Designed to tap the rich collection of instructional techniques in the ERIC database, this compilation of lesson plans focuses on teaching high school students their Constitutional rights and responsibilities. The 40 lesson plans in the book cover the courts and basic rights, the rights of criminal suspects, the rights of minors and education law,…

Designed to be used in combination with standard high school textbooks in U.S. history and government, these lessons on the U.S. Constitution can be used singly or in varying combinations and most can be completed in one or two class meetings. There are five chapters. Chapter I is an introduction for teachers. Chapter II includes lessons about the…

This monograph attempts to provide clear understanding of the standards presented by the Supreme Court in "New Jersey v. T.L.O." relative to search and seizure in public schools, and suggests practical ways of applying search and seizure law to situations in the school setting. ("T.L.O." are the initials of the anonymous…

During the first year of its three-year existence, the Bicentennial Commission began to fulfill its mission, as defined by its chairman, to provide "a history and civics lesson for all of us." The Commission has decided to focus primarily on the educational potentialities of commemoration and to foster a firm understanding and…

Factors affecting the acceptance by the courts of teacher employment policies involving competency testing are examined in this report. Policies in 55 states and territories are considered, and the wide variations among the policies and court interpretations of them are noted. Particular attention is paid to constitutional provisions regarding…

In 1985 the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that a Costa Rican statute requiring journalists to be licensed violates the American Convention on Human Rights and, by extension, all human rights conventions. Though press freedom advocates hailed it as a major triumph for freedom of expression, the court's ruling was only advisory and has…

The increased presence of drugs and weapons in schools has forced school officials to step up searches of students, lockers, and school property. The landmark case of "New Jersey vs. TLO" set standards concerning reasonable suspicion and reasonable searches. School officials must be familiar with recent court opinions on student…

This report on a preventive law institute held in Texas in 1981 includes an introduction, three papers, a summary of discussions, and a concluding statement. In the introduction Christiane Hyde Citron defines preventive law as decision making that takes constitutional and case law into consideration and that includes four basic steps: (1)…

The purpose of this study was to derive an operational definition of local control and to devise a model, the Local Control Index, for classifying degrees of local control by using the education codes of eight states--Arizona, California, Illinois, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, and Texas. The Local Control Index consists of four…

Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act of 1871 was designed as a flexible and broadly scoped statute to restrict a wide variety of actions of state officials. During the past 15 years the number of court cases in which provisions of the 1871 act have been applied to school-related issues has increased geometrically. In 1961 the provisions of the act…

This paper begins with the theme that because education is so important to the exercise of one's fundamental rights and to personal, social, cultural, political, economic, and human development, it is one of the unenumerated rights retained by the American people through Amendment IX of the Bill of Rights. After arguing for the proposition that…

A course handbook for limited English-speaking, native Vietnamese-speaking immigrant high school students in a course on United States government is intended to simplify concepts, build learning confidence, and supplement classroom texts. It contains lessons on the beginnings of United States government, revolution and independence, the…

The eleven articles in this collection explore various aspects of freedom of speech. Topics include the lack of knowledge on the part of many judges regarding the complex act of communication; the legislatures and free speech in colonial Connecticut and Rhode Island; contributions of sixteenth century Anabaptist heretics to First Amendment…

Several Supreme Court decisions in the 1970s have rejected constitutional arguments aimed at eliminating exclusionary zoning and growth management schemes which allegedly maintain existing problems of racial and income segregation in major metropolitan areas. These decisions have led observers to conclude that the Supreme Court has greatly…

The case, "New Jersey v. Shelton College," is analyzed using the briefs of both parties, the judicial opinions, and the relevant literature. The case is a classic church-state confrontation likely to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. The college is an instructional offshoot of the fundamentalist Bible Presbyterian Church. In 1971, after a…