Civil Liberties and Rights Socratic Seminar Guidelines
Civil Liberties and Rights Socratic Seminar Guidelines
Directions:You will choose a group of six. Each member will then choose one of the six Socratic seminar questions listed below. You will prep for the Socratic seminar by doing the following. First, you will read and take thorough notes from Ch 5 entitled, Civil Liberties about your topic. Second, you will review information and cite specific examples from Ch 6 entitled,Civil Rights to use as evidence for your discussion. Lastly, you will locate and cite one current event article that relates to your specific topic (no summary is needed, just highlight related material). We must begin immediately because we have six groups. Please do not ask to go the library to printout your materials. Starting late will impact the grades of other students in the class. We will prepare Monday and Tuesday in the computer lab.
- Socratic Seminar Questions
A. Culture and Civil Liberties Socratic Seminar Question– In “Spirit of the Laws” Montesquieu stated that liberty is the right of doing whatever the law permits. How does this idea relate your readings?
B. Interpreting and Applying the First Amendment Socratic Seminar Question–In the Pennsylvania Assembly, Benjamin Franklin stated to the governor that those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. How does this idea relate your readings?
C. What is Speech? – Libel, Obscenity, Symbolic Speech Socratic Seminar Question– Billings Learned Hand at an Oliver Wendell Holmes lecture stated that in the end it is worse to suppress dissent than to run the risk of heresy (an opinion profoundly at odds with what is generally accepted). How does this idea relate your readings?
D. Who is a Person? Socratic Seminar Question–Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black stated in the court case New York Times Company v. Sullivan that an unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs is what I consider to be the minimum guarantee of the first amendment. How does this idea relate your readings?
E. Church and State – The Free Exercise Clause, The Establishment Clause Socratic Seminar Question– Writing for the majority in Wallace v. Jaffree, Justice Stevens stated that the government must pursue a course of complete neutrality towards religion. How does this idea relate your readings?
F. Crime and Due Process – The Exclusionary Rule Socratic Seminar Question–Thomas Jefferson stated that the execution of laws is more important than making them. How does this idea relate your readings?
II. Ch 5 - Civil Liberties
A. Culture and Civil Liberties – Rights and Conflicts, Culture and Conflicts, Application of the Bill of Rights to the States
B. Interpreting and Applying the First Amendment – Speech and National Security
C. What is Speech – Libel, Obscenity, Symbolic Speech
D. Who is a Person?
E. Church and State – The Free Exercise Clause, The Establishment Clause
F. Crime and Due Process – The Exclusionary Rule
III. Ch6 - Civil Rights
A.The Black Predicament
B.The Campaign in the Courts – Separate but Equal, Can Separate Schools be Equal, Brown v. Board of Education
C.The Campaign in Congress – Racial Profiling
D.Women and Equal Rights – Sexual Harassment, Privacy and Sex,
E.Affirmative Action – Equality of Results, Equality of Opportunity
F. Gays and the Constitution