection” for all citizens. School lawyers argued that “separate but equal” schools do not violate the amendment.

Lawyers for Oliver Brown and the other black parents disagreed. They argued that to send children to a separate school because of their race could hurt them deeply. It could give them feelings of inferiority. For that reason, the separate schools were really not equal because kids were getting hurt, and the Fourteenth Amendment was being violated.

You decide: Was “separate but equal” really equal???

Actual Results:

Case #1 – Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor that the moment of silence law was unconstitutional because it suggested the students should pray during that time.

Case #2 – The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of Gerald Gault and changed the way juvenile cases were handled.

Case #3 – The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of the female guards.

Case #4 – The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 against T.L.O. They stated that it was legal for school officials and teachers to search a student with good reason.

Case #5 – The Court ruled 9-0 in favor of Oliver Brown. “Separate but equal” was no longer allowed in schools.

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