First Amendment (Clark)

In the Supreme Court case you chose, how does the Supreme Court weigh/balance First Amendment rights against other competing interests?

• Consider:
  • What First Amendment rights were relevant to your case? Why would the Court want to protect those rights?
  • What were the competing interests in your cases? Why must the Court take those into account?
  • What decisions did the Court make?
• Include:
  • An 8-10 minute presentation with a minimum of 4-6 Google Slides 
  • An overview of the case: What happened? When did it happen? Which First Amendment right was called into question? What other factors/concerns did the court have to weigh?
  • A discussion of how the Court voted: What did the majority rule? Who dissented? How did they interpret the First Amendment and weigh the First Amendment against competing interests?
  • Your opinion of the case and of the Court's decision
  • Questions that engage your classmates in a discussion about your case
  • A bibliography on your last slide that includes all the sources consulted for this project. Cite your sources (minimum 4) in Chicago style using NoodleTools

Court cases are written for a specific audience, one that does not usually include High School Juniors.

Don't be surprised if you have some trouble parsing through the Court's legal opinions.

Here are some helpful tools to get you through!

Tips for reading a decision

Terms and Definitions