Judicial Decision-Making and the Constitution

Transcription

1 Judicial Decision-Making and the Constitution OVERVIEW: The goal of this activity is to understand how judges make decisions through the interpretation and application of law. In this lesson, students will apply the Constitution and case precedent to a real case scenario. The balancing of security/order with individual rights/liberty will be explored. OBJECTIVES: Upon successful completion of this activity, students will be able to: Analyze the Fourth Amendment; Apply the Fourth Amendment and case precedent to specific case studies; Weigh issues of public safety/security with individual rights from a constitutional framework; and Determine the flow of a case throughout the state courts. MATERIALS NEEDED: Copy of Fourth Amendment Handout A PowerPoint Presentation Supreme Court Case Study Form/Handout B Florida v. J.L./Handout C Constitutional Question/Handout D Terry v. Ohio Handout/E Court Decisions (for facilitator only) TIME REQUIRED: 90 minutes recommended. Can be shortened or lengthened. Can also be divided into two lessons NEXT GENERATION SUNSHINE STATE STANDARDS: Grades 6-8: Grades 9-12: SS.7.C.2.4 SS.912.C.3.11 SS.7.C.2.5 SS.912.C.3.12 ACTIVITIES: 1. Discuss with students that today you will be letting them experience the judicial branch first hand. Today they will become judges. 2. Ask participants what knowledge, skills, and qualities they think judges should have. Discuss their answers. Should judges be influenced by public opinion when deciding cases? Use PowerPoint to guide presentation. 3. Dissect the Fourth Amendment with students. Using the PowerPoint, have a student read a section of the Fourth Amendment (Handout A). Discuss each section and ask questions to generate interest.

2 Amendment IV. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. 4. Example of discussion: Have student begin reading: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects..." STOP ask students: Is an apartment covered? How about a hotel room? Do the police have the right to search your trash? How about your urine is that covered? Can a school require a football playyer to submit to a urine test before playing on the high school football team? Continue for each section highlighted in a different color on the PowerPoint. Stop and discuss. What is a warrant? Do you always need a warrant? What is probable cause? Show video on web site from the Bill of Rights Institute. 5. Using the case study form and case abstract, review the attached case with the full group. H ave the group read silently and under line all relevant facts. Initiate a dialogue to review the facts. Ask participants what will happen to J.L.? J.L. s attorneys will ask that the gun be suppressed as evidence bec ause they feel the search was unlawfully conducted in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Lead a discussion to elicit arguments for both sides. Call upon students to act out a motion to suppress hearing. Follow the PowerPoint. Discuss the trial court decision as well as the DCA and Florida Supreme Court decisions sequentially. DO NOT announce the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court. Frame the question before the US Supreme Court. Ask participants individually and without discussion to determine how they would rule on the case and to list three reasons. See constitutional question. 6. Divide participants into groups of five to simulate a Supreme Court conference. In this Supreme Court conference activity, each group should: Select a Chief Justice in each group to maintain order and lead discussions. Remaining participants are associate justices. Discuss in each group why the search was constitutional or unconstitutional based on participants knowledge of the Fourth Amendment. Different opinions will surface. Each person in the group should be allowed to speak once before anyone speaks twice. The Chief Justice will poll the justices to determine the final decision of the Court. This will be discussed to try and reach a unanimous court decision. Give at least minutes. 7. Have each group' s Chief Judge come to the front and present the decision of their court. Tally responses. Debrief with the actual U.S. Supreme Court decision.

3 COURT DECISIONS: FOR THE FACILITATOR The trial court granted J.L. s motion to suppress the gun as it was obtained through an unlawful search. The court said the gun could not be used as evidence. The district court of appeal reversed the trial court s decision and deter mined that the search was legal. The Florida Supreme Court disagreed with the appellate court s ruling and agreed with the trial court. DO NOT ANNOUNCE UNTIL CONCLUSION OF THE ACTIVITY: The U.S. Supreme Court held that an anonymous tip that a person is carrying a gun is not, without more, sufficient to justify a police officer s stop and frisk of that person. (Florida v. J.L. was argued February 29, 2000 and decided March 28, U.S. 266, 120 S.Ct. 1375, 2000 U.S. LEXIS 2345) See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968)

4 FOURTH AMENDMENT UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION Amendment IV. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the placed to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Handout A

5 Case Study/Supreme Court Conference I. What are the Facts? II State the Issue to be Decided: III. Arguments For Petitioner/Appellant: IV. Arguments For Respondent/Appellee: V. What Would You Decide? VI. Reasons/Evaluation: VII. Mock Supreme Court Conference Decision: VIII. Actual Decision of the Court: Handout B

6 Florida v. J.L. An anonymous caller contacted the Miami-Dade Police Department by telephone and told them that a young, black male wearing a plaid shirt and standing at a specific bus stop by a pawnshop was carrying a gun. The tip ster described the suspect as well as two other companions. Six minutes after the call, the police arrived at the bus stop and verified the accuracy of the informant s tip. Officer Anderson, a 14-year experienced veteran, and another officer saw the three black males, one of whom was wearing a plaid shirt. The officers did not see a gun. While the three young men were hanging out by the bus stop, Officer Anderson and her partner approached them and frisked all three men. The individual in the plaid shirt, J. L., had a gun in his pocket. The other men did not have weapons. J.L., who was almost 16 at the time, was charged under Florida law with carrying a concealed firearm without a license and possessing a firearm under the age of 18. Handout C

7 Issue Is an anonymous tip that a person is carrying a gun sufficient to justify a police officer s stop and frisk of that person? Handout D

8 Terry v. Ohio: Officer McFadden is a police officer with 39 years experience on a beat patrol in downtown Cleveland. While on plainclothes patrol, he watched two men acting suspiciously for a period of several minutes. The two men stood at the corner, talking. One man walked away down the street, paused at a certain store window, looked in, walked a few feet past the store, then turned around and began walking back to the second man, but stopping again to look in the same store window. When he rejoined his companion, the two men spoke, then the second man went through the same routine, walking down the street, looking into the same window, walking past the store, turning around, looking back in the same store window, and returning to the companion. This was repeated 5 or 6 times by each individual, for a total of trips. At one point a third man joined them, and the three spoke briefly. The third man then left and the original two resumed their pacing, peering and conferring. The two men then walked off together following the path the third man had taken earlier. Officer McFadden became suspicious that the three men were about to pull off a daylight robbery and were casing the joint. He followed the two men, saw them stop in front of a store, joined now by the third man. He approached the three men, identified himself as a police officer, and asked the three men for their names. They mumbled something in response, after which Officer McFadden grabbed Terry, spun him around and patted down the outside of his clothing. He felt a pistol in Terry s coat pocket and eventually removed the coat and the gun. Officer McFadden testified he patted the men down only on their outer clothing and only to see if they were carrying weapons. Terry was charged with and convicted of carrying a concealed weapon. He contended that the weapon was unlawfully seized in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights and should not have been introduced into evidence against him. The United States Supreme Court held that the gun found on Terry was properly admitted into evidence. The Court further held that that a stop and frisk is constitutional under the following circumstances:

9 Where a police officer observes unusual conduct which leads him reasonably to conclude, in light of his experience, that criminal activity may be afoot and that the persons with whom he is dealing may be armed and presently dangerous, and in the course of investigating this behavior he identifies himself as a policeman and makes reasonable inquiries, and where nothing in the initial stages of the encounter serves to dispel his reasonable fear for his own or others safety, he is entitled for the protection of himself and others in the area to conduct a carefully limited search of the outer clothing of such persons in an attempt to discover weapons which might be used to assault him. Such a search is a reasonable search under the Fourth Amendment, and any weapons seized may properly be introduced into evidence against the person from whom they were taken. Handout E

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