Civil Rights & Liberties Assignment

Civil Rights & Liberties Assignment

PLEASE USE THE STATE OF ILLINOIS IF POSSIBLE IF NOT YOU MAY USE ANY OTHER STATE IN THE US

  • Minimum of 2 scholarly sources in addition to the textbook.

Instructions

This assignment is comprised of 2 parts, the first of which is due this week. Part II will be due in Week 7.

In Part I this week, choose a case from your state that involves civil rights or civil liberties that wound its way up to the United States Supreme Court. If your state does not have a case that ended up in the United States Supreme Court, choose a civil rights case from another state that ended up in the Supreme Court of the United States.

Here is a brief description of civil rights and civil liberties: Civil rights refers to equal social opportunities under the law. It gives you these freedoms such as the right to vote, the right to public education, or a fair trial, among other things, regardless of your wealth or race. Civil liberties mean freedom of religion, equal treatment and due process under the law, and the right to privacy.

You should be able to go online and look up your state and famous cases that ended up in the Supreme Court. For example, Brown v Board of Education (1951) started in Topeka, Kansas and ended up in the Supreme Court of the United States. Another example would be Calvary Chapel Dayton Valley v Steve Sisolak, Governor of Nevada (2020) that started in Nevada and ended up the United States Supreme Court.

Research your court case and write an outline of the case that you will be using to prepare a presentation, which will either be a narrated PowerPoint, a Kaltura Video, or some other format as approved by your instructor. Be sure to verify the presentation format with your instructor before starting work on this assignment.

This week’s assignment should include (a) summary of the case, and (b) a case outline

A. Summary of the Case

In one or two paragraphs, provide a general overview of the case that serves as a snapshot of what the case is about and how it ended up in your state high court. A summary is using your words to write a brief history of the case. Do not give your opinion or your interpretation but stick to the facts only.

B: Case Outline

Your court case outline should include:

  1. Title: Name of the case
  2. Facts of the case: Provide key facts involving the case.
  3. History of the case: What legal action was taken based on what your state laws say about this case?
  4. Legal questions: What were the legal issues the court had to decide?
  5. Decision or holdings: Did the court decide for the plaintiff or the defendant? Explain the reason behind the decision?
  6. Verdict and opinion (judgement): What were the concurring and dissenting opinions? How many judges decided for the defendant and how many justices decided against the defendant? What was the final verdict from the judge or the jury, if it was a jury trial?

Summary: What was the resulting impact of the ruling? How did the citizens of your state benefit from it? Make sure to not give our opinion but stick to the facts only. This summary just gives a brief rundown of the case and conclusion only, just the

Writing Requirements (APA format)

  • The length of your outline will vary. Usually an outline is anywhere from 1-3 pages long. Make sure to write full sentences to explain your case. It is a concise list to be used as a reference for you during the presentation.

Using the outline, you will be describing the court case in your presentation and the scenario around the court case. The use of Wikipedia as a primary source of information is to be avoided – it is not a reliable source of information.

Search for an example of a case outline in the Internet. Without going into much detail at this state, each of the items listed above has a subject sentence with 3-6 bullet points that can help you expand on the topic.

For Week 8, you will be creating a narrated PowerPoint, or a video as approved by your instructor, from this week’s outline.

This assignment is worth 200 points.

  • 1-inch margins
  • Double spaced
  • 12-point Times New Roman font
  • Title page
  • Reference page (minimum of 2 scholarly sources in addition to textbook if cited)
  • Minimum of 2 scholarly sources in addition to the textbook.

Instructions

This is Part II of the assignment you submitted in Week 6.

Using the case outline (Part I: How the Courts Address or Respect Our Rights as Citizens) you submitted in Week 6, prepare and submit a presentation, which will either be a narrated PowerPoint, a Kaltura Video, or some other format as approved by your instructor. Be sure to verify the presentation format with your instructor before starting work on this assignment.

The presentation Point presentation will need to include:

  • Name the case
  • Discuss the facts of the case
  • Discuss the history of the case (what laws or legal action was taken)
  • Discuss the issues or the facts of the case and legal questions the court must decide
  • Discuss if the court’s decision or holdings was for the plaintiff or for the defendant and what were the reasons for the decision?
  • Discuss the concurring and dissenting opinions from the judge or if a jury trial, the jury.

Important: In this assignment, you are expected to elaborate the points you made in the prior assignment in Week 6. This assignment will be graded on your strength to elaborate and explain the facts of the case and proper use of visual aids, good narration, and presenting to the case and how well you stick to the case. For example, if you are using the PowerPoint, you are also expected to include proper visuals that are relevant to the case. Do not copy-paste the outline into this and call it complete.

This assignment is worth 250 points.

Writing Requirements (APA format)

  • Length: The presentation must be 10-15 slides long if using PowerPoint (excluding cover and reference pages) or 3-5 minute long if using a video presentation.
  • 1-inch margins
  • Double      spaced
  • 12-point      Times New Roman font
  • Title      page
  • Reference      page (minimum of 2 scholarly sources in addition to textbook if cited)
  • Use      the speaker notes to elaborate on the content on the slides

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