Civil rights and liberties
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The First Amendment
Lesson: The First Amendment
- Lesson Plan: The First Amendment in Photos
- Bell Work: First Amendment Breakdown
- Doc: First Amendment Basics
- Doc: First Amendment Exit Slip
2025 Summer Institute: NetChoice cases and government control
Presentation:
Lesson:
- NetChoice syllabus
- NetChoice explained: how SCOTUS wisely avoided two extreme approaches to regulating social media
Articles and essays:
- Balkin: Pluralist model of speech
- Balkin: Pluralist system of speech regulation
- Balkin: Free speech is a triangle
- Balkin: Moody v. NetChoice the Supreme Court meets the free speech triangle
- SCOTUSblog: Court sends social media moderation back to lower court
- Moody v. NetChoice 2024
- Owen: Net neutrality debate: twenty five years after Unites States v. AT&T and 120 years after the Act to Regulate Commerce
- Volokh: Treating social media platforms like common carriers
2025 Summer Institute: TikTok and national security
Presentation:
Lesson:
- Implications: TikTok v. Garland social media case graphic organizer
- Free speech and national security: scenarios for discussion
- Free speech and national security: facts behind the scenarios
Articles and essays:
- SCOTUSblog: Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban
- Chander, Hans, Lee: TikTok v. Garland opens the door to global censorship
- Congressional Research Service: TikTok Inc. v. Garland: Supreme Court rejects challenge to TikTok divestiture law
- Gilchrist: TikTok bans: A takings clause blunder
- University of Cincinnati Law Review: Gaming the system? How TikTok v. Garland could shape the future of Tencent
Other materials:
2025 Summer Institute: Twitter and Terrorism
Presentation:
Articles and essays:
- Goldman: The internet survives SCOTUS review (this time) — Twitter v. Taamneh and Gonzalez v. Google
- Parr: How civil aiding and abetting liability for terrorist activities applies to social media companies — and how it does not
- Newman: Should (or can) the Supreme Court decide modern technology issues?
- Fetzer: Predictive model detects potential extremist propaganda on social media
- Hoover: For better or worse, the Supreme Court rewrote JASTA
Other materials:
- Case: Twitter v. Taamneh
- Oral arguments transcript: Twitter v. Taamneh
- SCOTUS: Twitter v. Taamneh syllabus
2025 Summer Institute: Murthy and disinformation
Presentation:
Lesson:
Articles and essays:
- Sloss: Murthy v. Missouri; Jawboning, social media, and the First Amendment
- Redish & Pereyra: Resolving the First Amendment’s civil war: Political fraud and the democratic goals of free expression
- Electronic Frontier Foundation: Supreme Court dodges key question in Murthy v. Missouri and dismisses case for failing to connect the government’s communication to specific platform moderation
- Laoutaris: Free speech online at risk? Implications of the Murthy v. Missouri decision
- SCOTUSblog: Justices side with Biden over government’s influence on social media content moderation
- Duffy: The Supreme Court was right on Murthy v. Missouri
- Crawford: Will the Supreme Court’s decision in Murthy v. Missouri lead to more government censorship?
Other materials:
- Common Cause Education Fund: As a matter of fact: The harms caused by election disinformation
- NYU First Amendment Watch: Disinformation and the First Amendment
- NYU First Amendment Watch: Speech not protected by the First Amendment
- SCOTUS opinion: Murthy v. Missouri
- CATO Blog Institute: Summary of Murthy v. Missouri oral arguments
- SCOTUS syllabus: Murthy v. Missouri
2023 Sumer Institute: Groff v Dejoy
Opening activity: Taking a stand – interpreting the religion clause
-
Foltin: Interpreting the religion clauses of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution
- Religious Freedom in America: A variety of attitudes toward church-state relations
- Religion clauses quiz
- Activity: Interpreting the religion clauses of the First Amendment
Understanding Groff v Dejoy
- Amy Howe: Justices to hear evangelical Christian postal worker’s religious accommodation case
- Amy Howe: Justices look for common ground in postal worker’s religious liberty case
- PowerPoint slides: Work or religion
- Read more about Groff v Dejoy
2023 Summer Institute: 303 Creative v Elenis
Opening activity
Understanding 303 Creative v Elenis
- Presentation: 303 Creative LLC v Elenis
- Amy Howe: Colorado web designer’s First Amendment challenge will test the scope of state anti-discrimination laws
- Amy Howe: Conservative justices seem poised to side with web designer who opposes same-sex marriage
- Street Law Inc: 303 Creative LLC v Elenis
- Colorado public accommodations law § 24-34-601
Culminating activity – can’t we all get along simulation
- Activity: Living together after 303 Creative v Elenis
- Assessment: Living together after 303 Creative v Elenis
Supplemental materials
- Koppelman: Gay rights, religious accommodations, and the purposes of antidiscrimination law
- 303 Creative v Elenis resources
2023 Summer Institute: Counterman v Colorado
Opening Activity
Understanding Counterman v Colorado
- Presentation: Counterman v Colorado
- Amy Howe: Colorado man’s First Amendment challenge will test the scope of protection for threatening speech
- Amy Howe: Justices hear “true threat” protected speech case
- Street Law Inc: Counterman v Colorado
- Supreme Court timeline true threats
Structured academic controversy
- Presentation: What is deliberation?
- Deliberation definition
- Deliberating in a Democracy in the Americas: Deliberation steps
- Deliberating in a Democracy in the Americas: Handout 1 – deliberation guide
- Deliberating in a Democracy in the Americas: Handout 2 – deliberation notes
- Deliberating in a Democracy in the Americas: Handout 3 – deliberation reflection
Legislative simulation
- Missouri stalking statute
- Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago: Public policy overview
- Talking with policymakers the First Amendment and the true threats doctrine
- Missouri Protection from True Threats Act
- Assessing public policy
Culminating activity
- Lesson template
- Daily take away points
- Lesson plan graphic organizer
- Writeable lesson template
- College, career, & civic life: C3framework for social studies state standards
- 2022 EOC item specs
Supplemental materials
The Fourth Amendment
Lesson: The Fourth Amendment
2022 Summer Institute: The Patriot Act
- Instructions for philosophical chairs
- Section 215 of the Patriot Act presentation
- USA Patriot Act Section 215 fact sheet
- USA Patriot Act Section 215 philosophical chairs deliberation question
- USA Patriot Act Section 215 fact sheet Freedom Works
- USA Patriot Act Section 215
- Federal surveillance of US persons under USA Patriot Act
The Fifth Amendment
Lesson: Due process
Lesson: The Fifth Amendment
The Sixth Amendment
Lesson: The Sixth Amendment
The Bill of Rights in Action
Lesson: The Bill of Rights in Action
Protections of Civil Liberties
Lesson: Protections of civil liberties
- Lesson plan: Protection of civil liberties
- Doc: Korematsu v United States
- PDF: Loving v Virginia
- Slides: The Bill of Rights: the 1st and 14th Amendments
2022 Summer Institute: Congress and civil rights
- The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Supreme Court presentation
- Congress interstate commerce, and discrimination presentation
- Civil Rights Act of 1964 congressional committee simulation
- Civil Rights Act of 1964 legislative history; pro and con arguments; text
- Street Law, Inc: Congressional Powers: The Commerce Clause
- Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago: LGBTQ Americans and the Civil Rights Act
The Patriot Act
Lesson: The Patriot Act
- Lesson plan: Was the Patriot Act Justified?
- Slides: Section 215 of The Patriot Act
- Doc: The Patriot Act Fact Sheet
- Doc: The Patriot Act Writing Prompt
- Doc: The Patriot Act Pros and Cons Station Worksheet
2022 Summer Institute: The Patriot Act
- Instructions for philosophical chairs
- Section 215 of the Patriot Act presentation
- USA Patriot Act Section 215 fact sheet
- USA Patriot Act Section 215 philosophical chairs deliberation question
- USA Patriot Act Section 215 fact sheet Freedom Works
- USA Patriot Act Section 215
- Federal surveillance of US persons under USA Patriot Act
Voting Rights and Civil Liberties
Lesson: Voting rights and civil liberties
True Threats
Peaceful Assembly
Testing and Standards
Additional Slide Presentations
- 303 Creative v. Elenis
- Antebellum American, Jacksonian Democracy, and Dred Scott
- Black Live Matter – African American Rights in the 21st Century
- Counterman v. Colorado
- First Amendment and Schools (with scenario)
- From Brown To Montgomery To Little Rock
- Groff v. Dejoy
- Dobbs Presentation
- Protest in the Streets
- Section 215 of the Patriot Act
- Slavery and the Constitution
- The Long Journey of Brown v. Board of Education
- The Road to Brown
- LGBTQ+ Rights in the 21st Century
- The Constitutional Convention and slavery
- Antebellum America and the rise of jacksonian democracy
- Changing the Constitution
- Landmark reform derailed
- The road to the 19th Amendment
- The road to Brown, revised
- The Montgomery bus boycott
- Sit-ins and freedom rides
- The March on Washington and the Civil Rights Act
- Selma and the Voting Rights Act
- The Long Journey of Brown v. Board of Education
- Beyond the 19th Amendment: The Era
- 1960s Legal Challenges and Riots
- Equal Dignity in the Eyes of the Law: LGBTQ Rights in the 21st Century
Gideon v Wainwright
Lesson: Gideon v. Wainwright