readtrials

Famous Trials: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights in Modern America - Additional Readings and Movies

This page lists additional readings that accompany the Clemens-Lawson course "Famous Trials." We have listed several cases here that we may not cover in any particular semester, but all the cases from the current course are listed. The numbering of the cases does not necessary parallel the order the cases are listed in the current syllabus.

1. Abrams v. United States

Richard Polenberg: Fighting Faiths: The Abrams Case, the Supreme Court, and Free Speech. New York: Viking, 1987.

Decision in Abrams v. United States (1919): http://laws.findlaw.com/US/250/616.html

2. Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb v. the State of Illinois (not taught Spring 2002) Hal Higdon: Leopold & Loeb: The Crime of the Century. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1975, 1999.

Leopold & Loeb web page:

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/leopold.htm

Testimony of William Healy :

3. John Scopes

Edward J. Larson: Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate over Science and Religion. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997.

Scopes web page: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/scopes.htm

Movie: Inherit the Wind (Stanley Kramer, 1960).

4. Scottsboro James Goodwin: Stories of Scottsboro. New York: Vintage/Random House, 1994.

Scottsboro web page: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scottsboro/scottsb.htm

Decision in Powell v. Alabama (1932): http://laws.findlaw.com/US/287/45.html

5. Japanese Internment Camp Cases Peter Irons: Justice at War: The Story of the Japanese American Internment Cases. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.

Web Sites for Japanese internment:

Densho: Japanes American Legacy Project: http://www.densho.org/

University of Washington Camp Harmony Exhibit: www.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/harmony/default.htm

Museum of the City of San Francisco Newspaper Accounts: www.sfmuseum.org/war/evactxt.html

Japanese American Experience: www.geocities.com/Athens/8420/main.html

Decision in Hirabayashi v. United States (1943):http://laws.findlaw.com/US/320/81.html

Decision in Korematsu v. United States (1944): http://laws.findlaw.com/us/323/214.html

Decision in Ex Parte Mitsuye Endo (1944): http://laws.findlaw.com/us/323/283.html

6. Nuremberg War Crimes Trials Michael R. Marrus: The Nuremberg War Crime Trial, 1945-1946. Boston & New York: Bedford, 1997.

Movie: Judgment at Nuremberg (Stanley Kramer, 1961).

Nuremberg web page:

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/nuremberg.htm

7. My Lai Court Martial of William Calley

James S. Olson and Randy Roberts, My Lai: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford-St. Martin's, 1998.
My Lai web page:

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/mylai.htm

8. Ethel Rosenberg and Julius Rosenberg

Louis Nizer, The Implosion Conspiracy. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1973.

Rosenberg web site: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/rosenb/ROSENB.HTM

Movie: The Unquiet Death of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (Alvin Goldstein, 1974)

9. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas Richard Kluger, Simple Justice: The History of Brown V. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality. N.Y.: Knopf, 1975.

Decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954): http://laws.findlaw.com/US/347/483.html

10. Chicago Seven Conspiracy Trial Jason Epstein, The Great Conspiracy Trial: An Essay on Law, Liberty, and the Constitution. N.Y.: Random House, 1970.

Chicago7 web site: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Chicago7/chicago7.html

Bobby Seale, Gagged by Court Order, Chicago Conspiracy Trial

Bobby Seale, Gagged by Court Order,

Chicago Conspiracy Trial (Jules Feiffer drawing)

Bobby Seale, Apearing at Rutgers University, March 2000

Picture by Lauren Walerski, The Daily Targum

11. Skokie

Philippa Strum, When the Nazis Came to Skokie: Freedom for Speech We Hate. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1999.

Decision in Collin v. Smith (1978).

12. Roe v. Wade David J. Garrow: Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the Making of Roe v. Wade. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994, 1998.

Decision in Row v. Wade (1973): http://laws.findlaw.com/US/410/113.html

13. University of California Medical School at Davis v. Bakke Melvin Urofsky, Affirmative Action on Trial: Sex Discrimination in Johnson v. Santa Clara. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1997.

Decision in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978): http://laws.findlaw.com/US/438/265.html

Updated: 1-10-2000