The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees "the right of people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures" by governmental officials. In a 1985 Supreme Court decision, "New Jersey v. TLO," students' privacy rights in public schools are afforded a lower…

Serious constitutional problems arise when the contempt power of judges clashes with other compelling interests such as those of the First Amendment. The "collateral bar" rule--which requires that court orders, even those later determined to be unconstitutional, must be complied with until amended or vacated--in effect, calls for…

In 1998, the New Jersey Supreme Court directed schools in 30 poor urban districts to adopt a comprehensive school reform program by the 2000-2001 academic year. Part of this program involved delegating resource-allocation decisions to the school level, thereby increasing schools' effectiveness and productivity by bringing the perspectives of…

Nine years after the 1972 Supreme Court ruling in *Branzburg v. Hayes" that journalists enjoy no constitutional privilege to withhold the names of sources and to conceal information from grand jury proceedings, a study was conducted to determine the courts' attitudes toward journalists' privilege and to test commonly held beliefs about its…

This paper examines the practice of search and seizure from a legal perspective. All issues concerning lawful or unlawful search and seizure, whether in a public school or otherwise, are predicated upon the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The terms "search,""seizure,""probable…

A number of reading specialists are finding themselves testifying in court or writing expert opinions for court cases in such diverse areas as civil rights, criminal law, contracts, warranties, and due process. The validity of readability formulas was tested in the case of David v. Heckler. Another case involved a group of Florida prisoners who…

In 1985, the United States Supreme Court, in "New Jersey v. T.L.O.," held that the Fourth Amendment applies to searches and seizures conducted by public school administrators. This paper discusses the current state of Fourth Amendment law with regard to public school searches and seizures. Among the subtopics discussed are the following:…

Two recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court have emasculated First Amendment guarantees for military personnel. In the first case, Parker v. Levy, an Army captain urged enlisted Special Forces personnel at his post to refuse to go to Viet Nam, claiming that "Special Forces personnel are liars and thieves and killers of peasants…

Although schools cannot actively promote religiously-oriented activity, neither can they prohibit such activity. The 98th Congress passed the Equal Access Act in an attempt to ground students' rights to practice religion in the schools in well-established constitutional principles requiring equal treatment, protecting student-initiated meetings,…

This paper uses the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the case of "West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette" to illustrate the impact of changes in Western Culture world views of reality on educational and legal philosophy. The report argues that Western culture has replaced vertical assumptions, with its conception of individuals who…

In rulings between 1954 and 1971, the Supreme Court always emphasized that racially segregated schools were inherently unconstitutional, although it upheld a system of student assignments that was neutral toward race. But with the Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenberg Board of Education decision of 1971, the court embarked on a new remedial course. A…

The author of this speech discusses racial dualism in higher education in the American South. The states of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana have all had suits brought against them for maintaining separate and unequal institutions for blacks and whites. In all three states, the vast proportion of funds allocated for higher education have been…

Through an analysis of the six federal book banning cases that have been adjudicated in the past decade since "Ginsberg v. New York" and "Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District," this paper explores the difference in current First Amendment theory in the area of student access to books. A review of the six cases indicates that the…

Federal courts have been charged with devising relief that corrects unconstitutional school segregation since the Supreme Court's historic decision against state-approved dual school systems in "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka" in 1954. The split decisions of the Supreme Court in segregation cases during the 1970s have made it…

The foundations of the public's right to know what the government is doing and the limitations placed on that right are explored in this paper. The role of the press in furthering the people's right to know is also discussed. Sections in the paper deal with the following topics: (1) general and historical thought on the right to know; (2) the…