The U.S. Supreme Court is the highest court in the country, has ultimate jurisdiction and hands down over 100 decisions each year. Yet, many U.S. citizens know little about the process of our judicial system. 

Each week learners will address a Landmark U.S. Supreme Court Decision. Together we will learn how the case came to the court, the interesting details of the case (for example, who argued it, why it was chosen etc), and then move on the analyze the judicial reasoning within the case in order to understand how the justices came to their overall decision.  Dissenting opinions will also be analyzed, in order for learners to assess differing views, reasoning and decision making.  Ultimately, discussion and debate will be undertaken in each class in order to allow learners to come to their own conclusions about the case and its effect on society.  

We will read sections of the decisions ahead of class in order to come able to discuss, debate and ultimately understand some of the most influential and important decisions in American life today. 

This ongoing class will ultimately have 20 weeks of cases. There are 17 landmark Supreme Court cases we will study including:

Marbury v. Madison
U.S. v. Nixon
Tinker v. Des Moines
Texas v. Johnson
Plessy v. Ferguson
Koramatsu v. U.S. 
Brown v. Board of Education
U.C. Regents v. Bake
Dred Scott v. Sanford
Mapp v. Ohio
Gideon v. Wainwright
New Jersey v. TLO
McCulloch v. Maryland
Gibbons v. Ogden
Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier
Miranda v. Arizona
Roe v. Wade

We will then spend 3 weeks on current Supreme Court cases. 

That will conclude this ongoing course.  Upon conclusion, there is a follow up 5 week course to participate in a moot court (or mock trial) Supreme Court case. This will engage learners who have studied Supreme Court cases to now apply that knowledge in their own Supreme Court case.