Introduction

Have you ever wondered how the United States Supreme Court makes its decisions? You are about to become a Supreme Court justice, entrusted with the power to make the final decision upon a contraversial case. Your opinion will become law in this country.

The Constitution grants courts the power of judicial review. The courts can consider and overturn any congressional state legislation or other official governmental action deemed inconsistent with the Constitution, Bill of Rights or federal law.

The Supreme Court has complete power to decide which of the thousands of cases that are offered to it each year. These cases come up when a party, dissatisfied with a lower court ruling, appeals to the Supreme Court. The Court may choose which cases to rule upon, but it may only issue opinions on the cases that come before it. It does not have the authority to issue objections to any law until it is called into question by a lower court case.

Today the case before you is Able v. U.S. This case calls into question the constitutionality of the military's 'don't ask, don't tell' policy with regard to homosexuality.

In order to evaluate this case, you need to use the equal protection clause to the 14th Amendment which says that no State shall 'deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.' As a Court, you must determine whether or not 'don't ask, don't tell' violates homosexuals' equal protection under the law.

The Quest

If you were a Supreme Court Justice, how would you decide the case of Able v. U.S.?

The Process and Resources

In order to decide upon this case, your Court will be divided up into teams. Each team will be responsible for reading a different set of court cases. Then the Court will come together to deliberate on the case of Able v. U.S. Each team will present the information they gathered and discuss its relevance to this case. They will decide whether or not they agree with the precedents that are set by these cases. After a discussion, each student will vote to either affirm or reverse the lower court's ruling. The students on the majority side will write the Court's opinion and those on the dissenting side will write another opinion. Both groups must include information on cases studied by each of the teams.

Phase 1 - Background: Something for Everyone

All students must read the information provided about the Supreme Court in order to gain a general understanding of Court procedures.
Remeber that as a justice, your decision must be based on the constitutionality of the issue, not emotion. Keeping this in mind you may want to look at parts of the U.S. Constitution

• United States Constitution
• Supreme Court: History - This site, created by the Washington Post, gives an overview ofthe Supreme Court. It includes information on the make-up of the Court, how a case gets to the Supreme Court, and what happens during hearings.  The navigation bar on the left allows you to learn more about current and past justices, choosing cases, oral arguments, making decisions, and historic cases.

Phase 2 - Looking Deeper from Different Perspectives

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. The Court will be made up of eight students, who will be divided up into pairs. Each pair will be assigned to one category. These categories include:

Racial Discrimination
Gender-Based Discrimination
Sexual Discrimination
Military Discrimination

2. Both students in each pair should read through all of the cases provided for the pair, keeping in mind the questions provided. Also take note of the style with which the justices write their opinions.

3. The pairs should discuss the issues in question in each case, the Court's opinion and any dissenting or concurring opinions. Each individual should be prepared to discuss reasons why the Court decided the way it did, and whether or not they agree with the decision.

4. After the pairs have completed this task the whole group will meet and conduct discussion as if they were the justices assigned to this case.

Phase 3 - Debating, Discussing, and Reaching Consensus

Each team has learned about different issues related to the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Now imagine that each one of you is a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. You have just been handed the case of Able v. U.S. Each of you should read through the case indvidually and then return for group discussion.

After reading this case, the Court should convene to discuss the facts of the case, and focus on how this case relates to the others that they have read. Each member will vote to affirm or reverse the lower court's ruling.

The Court will then be divided up into a majority and a minority. The majority side will write the Court's opinion, and the minority will write a dissenting opinion. Any student that does not agree with either side may write a concurring opinion.

In writing opinion, use the precedents provided to explain what factors are important to your decision. Keep in mind that you are free to overturn any of the cases or declare any existing law unconstitutional, so long as you support your opinion. Also keep in mind that your decision in this case will be a precedent for lower courts and for future Supreme Court cases, so be careful to make your opinions clear, and consider the ways in which it may be interpreted in the future. Remeber, the Supreme Court does not base its decisions on emotion, but rather the Constitution, law, past decisions.
 

Conclusion

Equal Protection is an issue that will always be called into question before the Supreme Court. Discrimination based on race, gender, sexuality, military service, and various other categories will exist for years to come. It will be interesting to see how the Court will rule on these issues in the future. One big issue related to the equal protection clause is affirmative action and reverse discrimination. After learning more about discrimination and equal protection, how do you feel about this issue?

This document was created by Megan Greeley, a former Education student at the University of Richmond. They completed the original version of this document as a project for EDUC 343: Integrating Technology Across the Curriculum, during the spring semester of 1999.

The template for this site came from The WebQuest Page.

Assistance for this project was provided by Dr. Patricia Stohr-Hunt. She has maintained and revised this document as an interactive resource for educators, students and parents. All inquiries and comments regarding this document should be mailed to her at the following address: pstohrhu@richmond.edu
 
 

Copyright Notice
© 1999-2002

Teachers may adapt this lesson for classroom use only or per variations that have been suggested. The reproduction of any portion of this site for an entire school or school system is strictly prohibited. No part of this publication may be transmitted, stored, recorded or published in any form without written permission from the course instructor. Modifications, updates and changes to the actual site by making adaptations to create a new genre, theme or grade level, in which a new site is developed for publication to the WWW, must be approved by the instructor. Appropriate citations and links to the original document must be included within the new site. For more information please contact: Patricia Stohr-Hunt.