Journal Questions

You will be required to keep a journal throughout the semester. The journal will include two parts:

     1) your critical review of the readings, videos, or guest lecturers for each week, and

     2) your personal thoughts, beliefs, and feelings regarding the issues under discussion each week.

Your journal will be graded as part of your participation grade each week. Part 1 will be graded for its content; part 2 will be graded with regard to the thoughtfulness and logic that you apply to expressing your thoughts, beliefs, and feelings, but not the actual philosophical or political positions that you espouse. Because it is a journal, you will be expected to keep it as a cumulative file in a Microsoft Word document. That is, each week you will add the two entries for that week, after the entries for all previous week(s). You will then send me the entire journal electronically, as an attachment to an e-mail message. In this way, it will be easy for you and me to refer to your previous entries and to build upon them.

Journal entries are due to me electronically by 8 AM on the Monday following the period for that entry — e.g., the entry for the period of September 10-14 is due to me by 8 AM on Monday, September 17.

The following list of questions is provided because some students find it difficult to begin their journal entries. You are not required to address or answer any of these questions; however, you may use them as the starting point for your entries for a given week.

Journal 1 (8/23-8/30): How were the framers of the Constitution influenced by the history of civil liberties prior to 1780? Compare and contrast the U.S. Bill of Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. What would have happened if the Bill of Rights had not been added to the Constitution?

Journal 2 (9/4-9/13): What is the role of the federal courts? How does the role of federal courts differ from the role of state courts? What is the court's reasoning in ordering the removal of Ten Commandments displays? Compare and contrast the Constitutional arguments made by Gun Control advocates and by Right to Bear Arms advocates.

Journal 3 (9/18-9/20): How and why can the University restrict the right to free speech and assembly and when can it not do so? Can a newspaper print anything that it wants to? What restrictions may be imposed on what a newspaper can print?

Journal 4 (9/25-10/4): What are the responsibilities and limitations placed on the police by the Fourth Amendment? What is a Grand Jury, how does it function, and why is it required? What is double jeopardy and why is it forbidden?

Journal 5 (10/9-10/11): What is double jeopardy and why did the Framers explicitly include a prohibition of it in the Bill of Rights? Explain briefly what is meant by "due process of law."

Journal 6 (10/16-10/29): Briefly summarize the arguments for and against the death penalty. State and justify your own position. Explain the phrase "evolving standards of decency" and provide several examples. Discuss your impressions of and reactions to the proceedings we observed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. Discuss your impressions of and reactions to what Judge Rogers had to say to us.

Journal 7 (10/30-11/1): Discuss the results of the Brown v. Board of Education decission, commenting especially on the impact of the court's "all deliberate speed" phrase.

Journal 8 (11/6-11/15): Why did the equal rights amendment fail to be ratified? In your opinion, should it have been ratified and why? What might have been the consequences if it had been ratified? Do you think that the Supreme Court will/should overturn Roe v. Wade? What do you think will happen if/when it is overturned?

This list may be expanded as the semester progresses.

Last updated 8/8/07