The Case of the Supreme Court and Elections – A Workshop on Gerrymandering and Money in American Politics (Private Class)

Online G3 is proud to present our second workshop making use of the Case Method to explore crucial moments from U.S. history that have further defined how our country functions in the present day.

What is the Case Method? From the Case Method Institute’s website:

“The core pedagogy of Harvard Business School since the early 20th century, the case method boasts a unique ability to make complex concepts accessible and develop students’ leadership skills, all while creating an engaging intellectual atmosphere.

A “case” is a short narrative document – a story – that presents a particular challenge facing an individual or organization. Each case reflects the information available to decision-makers at the time, and builds to a particular decision point, but without revealing what decision was actually made. For each class, students are asked to read the case and to put themselves in the shoes of the actual decision-makers to consider what they themselves would have done given the information available at the time.”

This second workshop using the Case Method will focus on two questions of voting rights and electioneering in the United States. The two cases we will explore are described in detail below from Case Method Institute materials:

Case 19: Manufacturing Constituencies: Race and Redistricting in North Carolina (1993)

This case explores the history of redistricting and gerrymandering in the United States, with a particular focus on how redistricting has affected the voting strength of African American communities in the South. The case ends in 1993, when the Supreme Court had to determine whether North Carolina’s congressional district plan, which allegedly grouped voters by race, was a good-faith effort to comply with the Voting Rights Act or an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

Case 21: Citizens United and Corporate Speech (2010)

This case presents excerpts from the landmark Supreme Court decision Citizens United, which determined that laws restricting independent corporate campaign expenditures violated the First Amendment. The majority opinion, the concurrences, and the dissent are presented in the case, and together they offer an overview of the facts of the case, a full century of federal law regulating corporate spending on elections, and key arguments on both sides of the case.

Each case will be introduced by some of the case materials and supplemental readings and videos. Then, in the webinar the instructor and the students together will explore the crucial facts of the case, building towards the real-life conclusions reached by the Supreme Court/ This will be an opportunity for students to engage with history as if they themselves were the crucial decision makers. Active participation will bring the best results for students and their peers.

This is 6-session teen focus workshop. Webinars are 50 minutes long. Recordings are available for students who must miss a session.