Teacher Resources: Lesson Plan

Choosing Supreme Court Justices in 2005

Overview

This lesson provides an insight into the process of choosing a United States Supreme Court Associate Justice or Chief Justice. It also examines the possible effects of upcoming nominations and confirmations on the Court’s balance and personality in the future.

National Curriculum Standards met by this lesson

For a list of standards that this unit addresses, click here.

Ties To The Curriculum

This lesson ties into United States Government/Civics when studying:

Time Required

The regular plan may be completed in one block period or no more that two normal class periods.

Materials

Photo of Supreme Court

The Court Today Essay

The Lesson

Anticipatory Set

Teacher will use the photo of the Rehnquist court and ask the students who is pictured in the image. After discussion of the photo, teacher will question and lead into how many of the individuals can the class identify. As these are identified, or not as is more probable, teacher will give some of the biographical facts regarding each justice from the essay on The Court Today. Save Chief Justice Rehnquist and Sandra Day O’Connor for the conclusion of the opening. Show the individual photo of Chief Justice Rehnquist and quiz the students on their knowledge of him and fill in details as needed from the essay. Finally, do the same with Justice O’Connor, emphasizing that these two Justices are to be replaced on the Court and we are going to study how this is going to take place. In covering the Justices, teacher should be sure to bring attention to the ages of the members of the Court and how long they have been serving Students can get more information on the Rehnquist Court by exploring the large photo collage of the Court that introduces the essay by John Moore.

Procedures

  1. Divide the class into seven groups with assignments to study one area of Court history and practice, and be able to explain and answer questions for the remainder of the class. This is a short assignment and should really take no more than 10-15 minutes at the maximum.

    2. Activity A

    Each group should determine the significance of their assignment and prepare a report of no more than five minutes to the remainder of the class. This report should be given by the entire group or a spokesperson and fully explain their area of study.

    Activity B

    Each group should be given five minutes to demonstrate visually the importance of their area of study. This could be done on poster board, blackboard, charade, or any type of visual presentation. This might work better for the visual learner and again could involve a single spokesperson or the entire group.

    1. The teacher needs to insure the following points are covered or demonstrated:
      • Group 1--Foundation and establishment of the Supreme Court
      • Group 2--Fills out the check with some of the specifics regarding the Court and its duties
      • Group 3--Provides the procedure for Senate confirmation, insuring the use of the checks and balances system
      • Group 4--Judicial philosophy which calls for Justices not to use the cases that come before them to make law for the country but simply interpret the existing laws
      • Group 5-Judical philosophy which calls for Justices to use cases to expand and extend the law according to the times and circumstances
      • Group 6--What is the importance of the "swing vote" and how can it affect the future of the Court and the country?
    2. The teacher should follow with a closure discussion explaining how the areas explored by first three groups provided the mechanism and procedures according to the Constitution for establishing the Court and for selecting Justices. Teacher should then bring the lesson into today’s headlines by explaining the importance of the selection on the future of the country and the Court by comparing judicial restraint (as generally practiced by the Rehnquist Court) and judicial activism (as practiced by the Warren Court). Teacher should conclude with the importance of the appointments as possible "swing votes" in the determination of future cases.

    Extra Activity

    Teachers could offer extra activities to interest students through the Ariens website later in the lesson. This has a complete biography for all the Supreme Court justices throughout the history of the Court. Students could pick and choose according to interest, or be assigned by the teacher according to study and needs. These biographies could obviously be used in any number of enrichment exercise for the average student.

    Assessment

    Excellent Student takes an active and leadership role in the opening class discussion as well as the group project. Student will frequently be a leader in the presentation to the rest of the class. Student demonstrates a good understanding of the subject material and participates well in the class discussions

    Good Student takes an active role in the group project and may be a leader in the class presentation. Student demonstrates a general overall understanding of the subject material and participates in class discussions.

    Fair Student participates in the project, but does not take an active or leadership role. Student has a limited understanding of the subject material and demonstrates no great interest in the group project or class discussion

    Not Satisfactory Student takes a limited or non-participatory role in class discussion or group project. Student shows no interest or participation in the activities and generally wants little to do with the activities. Student demonstrates little understanding of the subject material.

    No Work No participation or interest at all. Student exhibits no understanding of the material and no desire to gain understanding.

    Related Works

    Any number of current periodicals and newspapers can provide a wealth of information regarding the current state of the Court, as well as the selection and confirmation of the Supreme Court Justices.

    Advanced Study

    Students may wish to do advanced or extended work by referencing the interesting article from the Washington Post written prior to the 2004 Presidential election on the long-term effects of the Court and the appointments expected to be made by the newly-elected President. This should generate an essay or paper on the lasting effect of the Court.

    An additional beneficial assignment for the advanced student would be a study of how the selection and confirmation process exemplifies the separation of powers and checks and balances doctrines of the US Constitution.

    Interdisciplinary Links

    This lesson could be used a basis for the creation of graphs exhibiting the age of the current justices on the Court and how long they have been serving in their current capacity. This could be done in the form of a line or bar graph and would make a great poster or power point presentation for the class. This would hopefully demonstrate the advanced age of many of these important leaders as well as how long they serve.

    An advanced assignment would be to extend the graph or presentation to other past justices, which should further demonstrate the fact of age and length of service by Supreme Court Justices:
    http://www.michaelariens.com/ConLaw/justices/list.htm

    Please note that current justices are noted at this website by an asterisk.