Street Law Fall 2014

Week 1
9/12
Civil Rights and Ferguson
Overview of Plessy v. Ferguson
Discussion of the parallel investigations state and federal
Read Mike Brown editorials
Read article, "If You Listen, I Won't Have to Shoot"
Read Tribune cartoon
Week 2
9/19
Criminal Law
Should it be a Crime?
Decide what actions should constitute crimes and rank the actions
from most serious to least serious.
Study the 4
th
Amendment
Discussion of Stop and Frisk
Review the case Mapp v. Ohio (Search and Seizure)
Week 3
9/26
Criminal Law
Why be a Witness?
Examine why witnesses are important to the judicial process and
to communities and reflect on problems witnesses may face.
Ferguson witnesses
Week 4
10/10
Landlord and Tenant Law
Preparing to Move In
Develop a list of things to examine before renting an apartment
and learn what to look out for before signing a lease.
Discriminatory Housing Practices
o Redlining
o 1 strike policy
Week 5
10/17
Landlord and Tenant Law
Rights and Responsibilities After Moving In
Analyze the rights and responsibilities of landlords and tenants
and develop strategies to deal with problems that may arise.

Week 6
10/24
Family Law
Is It My Responsibility?
Is It Abuse or Neglect?
Consider when children should take on certain responsibilities and
when parents should retain control (from both legal and moral
perspectives. Decide when parenting actions cross the line and
become abuse and neglect under the law.
Week 7
10/31
Voting Rights
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Disenfranchisement
Voter ID laws
Shelby County v. Holder

Week 8
11/7
Employment Law
Employment Discrimination
Examine employment laws ranging from discrimination in hiring
practices to required accommodations for disabled persons and
permissible testing of employees.
Ban the Box initiative
Week 9
11/21
Supreme Court Case: Roe v. Wade
Jane Roe was an unmarried and pregnant Texas resident in 1970.
Texas law made it a felony to abort a fetus unless "on medical advice for
the purpose of saving the life of the mother." Roe filed suit against Wade,
the district attorney of Dallas County, contesting the statue on the
grounds that it violated the guarantee of personal liberty and the right to
privacy implicitly guaranteed in the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and
Fourteenth Amendments. In deciding for Roe, the Supreme Court
invalidated any state laws that prohibited first trimester abortions.
Week 10
12/5
Supreme Court Case: Brown v. Board

"We conclude that the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place.
Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."
Chief Justice -- Earl Warren

In Topeka, Kansas in the 1950s, schools were segregated by race. Each
day, Linda Brown and her sister had to walk through a dangerous railroad
switchyard to get to the bus stop for the ride to their all-black elementary
school. There was a school closer to the Brown's house, but it was only
for white students. Linda Brown and her family believed that the
segregated school system violated the Fourteenth Amendment and took
their case to court. Federal district court decided that segregation in
public education was harmful to black children, but because all-black
schools and all-white schools had similar buildings, transportation,
curricula, and teachers, the segregation was legal. The Browns appealed
their case to Supreme Court stating that even if the facilities were similar,
segregated schools could never be equal to one another. The Court
decided that state laws requiring separate but equal schools violated the
Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.