There are six possible "Should" questions below. Choose one that you would like to write about. You may create a "Should" question of your own, but you must use one of the Supreme Court cases listed below to support your opinion.

The four Supreme Court cases have links to research material. The opinions of the court are often preceded by a "syllabus" that summarizes the actions of the court. Generally, each syllabus begins with a paragraph summary and is followed by numbered summaries of the holdings (rulings) that are found in the case. A one or two sentence summary of the court's holding is often found near the end of the summary paragraph. The syllabus often gives references to page numbers of the opinion. Footnotes are blue underlined numbers. Students might wish to read certain pages that are referenced in the syllabus. The full opinion may provide useful quotations or ideas for the essays. It is not necessary for students to read and understand the entire Supreme Court Case.

1. Suppose that companies often allow employees to use their work cell phones to send and receive personal text messages.  Should an employer be allowed to inspect personal text messages sent on a company cell phone?

• See O’Connor v. Ortega, 480 U.S. 709 (1987) 

2. Suppose that an employee is sending lots of inappropriate personal e-mails from work. Should a company be allowed to read communications that employees send from their work e-mail addresses? 

• See O’Connor v. Ortega, 480 U.S. 709 (1987) 

3. Suppose a student creates a Facebook group to insult a teacher.  Should a principal be allowed to suspend a student for disrespecting a teacher online?

• See Tinker v. Des Moines School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969) 
  
  
• No More Pencils, No More Facebooks: Schools and students battle over out-of-class Internet files by Wendy N. Davis, ABA Journal, July 2009

4. Suppose that jurors are using their cell phones to google for background information while serving on jury duty.  Should jurors in Michigan be allowed to use electronic communications during a trial?

• See Sheppard v. Maxwell, 384 U.S. 333 (1966)

5. Suppose that jurors are using their cell phones to send tweets about what is happening in the courtroom.  Should one-way electronic communications by jurors be banned during a trial?

• See Sheppard v. Maxwell, 384 U.S. 333 (1966)

6. Suppose that a juror sends a Facebook friend request to the prosecuting attorney while they are both involved in a trial.  Should a judge have to declare a mistrial when there is inappropriate social networking activity by jurors during the course of a trial?

• See Smith v. Phillips, 455 U.S. 209 (1982)