Unless you have been hibernating in a cave somewhere off the coast of Madagascar for the past six and a half months, you know about and have experienced the historical year 2000 presidential election. Since day one there has been mass coverage not only of the candidates, but also of their families,...

Clarence Earl Gideon was charged in a Florida state court with having broken and entered a poolroom with intent to commit a misdemeanor. Appearing in court without funds and without a lawyer, Gideon asked the Florida state court to appoint counsel for him, whereupon the following troubles took p...

Since the introduction of Affirmative Action, by Lyndon B. Johnson, it has been a very debatable issue in the American culture. Recently, the differing sides have focused on its use in college acceptance. Many believe that it is the best means we have, at this time, to guarantee that people of all...

The Negative Effects of Affirmative Action Affirmative Action has increasingly become the subject of debate and tension in American society. However, the debate has become entangled in silly arguments of equality of opportunity versus the equality of results. "The purpose of Affirmative Actio...

Opinion of Election 2000"It is finally over", probably the most common statement you would hear if you asked any U.S. citizen their thoughts on the presidential election of 2000. This election was definitely the closest of any presidential election recorded in history and believe me when I tell you ...

Children and the Death Penalty Today it is very difficult to turn on the TV or pick- up a newspaper without hearing about someone being killed or someone on trial for killing. With the increasing number of people committing crimes it is not surprising to read that an increasing number have been com...

good death"; however, the word "euthanasia" is much more difficult to define. Each person may define euthanasia differently. Who is to decide whether a death is good or not? Is any form of death good? All of these questions can be answered differently by each person. It is generally taken today t...

Capital punishment is the topic for my research paper, because the subject brings up many controversial issues. All the issues connecting to capital punishment can carry many opinions and moral concerns. To take a man's life away from him can be very cruel, because what gives somebody the right to...

Each year there are about 250 people added to death row and 35 executed. From 1976 to 1995 there were a total of 314 people put to death in the US 179 of them were put to death using lethal injection, 123 were put to death using electrocution, 9 were put to death in a gas chamber, 2 were hanged, and...

In 1972, The Supreme Court declared that under then existing laws "the imposition and carrying out of the death penalty...constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments." But within four years, due to hole in the system, the Court stated &q...

"The People vs. Eighth Amendment" The business of cruel and unusual punishment has long been juxtaposed with the discussion of the death penalty. Beginning with Adam and Eve and continuing to the present day, society has struggled with the notion of punishment. From Salem, Massachusetts...

Death Penalty For years outrageous crimes have caused the government to use the death penalty for capital crimes. This has been acceptable by most people in the past, but in the last relatively few years, more and more people have questioned the morality of the punishment. The arguments on both si...

The Death Penalty I strongly believe that the Death Penalty is a form of punishment to be used when needed. This opens up the question, when should it be used? That may be the breaking point in a lot of arguments; deciding when to use the death penalty is a very touchy subject. I believe that only...

Euthanasia: Whose Life Is It? Imagine a body slowly and excruciatingly being broken down by an unseen and uncontrollable invader. Now imagine that there is a law preventing anyone from ending that suffering. Welcome to the argument over euthanasia. Euthanasia is defined as "the ac...

The Privilege of the PoorThis country is founded centuries ago on the beliefs of a God fearing society. When our laws were first coming about was the "Eye for an eye" attitude taken into consideration? Did our founding fathers look upon the senseless acts of killing another human being as being so...

Jefferon and his people had become a political group that favored the adoption by the states of the Constitution The Federalists were conservatives; they favored a strong centralized government, encouragement of industries, attention to the needs of the great merchants and landowners, and establ...

The Effects of Race on Sentencing in Capital Punishment Cases Throughout history, minorities have been ill-represented in the criminal justice system, particularly in cases where the possible outcome is death. In early America, blacks were lynched for the slightest violation of informal laws and man...

Pros and Cons to Capital PunishmentFor many years the death penalty has been the sentence for murders, rapists, and other serial criminals. But, in recent months it has been an issue in whether the death penalty should or should not be legal. (Lancashire, Ian. Page. 20) There are many people that t...

Leading up to and throughout the Civil War, many issues were in dispute. These issues became increasingly important to the United States unity. Slavery was abolished and the Union began to come together. The South felt the need for Slavery and therefore ignited a war between Americans. The endin...

THE EARLY COURTSince the American Constitution was the first written constitution in the world, it created an entire wealth of laws and interpretations for the newly formed government. From 1787 until the mid-nineteenth century, the Supreme Court had to create policies and procedures while it heard...

PROBLEM AREA II: RIGHT OF PRIVACY The Right to Be Left Alone: An Examination of the Right of Privacy Prepared for Submission to the 1999 National Debate Topic Selection Committee by Cindi Timmons Colleyville Heritage HS Colleyville, Texas and Aaron Timmons Greenhill School Dallas, Texa...

Affirmative Action on Trial: Is Fairness an Elusive Goal? GENERAL BACKGROUND: What are the origins of what is known today as affirmative action, the programs that seek to remedy past discrimination against minorities and women? The original American foundation for social justice, fairness and civ...

Where Have All the Guns Gone? In today's society guns are everywhere. News casts shower the public with stories about gun violence, movie heroes blow away the bad guys, cartoon characters brazenly shower each other with flying bullets, and children shoot each other in school roo...

Paul Kens, in his book Lochner v. New York: Economic Regulation onTrial, makes the case that Lochner, and the Lochner era of the SupremeCourt, forms the foundation of ideological battles between economics andpersonal liberty and rights. The court found, in that case, that the stateof New York...

What is more important... absolute protection of the First Amendment, or the right to equality as guaranteed in the Fourteenth Amendment? Furthermore, what exactly IS guaranteed by the First Amendment, and what lies outside the boundaries? Virginia v Black 123 S.Ct. 1536 (2003) addresses the issue o...