History of the Supreme Court Gateway

A History of the Supreme Court
http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/supreme_court/supcthist.html

A HISTORY OF THE SUPREME COURT by FindLaw is a site geared towards legal professionals. It gives a historical overview of the court and is excellent for the on-level reader, grades 10-12, with links to the historical case of Marbury v. Madison and to Chief Justice John Marshall. From this site you may also access the biographies of all the current justices. It is from these links that you are able to access other information about the justices. The site, while informative on the establishment of the court, is useful to a researcher who has knowledge of researching case law. Using FindLaw as a resource can be excellent for an advanced student, however, this site on the Supreme Court would give students basic information as a jumping off point. Students can find this same information in an advanced textbook on United States history.

U.S. Courts
http://www.uscourts.gov/

This is a site which explores the history and organization of the federal judiciary. The site is easily navigable. There are links to all of the U.S. District courts, Courts of Appeals and Bankruptcy Courts as well as interactive maps. The US Courts Library page is helpful for studenst and educators searching from information ranging from publications, reports and periodicals to manuals and website resources. There is a historical information page on the US Court system. The Newsroom page offers information on news releases, news archives and a video news archive. There is even a page listing employment opportunities. This website would be very useful for students in grades 8-12 as well as educators or other with an interest n the US juducial sysytem.

U.S. Supreme Court: History of the Court
http://usgovinfo.about.com/blcthistory.htm

U.S. Supreme Court: History of the Court is an About.com site riddled with advertising for sponsored links and pop-up advertising. Despite this, the site gives an excellent overview for the on-level reader, grades 8-10, about the Supreme Court, with many links to justices and contemporary issues. While it is up to the teacher to review all the information prior to student use, many of the links could be useful for both general information and specific basic information relating to the Court. The sidebar links of Current court activity takes you to court activity of the current year; About the court gives you historical background and information for contacting the court; and all links give you additional links to the Constitution and other useful Supreme Court sites. This site can be a useful jumping off point for any Supreme Court related research for students and/or teachers.

United States Supreme Court Plus
http://www.usscplus.com

This site is part e-commerce and part encyclopedia. It's produced by InfoSynthesis, Inc. At first glance, you'll notice the description of a paid service, USSC+. While this fee-based service, a searchable database of every Supreme Court case dating back to 1834, may be useful, there is also free content on the site. Click the link Current Term's Decisions, and you can access a short description of each decision, and download a text or PDF file with details about the decision. This very current information may be especially useful to high school teachers. The Supreme Court FAQ link leads, rather unexpectedly, six sub sections of Court information. According to the index page, the information is reproduced "from an informational booklet compiled by the Court." This information is divided into the following sub-sections:

The content in the Supreme Court FAQ section will be useful for teachers of middle and high school students.