Influential Supreme Court Cases

DeProspo, Chatham Molly

Ingredients for a Good Research Paper:

  • Reference (for background and context)
  • Books (for depth)
  • Primary Sources (for evidence)
  • Scholarly or Peer-Reviewed Articles (for analysis)
  • Your own ORIGINAL writing, thought, and analysis (including a STRONG thesis). Clearly Stated Position or Angle (as appropriate) + Specific supporting arguments/statements = Thesis

Finding Original Text of Supreme Court Opinions

Most cases may be found in the SIRS Government Reporter database (listed below).

OR: Google "Find Law [your case]" for full text of court cases.

OR: Search by party name on either FindLaw.com or the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University.

Suggested Databases

Questia School

Username: deprospo@imgacademy.com

Password: imgacademy


Use for: finding books, articles, and reference

JSTOR

Use JSTOR to find scholarly journal articles (best for advanced students, AP students, and college-bound seniors). Password not required for on-campus access.


Use for: finding scholarly journal articles

eLibrary

Username: imgacademy

Password: ascenders


Use for: finding articles, news coverage, and reference

SIRS Knowledge Source/Issues Researcher

Username: imgacademy

Password: ascenders


Use for: finding articles, news coverage, and reference.

SIRS Government Reporter

Username: imgacademy

Password: ascenders


Use for: finding government documents and court cases (primary sources).

History Study Center

Username: imgacademy

Password: ascenders


Use for: historical resources, including articles, reference, maps, and primary sources.

EBSCOHost

Library barcode: 23950003158341

Pin: 1234


Use for: finding books, articles, reference, and news coverage.

Gale Virtual Reference Library

Library barcode: 23950003158341

Pin: 1234


Use for: reference (encyclopedias)

Newsbank

Library barcode: 23950003158341

Pin: 1234


Use for: news coverage

Tips for Using Google Effectively

Quotation marks

Simply using quotation marks can reduce your Google search results by the millions! Enclosing two or more words in quotation marks changes your search from a keyword search to an exact phrase search. (Example: "Gregg v. Georgia" instead of Gregg v. Georgia).


Finding .edu, .gov, or .org sites

Many teachers do not allow students to use commercial websites for their research (indicated by a .com web address). Quickly find .edu, .gov, or .org websites by adding the search term site:gov, site:edu, or site:org to your search terms.