2019-2020 Street Law Resource Preview

Our curriculum team is busy developing several exciting new teaching resources! Here’s a preview of what’s coming down the pike over the next several months:

SCOTUS in the Classroom

We know many of you look forward to our moot court-friendly case summaries. During the 2019-20 Term, Street Law will select three of the most classroom-relevant cases being argued at the U.S. Supreme Court and make them available prior to oral arguments. Here’s what we are watching for our first SCOTUS in the Classroom case:

• Ready now! R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Aimee Stephens: Does Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protect transgender people from employment discrimination?
• Coming very soon! Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia and Altitude Express, Inc. v. Zarda: Does Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protect employees from discrimination because of their sexual orientation?
• New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. City of New York: Does a New York City law banning the transportation of a licensed handgun to a home or shooting range outside the limits of New York City violate the Second Amendment, the Commerce Clause, or the constitutional right to travel?

Deliberations

We are currently piloting several new Deliberation readings that incorporate a global context into policy issues. The updated reading on hate speech, for example, includes the history and current policy of hate speech in Germany, Rwanda, and Malaysia. Through this project, Street Law will update three existing topics, create materials for four new topics, and develop a leveled reading for one topic. The new topics will include Medical Aid in Dying, Healthy Democracies, and Flag Desecration. Materials will be freely available and widely released in spring 2020.

LandmarkCases.org

Thanks to support from the Supreme Court Historical Society, we are undertaking a revision of existing case content on LandmarkCases.org. Plus, we will be adding three new cases: Schenck v. United States (1919), Engel v. Vitale (1962), and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015). We look forward to launching the new content in summer 2020.

SCOTUS Case Materials for Middle School Students

Through a grant from the Library of Congress’ Teaching with Primary Sources program, we are developing middle school-level primary source-focused materials on the following historic cases: Marbury v. Madison, McCulloch v. Maryland, Worcester v. Georgia, Dred Scott v. Sandford, Ex Parte Merryman, and Plessy v. Ferguson. These case materials will be field tested throughout the school year and made available to all in summer 2020.

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If you have questions about any of these curricular projects, please contact Cathy Ruffing.