Analyzes the United States Supreme Court's reversal of "Memphis County School Distruct v. Stachura," a District Court decision to compensate a temporarily suspended life sciences teacher for damages involving deprivation of his constitutional rights. Views this decision as one more obstacle blocking individuals' progress against…

Section 1983 of the U.S. Constitution provides individuals (including students) with the right to sue persons (including principals) acting "under color of law" for damages incurred in violation of their federal rights. This article examines two corporal punishment cases involving elementary school students involving possible due process…

This paper explains how upcoming U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger are expected to broadly affect the future of race-conscious affirmative action. In these cases, the Supreme Court addresses the constitutionality of admissions policies at the University of Michigan designed to promote educational diversity…

The purpose of this article is to 1) examine the interpretive method applied to the United States Constitution referred of as"Original Intent" and the degree, if any, to which it is superior in objectivity than other methods, 2) discuss whether the application of the interpretive method would have an effect preferred by conservative or…

Argues that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has betrayed its historic commitment to individual liberties by defending racial preferences. It discusses the ACLU's shift to using civil liberties as a means toward the construction of an egalitarian social order, including its embrace of racial quotas. Included is a discussion of the…

Discusses the constitutionality of community service activity as a graduation requirement. Analyzes issues in the "Steirer versus Bethlehem" case, in particular school district control of the curriculum, the first amendment and free speech, and the 13th amendment and involuntary servitude. (SR)

Discusses China's efforts to reform child welfare practices to provide safe, permanent families for children instead of institutional care. Considers legal provisions for adoption in China, including the adoption of Chinese children by Western families, and increasing use of this alternative for providing for children's welfare in a culture with a…

In some ways America's response to the murderous surprise attacks of September 11, 200l, resembled that of previous wars. The nation was mobilized and its military directed to hit back as soon as possible. Unlike past wars, however, the enemy proved to be a shadowy terrorist organization with a religious identity, a long-term strategy, and no…

This analysis of a November 2001 case in Botetourt County, Virginia, looks at whether the Fourth Amendment right against an unreasonable "seizure" or the 14th Amendment "liberty" for parents to control the care and custody of their children requires a ban on, or at least immediate notification regarding, detentions of a…

John Tinker and Mary Beth Tinker are back in a classroom in their hometown, once again wearing black armbands and drawing attention to a war. Now in their 50s, the siblings are living symbols of constitutional rights for secondary school students. In 1965, they and a handful of others were suspended for wearing black armbands to their public…

Designed for Grades 3-5, this lesson plan aims to let the students learn how the Constitution of the United States provided the framework for the country's democratic form of government. Students will learn how the Constitution provided for representation within the government. A short story about the Boston Tea Party gives the background related…

Pledging allegiance to the flag--and the "one nation under God" it is said to represent--has been second nature to generations of American schoolchildren. Yet few have had as much reason to reflect on the practice as those in Sacramento, California. Since March 2000, California's Elk Grove school district has faced a legal challenge to…

The Internet has had a profound effect on education and social interaction patterns. Educators struggle to stay abreast of technological advances and navigate the maze of positive and negative aspects of students using the Internet. A new use for the Internet is the relatively recent phenomenon called blogging. Blogging is a widely used means of…

This paper is a chronologically-organized narrative history of law-related education (LRE) in the United States. The paper begins by delineating the differences between LRE and citizenship education and describing the motivations for the creation of LRE programs in the early 1960s. Turning to the analysis of LRE, the paper argues that there have…

The report from an informal state-by-state survey lists incidents that implicate the principle of separation of church and state. The report is not meant to be a comprehensive list of every church-state problem in the United States. Rather, it is intended to be a "snapshot" of conflicts throughout the country. The document covers the…