Welcome to Week 9, during which we will explore the Judicial Branch.  Some have argued that the Judicial Branch is the weakest branch, finding support from its placement in Article III, after the first two branches and with the shortest list of powers/details written in to the Constitution.  Others argue that it is an imperious judiciary, having expanded its power via judicial review, which is a power given to the Supreme Court not by the Constitution but by the Supreme Court in its decision Marbury v. Madison.  If this seems confusing, that’s because it is.  Also confusing is the federal judicial system, especially since only the Supreme Court is mentioned in Article III.  The rest was left up for Congress to figure out, which they have done by creating a system of District Courts (which are courts of first instance and hear trials), Circuit Courts (appellate courts), and the Supreme Court (which hears about 90 cases per year, selected from appeals from the Circuit Courts as well as from state Supreme Courts)

SCOTUS (an abbreviation for the Supreme Court of the United States), like all of us, has been seriously affected by COVID-19.  They have been working remotely since March, and this week they begin hearing cases remotely- which is a first, as you can read in this article; live audio of oral arguments are being made available to media outlets who are streaming them live (you can read about the cases that are on for this week and next week, as well as get the link to listen live in this article) This is extra different, as unlike Congress or the President, cameras have never been invited into SCOTUS hearings, and audio recordings have only rarely been made available on the same day.  I encourage you to tune in to an argument if you can.  

I’d like to call your attention to two possible assignments, to help you build up your points in this class.  The Film Review requires you to watch a documentary (from home!  Netflix/Amazon/Hulu/etc) and write a film review, and Political Participation requires you to do something to participate politically and write a short reflection on it (both assignments are described on the syllabus and in your Blackboard class in the Course Information section).  One easy-to-do-from-home form of political participation is filling out the Census.  KCC Votes is hosting two online sessions to help students fill out the census.  I’m posting the information below:

As you know, 2020 is a Census Year and we want to ensure that our students and their households are completing the census. As such, and in part of our KCC Votes political engagement campaign, we will be offering two Census Live! events on May 6^th at 11am and May 7th at 3pm. At these Zoom gatherings we will step students through the process and be able to help answer and questions they may have.

Details and Zoom meeting information can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10Z769vIbC3OA9Qfd_6u2h6_j5DfqhLUzYg4tEMVm_lo/edit?usp=sharing

So, please enjoy this week’s readings (Chapter 13- if you’re really pressed for time, try to get through the chapter summary at the end of the chapter) and videos, flip through the slides, and make your two blog posts. 

Because of possible campus closure, you now MUST choose blogging as one of your adventures for this class.  Where you blog is up to you. Think about what you are most comfortable with, and choose your own adventure:

Option 1:  Post your blogs to our class blog on our class site on the CUNY Academic Commons

• Pros: easy for our whole class to see, convenient for you, since you need to be visiting that site anyway, nobody monetizing your data.  You control your own posts, and can delete them when the class is over if you so choose.  
• Cons:  you need a CUNY email address to get logged in to the Academic Commons, and then you have to accept the invitation I will send to you. 
• What do you need to do:  get a CUNY Academic Commons login, accept invitation to get added to our class site.  .

Option 2:  Post your blogs to your own blog on the CUNY Academic Commons

• Pros: you control the entirety of the content on your blog, and can choose to take it down after the class is over at your leisure (or leave it up)
• Cons:  you need a CUNY email address to get logged in to the Academic Commons, and you need to email me your blog URL so I can add it to the class list.
• What do you need to do:  get a CUNY Academic Commons login, make a site to set up your blog, and then email a link to me so I can add it to the blogroll.

Option 3:  Post your blogs to your own blog

• Pros:  You don’t need a CUNY email address, you control the entirety of the content on your blog, and can choose to take it down after the class is over at your leisure (or leave it up), and you can be truly pseudonymous if you wish
• Cons:  You’re on your own for support and you need to email me your blog URL so I can add it to the class blogroll.
• What do you need to do:  go set up your blog- there’s information on free blogging platforms here and then email me a link.   You may also choose a single google doc to host your blog- set the sharing permissions to “anyone with the link can view” and send me the link so I can add it to the class.

Sample Blog Post I wrote:

This semester, I am making students blog their learning reflections each week.  I am shamelessly stealing this idea from Robin DeRosa and many others I’ve seen on Twitter and at conferences, whose students seem to get so much out of it.  Reflecting on learning is an important part of the learning process- without it, it’s hard to retain the learning you have done.  Learning is not like a brain bar, where a professor pours information into your head- you have to work with it to make it your own, and I’m hoping that blogging will be a way to encourage reflecting; it is also a place to collect your reflections, so you can review them at a later date (and maybe even reflect some more!). It is also a way for you to begin or expand on your own digital footprint, which may be useful to you in future college or job applications. 

Some ideas for blog posts:

• Connecting a current event to a class topic
• Reflecting on how you’re doing in the class so far
• Something you wanted to bring up in class, but we didn’t get to
• Something you heard about in class, but wanted to read and write more about
• Really, whatever you like (that’s related to course topics or your learning journal)- it’s your blog!

Blogging will also give us a chance to do the kind of writing you are likely to need to do in your future career (clear, thoughtful, evidence-based, and digital) for an authentic audience – our class!  So when you write your blogs, you know who you are writing for, which will help you decide what kind of writing to do.  Also, since this is public shared writing, your own pride will keep you honest about making this the best writing it can be. Let’s aim for more than “a text with typos tapped out on your phone in 2 minutes” but less than “10 page research paper that takes 6 weeks.” 

The best way to improve your writing is to practice writing by writing, which is why this assignment requires you to blog.  But writing can also be scary- it takes time, maybe you’re not confident in yourself as a writer yet, or not sure what the professor is going to grade you on. So this is a self-graded assignment. At the end of the semester, you will write one final blog post, explaining how many points out of 10 you think you deserve.  For full credit, you should write 1 or 2 pieces every week, that evidence thought and effort. If everything goes according to plan, your learning and writing skills will improve over the course of the semester in a relatively painfree manner (which you can look back on and see, since all of your pieces will be published in one place). 

By now, you might have noticed that some of these words are highlighted- those are hyperlinks to other stuff- in this case, articles for further reading on the highlighted words, but you can link to anything on the Internet- a YouTube video, a news article, a podcast.  Use links to provide further information or evidence to your readers. If you’re talking about something happening in the world, link to a news article about it. If you’re making a factual claim, link to the evidence that backs your claim up. This is a little like citation in more formal writing.  

Finally, this semester, all assignments are choose your own adventure.  If you don’t want to blog, I look forward to reading your blogs!