Student′s Guide to the Supreme Court (Student's Guide to the U.S. Government) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 087289553X ISBN 13: 9780872895539

Publisher: CQ Press, 2010

Synopsis

An indispensable reference for students studying the Court

Specifically written to engage high-school students, Student’s Guide to the Supreme

Court presents a comprehensive overview of the history, traditions, and people of the highest court in the land. This one-stop source does not require any prior knowledge of the Supreme Court and covers topics that meet national high school curriculum standards.

Part One consists of three informative essays:

• The Supreme Court: The Weakest or the Strongest Branch?
• How Does the President Nominate a Supreme Court Justice?
• Do They Matter? How Supreme Court Decisions Affect Modern American Life.

Part Two is an alphabetical section of key words and legal concepts spanning abortion to writs of mandamus. The members of the current Roberts Court―including Sonia Sotomayor―are profiled here, as are all chief justices and notable associate justices.

Part Three complements the first two sections with a generous sampling of influential primary source documents, including landmark decisions, excerpts from justices’ papers, political cartoons, and constitutional provisions related to the Supreme Court.

Key Features

• Easy-to-read
• Aligns with high school curriculum
• Unique three-part format

About this title

About the Author

Advisory Editor Bruce J. Schulman, Ph.D., is the William E. Huntington Professor of History at Boston University. Dr. Schulman is the author of several award-winning scholarly books on American history and politics and a frequent contributor to The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications

From Booklist

Using the familiar format of the Student’s Guide to the U.S. Government series, this volume offers a classroom-appropriate tool for understanding and appreciating the evolution of “the weakest branch” of our government into a formidable factor in this country’s existence. Part 1 comprises three background essays. The A–Z entries in part 2 cover relevant concepts, events, procedures, cases, and people and are complemented by sidebars, tables, and black-and-white illustrations. Part 3, “Primary Source Library,” offers excerpts from key decisions, advertisements and cartoons from national papers, photographs, and communiqués from the justices. A section entitled “Using Primary Sources” suggests ways students can best identify, evaluate, organize, and cite sources as they prepare written assignments. Other tools a student or a teacher might find helpful are a “Reader’s Guide,” which arranges all of the articles by broad topics; a time line; a brief glossary; a selected bibliography (print sources only); a case index; and a general index. A surprising omission is a list of all justices to date or even a list of current justices. There are lists of chief justices and of nominees who were not confirmed, but students will have to look elsewhere to learn even minimal information about most of those who have served on the Supreme Court. Nevertheless, this source should be useful at the secondary level and anywhere there is interest in plain-language information about such a complicated topic. Grades 9-12. --Sally Jane

Edition details

• Publisher: CQ Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 087289553X
• ISBN 13: 9780872895539
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384
• Editor: Schulman Bruce J.