LandmarkCases.org: New Cases. Updated Content. Improved Site.

In partnership with the Supreme Court Historical Society, Street Law has completely revamped LandmarkCases.org.

The updated site contains three brand-new cases, new and improved activities to existing cases (including the addition of Street Law case study methods), middle school and high school level case summaries, and a new site structure with separate student and teacher sections.

• Schenck v. the United States (1919)
• Engel v. Vitale (1962)
• Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)

Each case includes full case summaries at middle and high school levels and case background and vocabulary at three different reading levels. They also include a diagram of how the case moved through the court system, a case summary graphic organizer, and a decision summary and key excerpts from the opinions.

Additionally, each case also contains a range of activities designed to engage students in productive conversation and thought-provoking analysis.

Updated Content

With the addition of the three new cases, LandmarkCases.org now covers 20 landmark SCOTUS cases!

Each of these cases has been completely reformatted and had its content updated, ready for students and teachers alike.

This includes:

• Brand-new Street Law case study methods and activities including Applying Precedents, Classifying Arguments, Unmarked Opinions, Mini-Moot Courts, and Judicial Opinion Writing.
• Primary source analysis activities including cartoons, photographs, and newspapers.
• Middle school and high school level case summaries.
• Suggestions on how to differentiate, adapt, scaffold, and extend activities as well as suggestions on how to incorporate technology into the lesson.
• A searchable Landmark Cases Glossary.

Improved Site Structure

The site structure of LandmarkCases.org has been remodeled to be more student and teacher-friendly.

Teachers can now send students directly to LandmarkCases.org to download student-ready .PDFs for case summaries, background readings, vocabulary, learning activities, case study activities, and summaries and excerpts from the opinions.

Students can also find a graphic organizer to use as a note catcher for key case information.

Under the “For Teachers” tab, teachers can now find pages containing classroom-ready documents in both Word and .PDF formats for every case, as well as answer packets.

Each case also has suggested planning time and activities based on how long teachers have to teach the case.