Contemporary Supreme Court Approaches to Constitutional Interpretation, Part Two

Description

Professor Ralph A. Rossum examines the ways in which recent and current U.S. Supreme Court Justices interpret or seek to interpret their duties and the founding documents of the U.S. He looks at what precedents and interpretations of the Founders' intent are incorporated in contemporary justices' thought.

This lecture continues from Contemporary Supreme Court Approaches to Constitutional Interpretation, Part One.

Burbank Police and Fire Museum [CA]

Description

The Burbank Police and Fire Museum preserves and showcases the past of the Burbank Police and Fire Departments. The museum includes exhibits on all aspects of police and firefighting work.

The museum offers a variety of exhibits, ranging from uniforms to a vintage fire engine, viewable by appointment only; tours for school groups can be arranged. The website offers a brief history of the museum, along with descriptions of all displays and artifacts currently on display in the museum.

Liberty, Checks and Balances, and the Constitution, Part One

Description

Idaho State University Political Science Professor David Gray Adler examines what he describes as the great constitutional crisis of the day: the usurpation and abdication of constitutional roles by President and Congress. Building his argument on the concerns of the Framers, Dr. Adler points to the endangerment to liberty posed by the erosion of checks and balances.

Audio and video options are available.

Diversity, Urbanization, and The Constitution, Part One: The Great Migration, Urbanization, and the Constitution

Description

Eric Arnesen, Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Chicago addresses the interplay between the African-American experience between Reconstruction and the Great Migration, the U.S. Constitution, and shifting democratic ideals.

Audio and video options are available.

CIA Electronic Reading Room

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Logo, CIA, CIA Electronic Reading Room
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The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has digitized thousands of formerly secret documents declassified to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests.

Keyword search capabilities are provided for the complete site. In addition, there are eight collections designated as "frequently requested records" that total nearly 8,000 documents. These collections cover a number of Cold War topics: CIA involvement in the 1954 coup in Guatemala; convicted spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg; the 1961 Bay of Pigs affair; and two well-known espionage incidents.

Additional topics include POW MIAs in Vietnam, human rights abuses in Latin America, and UFOs. A disclaimer notes that some material cannot be disclosed due to national security laws, and released pages often have material deleted or blacked out. Still, the material offered is voluminous and useful for studying Cold War foreign policy and military history.

Texas Archive of the Moving Image

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Screenshot, The Dr. Henry Withers, M.D. and Frances. . . , George Withers, TAMI
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The Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) hosts more than 1,000 streaming videos about Texas, shot by Texans, or created in Texas. Users who have appropriate footage, including home videos, can have their films digitized and added to the collection free of charge.

Of the four main navigational buttons, the one to pay attention to is "Teach Texas." This opens a page leading to lesson plans; information on how to implement TAMI resources in the classroom; collection browsing options; and "Documenting History," a documentary-making activity.

Lesson plans can be browsed by grade level, starting with a K-3 category, or by general topic. Specific topics covered include the 1900 Galveston hurricane; 20th-century business; oil; Japanese, Italian, and German internment in World War II; festivals; cattle; the Dust Bowl; the aerospace industry; Lyndon B. Johnson and civil rights; the Vietnam War; the World War II home front; and Gulf Coast hurricanes. Lesson plans are structured, offering, for example, objectives; lists of useful prior knowledge and/or activities to engage said knowledge; hooks; the activity itself, including films to watch, questions to address, and readings to complete; worksheets; resources; and lists of Texas state standards.

Using Archival Film in the Classroom holds best practice suggestions for preparation prior to class, in class (before, during, and after a film viewing), and further resources on using film to teach.

Documenting History is a multi-day lesson plan, which culminates in group documentaries discussing local people, events, or items. While the idea is to collect Texas history, the plan can easily be implemented elsewhere without the possibility of adding the videos to the TAMI. In addition, the plan includes information on free video editing software, so, while there are equipment requirements, you do not need your school to possess expensive editing software to put the plan into action.

Finally, Curated Collections offers video sets on home movies, Lyndon B. Johnson, Austin television, local films, Texas and the Vietnam War, Speakers of the Texas House of Representatives, and the U.S.-Mexico frontier.

Taking the Mystery out of Copyright

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Screenshot, Taking the Mystery out of Copyright
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Taking the Mystery out of Copyright provides a very brief introduction to copyright and the history of intellectual property. If you need anything beyond the very basics, unless you are interested in the major historical milestones leading to current copyright protection, this site probably will not meet your needs. However, if all you want to do is introduce the idea of copyright to very young students, you may find the site useful.

Visitors can select one of four sections. Copyright Exposed is a short animated video set to funk music which provides the basic idea that copyright "has got your back" when you produce a creative work. Files on Record provides a timeline of intellectual property history. Each milestone is accompanied by a primary source from the Library of Congress's collections. Here, you can read a few sentences on the Licensing Act of 1662 or the 1990 Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act. Reading the Fine Print offers two- to five-sentence answers on applications of copyright—protection of ideas, copyright on items you find, copyright on the Internet, when people can use your work without asking, the right to use a small sample of another work, and the reasons for registration. Steps to Copyright informs readers on how to register copyright (make something, fill out the form, pay the appropriate fee, and send nonreturnable copies).

Trial of The Chicago Seven

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Photo, The Chicago Seven
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One of the Famous American Trials sites created by Douglas Linder of the University of Missouri, Kansas City, School of Law, this site explores the 1969-1970 trial of the Chicago Seven, a group of radicals accused of conspiring to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Linder provides a 1500-word account of the trial, which includes links to brief (100-word) explanations of specific terms and biographies of some of the key figures. The site provides a chronology of the lives of those involved in the trial from 1960 to 1998; images of two Yippie posters; a map of the key Chicago riot sites; and roughly 350-word biographies of 15 of the defendants, lawyers, and other figures in the trial. There are ten audio clips of defendants, prosecutors, and witnesses discussing various aspects of the riots and the trial. The site offers full-text versions of the indictment against the Chicago Seven, the trial manuscript, the contempt of court specifications against two of the defendants, and the appellate decision that overturned the contempt convictions and the convictions for intent to incite a riot. Additionally, there are 16 images of the riots and key figures and 14 quotations. A bibliography of 13 websites and 15 scholarly works leads to other sources for studying the Chicago Seven's trial and their lives as radical activists. This is an ideal site for researching 1960s activism and culture.

17th-Century Colonial New England

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Logo, 17th Century New England
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Offers more than 235 annotated links, within 20 categories, to documents and materials about the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692, and more broadly, 17th-century New England. Categories include primary sources, bibliographies, references for young readers, teaching materials, museums, Native Americans, witchcraft, religious heterodoxies, and Hollywood versions of history. In addition to links, the site's creator, a novelist and descendant of accused witch Rebecca Nurse, provides nine documents from the trials; an account of one witchcraft trial written by Cotton Mather; four documents from Salem court records; an annotated bibliography with 26 titles; a table listing more than 200 people accused of witchcraft with their place of residence, year of accusation, and jurisdiction; and a discussion of historical inaccuracies in Arthur Miller's play The Crucible and the recent film version. As the site is checked regularly for dead links, it can be a valuable gateway to sites on 17th-century American cultures, religions, and social life.