Senior Seminar:

Gideon v. Wainwright

 

AMH 4930

Keene-Flint 109

© Elizabeth Dale 2008

 

 

Professor:        Elizabeth Dale

Office hours:   Tuesday: 8:30-10:30

                        Thursday: 8:30-10:00

                        and by appointment

 

Offices:           224 at Keene-Flint

                         

Phone:             273-3387

Email:              edale@history.ufl.edu

                        http://plaza.ufl.edu/edale

 

 

 

Course blog:                http://caseashistory.blogspot.com/

(for updates and some online materials)

 

Required texts:             Anthony Lewis, Gideon's Trumpet (Vintage, 1989) ISBN-10 0679723129

Mark Tushnet, editor, The Warren Court in Historical and Political Perspective (University of Virginia Press, 1996) ISBN-10 0813916651
Samuel Walker, Popular Justice (Oxford University Press, 2d ed, 1997) ISBN-10 0195074513
William Rehnquist, The Supreme Court (Vintage Press, rev'd ed., 2002) ISBN-10 0375708618

and case materials and articles available online or through the UF Library (see syllabus)

 

Recommended text:     Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing History (Bedford/St. Martin's Press, 5th ed. 2007) ISBN-10 031244673X

(this book is good for advice on citation form, bibliography form and provides a general background on writing research papers)

 

 

Citation primer

 

 

Assignments:

 

Since this course is designed to teach you about historical research and have you do a significant research project, there are two types of assignments. The first type (research practice) are short assignments intended to introduce you to various tools in the library and on line. The second type (paper projects) are geared towards helping you define a paper topic and prepare your paper. The different projects and the percent of your grade they represent are listed below.

 

Your final paper for the class should be a research paper on a trial (a list of possible trials and some other resources are below). It should be 20 pages long, double spaced 12 pt type, with a bibliography and proper footnotes.

 

            Research practice (each of these assignments is worth 2 points)

 

1.      Case project, due week 2

2.      Book review project, due week 3

3.      Journal project, due week 4

4.      Primary source project, due week 5

5.      Article project, due week 6

 

Total points for these assignments:        10 points

 

Paper projects (these assignments are worth different points, the number is in the parenthesis):

 

1.      Preliminary topic proposal, due week 3 (2.5 points)

2.      Specific topic proposal, due week 5 (2.5 points)

3.      Bibliography, due week 7 (worth 5 points)

4.      Oral presentation, due week 10-11 (worth 15 points)

5.      Draft paper, due week 13 (worth 15 points)

6.      Final paper, due Tuesday December 17 (worth 50 points)

 

Total points for these assignments:        90 points

 

Total points possible:                                      100 points

 

Recommended paper topics will be set out the first class session. Students should pick a Supreme Court case (preferably case involving criminal law) from this list.

 

It is best if only one student do research based on a single case, but I will consider a well-thought out project proposal that focuses on a single topic but looks at several trials. My preference is that each student do a different topic (ie, that there not be two or more projects on a single case). I will approve trial topics on a first come, first served basis.

 

 

First week

 

            Introduction to the course and discussion:

Read the Supreme Court’s opinion in Gideon v. Wainwright for class

Case assignment given out

 

Second week

 

            Background: Criminal Law

Reading: Walker, Popular Justice

            Case assignment due

Book review assignment given out

Discussion of preliminary topic proposal

 

 

 

Third week

 

Background: the Supreme Court

Reading: Rehnquist, The Supreme Court

                        Book review project due

            Preliminary topic proposal due

Journal assignment given out

           

 

Fourth week

 

Background:    the Players, Part I

Reading: Tushnet, The Warren Court

            Journal assignment due

Primary source assignment given out

Discussion of specific paper proposal

 

           

Fifth week

 

Background: the Players, Part II

Alfieri, “Gideon in White/Gideon in Black” (download from here) [read the entire article, not just the abstract]

Specific paper proposal due

Primary source project due

Article project given out

 

Sixth week

 

Supreme Court practice

Read: Briefs filed in Gideon v. Wainwright, available online through the UF library (Making of Modern Law: US Supreme Court Records and Briefs)

You must read the petitioner’s brief and the respondent’s brief; if you have time, read the briefs by the amici

            Article project due

Discussion of bibliography assignment

 

 

Seventh week

 

Oral argument discussion

Assignment: listen to the oral argument in Gideon available here.

Bibliography due

 

Eighth week

 

            Individual conferences on papers, no class

 

Ninth week

 

             Gideon v. Wainwright and history, Part I

Reading: Lewis, Gideon’s Trumpet

 

Tenth week

 

            Gideon v. Wainwright and history, Part II

Readings: J. Harvie Wilkinson, III, “Oversimplifying the Supreme Court,” Journal of Supreme Court History 31 (2006): 81; Michael J. Klarman, “is the Supreme Court Sometimes Irrelevant? Race and the Southern Criminal Justice System in the 1940s,” Journal of American History 89 (2002): 119          

 

Eleventh week

 

            Oral presentations

 

Twelfth week

 

Oral presentations

           

Thirteenth week

 

            Oral presentations

           

           

Fourteenth week

 

            Drafts of papers due

 

Fifteenth week

 

            Individual conferences on papers this week and next

 

Sixteenth week

 

           

Individual conferences on papers

 

 

Final papers due December 9