Vorralak

= Beare US History Research Wiki Journal Prompts = = =


 * Journal Entry 1:** Topic and ideas -- What are you investigating? What are the questions that are guiding your investigation.

I am investigating on the United States Constitution. By far, I have been working on the general ideas of the document.

The constitution is applauded as one of the most important document in the world history. Surprisingly enough that with only less than eight thousand words (including its amendments), the constitution has by far covered and protected all its citizens’ life at a very powerful degree for more than two centuries.

I have also changed my initial direction. At first, I considered working on the aspect of the evolving constitution. After some readings, I found that there is another more interesting aspect to be contemplated. What makes the U.S. constitution among the most prominent documents in the world is greatly lie in the way they were written to function. How exactly do the constitution and its amendments extend its democracy to every Americans’ daily life is surely one thing to be pursued for the absolute answer.

The answer to the question of the functional constitution will not be a good answer if we exclude the intertwinement between the actual document and the interpretation of the judiciary. And by slightly skimming on some Supreme Court cases in national history, one question became more obvious, one of the “judicial activism”. The way the Supreme Court exercises its Constitutional bounds in any legal activity, how can we be sure if the law is interpreted without partially personal consideration. Does the court currently function in the way the constitution indicates?

Amar, Akhil Reed. 2006. America's constitution: a biography. New York: Random House.


 * Journal Entry 2:** A comment on your process to date, a brief discussion of your sources, and a listing of sources you are currently working with (correct Turabian format). This should be a significant step forward from your initial bibliography.

Process: After making the decision to focus on the Judicial Activism against the existing law in the interpretation of the Supreme Court Justices, I have been working on a case of Brown Vs. Board of Education in Topeka, Kansas in 1954. It was one of the cases that very well represents the ideas of judicial activism in practice after it significantly overthrew the former arguments on segregated public facilities, decided years before in Plessy and Ferguson’s argument.

For gaining the general background of both focuses, I had watched two documentaries. One was on the awakening civil rights movements, initiated by the desegregation in the Brown’s case. The other was on the Supreme Court, as the “Home to American’s highest Court”. The latter film provides a good amount of the ideas, lied in the working of the nine justices based on how the written constitution intended them to function. Also, with the changing and globalized world, the film shows (by interviewing the Justices) how they undertake the aged-written document's interpretation to be well suited and appropriate with our current world and its emerging issues.

Apart from working on the filmed documents, I have also been reading some books to dig more in depth—the idea of Judicial Activism and the case itself. One book by the author Kermit Roosevelt, explains in various aspects on the issue of Judicial Activism. What it really is and how it effects the court decision and its trustworthiness are of many other things, waiting to be explored.

Of the Brown case itself, the book “Defining moments: Brown VS. Board of Education” by author Diane Telgen explains in depth from the very background of the case since the era of slavery in the nation. It explores how the initial status of some group of men turned to be one of the strongest attitudes and so far effected on many ‘other’ Americans’ life. The book provides three types of narrations. It starts off with narrative tone of overall situation--long before the case and the case itself. The first narration comes along with easily accessible glossary contents on the first couple pages, which greatly expedite the overall reading. The second part of the book provides the information in the form of biographies. The third part covers many primary resources—the very good reference for further works.

Bibliographies: Telgen, Diane. 2005. //Brown v. Board of Education//. Defining moments. Detroit, MI: Omnigraphics. Newman, Roger K. 1999. //The Constitution and its amendments. Volume 2, From article two, section 2 to first amendment: subversive speech//. New York: Macmillan Reference USA. Newman, Roger K. 1999. //The Constitution and its amendments. Volume 4, From fourteenth amendment to twenty-seventh amendment//. New York: Macmillan Reference USA. Johnson, John W. 2001. //Historic U.S. court cases: an encyclopedia//. New York: Routledge. C-SPAN (Television network). 2009. //The Supreme Court home to America's highest court//. [Washington, DC]: National Cable Satellite Corp. Hampton, Henry, and Julian Bond. 2006. //Eyes on the prize. America's civil rights movement Disc 1, Awakenings (1954-1956). Fighting back (1957-1962)//. [Alexandria, Va.]: PBS Video. Roosevelt, Kermit. 2006. //The myth of judicial activism: making sense of Supreme Court decisions//. New Haven: Yale University Press.


 * Journal Entry 3:** What is your Thesis?

The term “Judicial Activism” which is used to roughly define (or in some cases; accuse) a particular kind of the Justices’ conduct is accountable for both enhancing and undermining and the workability of American Constitutionality system.