Sharp School
The Bill of Rights and Supreme Court Cases Project
Social media and United States history combine as your young historians design a Facebook page for two major defendants of landmark Supreme Court cases. The resource includes a detailed rubric for research and page design, as well as a...
Curated OER
A Short, Short Lesson on the Fourth Amendment
Students read text of Fourth Amendment together as class, discuss necessity of Constitutional right to be free of unreasonable searches, and analyze landmark Supreme Court cases dealing with Fourth Amendment rights.
Curated OER
Search and Seizure: What Does It Mean?
Students, in a juvenile correctional facility, study the meaning of the Fourth Constitutional Amendment. They study definitions and complete worksheets to investigate the implications of the amendment.
Curated OER
"Whispering Wires": Public Law vs. Individual Civil Liberties
High school student love discussing controversial issues like those brought up in this fourth amendment case study. They examine the 1928 Olmstead vs. U.S. prohibition court case, applying the fourth amendment to determine whether or not...
Curated OER
Search & Seizure Opinion Poll
Pupils examine federal and state constitutional law relating to search and seizure. They analyze various scenarios, participate in an opinion poll, and discuss difficulties in balancing individual privacy rights with the need to fight...
Curated OER
Search And Seizure In Washington
Young scholars identify legal requirements of searches conducted with and without a warrant, and identify the legal standard for conducting searches in public schools.
National First Ladies' Library
Government: Defending the Bill of Rights
Pupils examine the proposition of a country without the Bill of Rights. In a role-playing activity, teams of students gather information to build a case for retaining the Bill of Rights and present it before their congressperson.
Curated OER
Civics: It's My Locker!
Students examine in a simulation based on the Fourth Amendment where a principal wants to search two student lockers. After discussing the situation, they survey a case, T.L.O. v. New Jersey in which the court held that schools have to...
PBS
Pbs: Prohibition: Lesson Plans
Provides four detailed lesson plans about Prohibition. The lesson plans include activities, student handouts, assessment and extension ideas, and video segments.
Other
Certiorari Practice: The Supreme Court's Shrinking Docket
Recent legislation has allowed the Supreme Court discretionary, rather than obligatory powers, in deciding which cases to decide. This in-depth and well-developed essay describes the process and criticizes the new system, while providing...
PBS
Pbs News Hour: Your Safety and Security or Your Civil Liberties Lesson
The object of this lesson is to take a look at the USA Patriot Act and the controversies around the Act. Does the Patriot Act defy our Civil Liberties? This lesson will explore that question and more.
Bill of Rights Institute
Bill of Rights Institute: Airport Scanners and the Fourth Amendment
Allow students opportunity to evaluate the constitutionality of the TSA full body airport scanners with this lesson plan.
Illinois Institute of Technology
The Oyez Project: Katz v. United States
Katz v. United States altered the meaning of the 4th Amendment, the right to search and seizure, appealing his case in 1967 regarding the investigator's use of electronic surveillance. Oyez features the facts and recordings from the...
NPR: National Public Radio
Npr: Timeline: Wiretaps' Use and Abuse
As the debate over domestic surveillance heats up in the Bush administration between the President and Congress, NPR provides a timeline of the history behind electronic surveillance laws.
Other
San Francisco Unified School District: Bill of Rights
A collection of resources for learning and teaching about the Bill of Rights. Includes ideas for projects, links for the First to Eighth Amendments, videos, resources on significant Supreme Court cases, and histories of the Amendments....
Thomson Reuters
Find Law: u.s. Constitution: Fourth Amendment
This resource provides information on the reference to Rochin v California, that is found in the annotations page to the 4th Amendment. Specifically, focusing on the section covering "Property subject to seizure".
Thomson Reuters
Find Law: Annotation 6: Fourth Amendment: The Exclusionary Rule
This resource offers a discussion of the Fourth Amendment, and what has become known as the Exclusionary Rule. Provided on the bottom of the page are footnotes which can be reached by clicking on the links throughout the body of the text.
Thomson Reuters
Find Law: Jurisdiction of Federal Courts
This site describes the jurisdiction of the Federal Court system. The site breaks the court's jurisdiction into three main areas of institutional conflict: Federal Restraint of State Courts by Injunctions, Habeas Corpus: Scope of the...
Thomson Reuters
Find Law: u.s. Constitution: Fourth Amendment
This resource not only provides a text of the amendment, but also extensive annotations to words and phrasing.
Thomson Reuters
Find Law: u.s. Constitution: Fourth Amendment
This is the text and fully annotated phrasing of the amendment.
National Constitution Center
National Constitution Center: Interactive Constitution: Search and Seizure
Provides the text to the Fourth Amendment with further explanation about unreasonable searches and seizures.
US National Archives
Docs Teach: Search Warrants and the 4th Amendment
In this activity, learners will analyze a search warrant and decide whether or not it fulfills all of the necessary requirements by the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Read Works
Read Works: News Debate Phone Patrol
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about the police being able to search through cell phones without a search warrant. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
PBS
Pbs: p.o.v.: Larry v. Lockney (A Case About Mandatory Drug Testing)
What happens in a small Texas town when a father decides to challenge a school board decision about mandatory drug testing for junior and senior high-school students? P.O.V., the documentary series that airs on PBS, answers this question...