You, the Juror

The Document Based Question/essay prompt You, the Juror was prepared in 2016 and the resources have not been updated since that time. For more information about recent legal developments, consult national and state newspapers, legal databases, and your librarian.

Jury service has evolved since the inception of the United States. Juries are intended to provide a fair and unbiased review of evidence during trials, but there was a time when not everyone was able to serve on them. Today we have universal jury service in both criminal and civil trials, ensuring community participation in the justice system. We ask the question, What role does jury service play in our democracy?

This activity meets the following guidelines of New York State’s Common Core Social Studies Framework (2017):

  • Civil Rights and Civil Liberties: 12.G2a
  • Rights, Responsibilities, and Duties of Citizenship: 12.G3c
Below is a list of the 2016 resources in a searchable table. Search by theme of resource: jury selection, race and juries, women and juries, or jury history.

Supreme Court Preview: Foster v. Chatman

The Federalist Society A preview of a case in which the Supreme Court will consider the extent to which jurors ...
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Sixth Amendment: Speedy Trial & Impartial Jury – Video

C-SPAN A discussion of the importance of jury trials and the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This includes a ...
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Becoming Full Citizens: The U.S. Women’s Jury Rights Campaigns, the Pace of reform, and Strategic Adaptation

American Journal of Sociology This article examines the strategies and approach employed by the women's rights movements of the early ...
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The Woman Juror

Women Lawyers' Journal In 1927, women gained the right to vote but still lacked the right to serve on juries ...
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Impact of Jury Race and Selection on Verdicts in Criminal Trials

Journalist's Resource A study by Duke University found that racial diversity had a large impact on the decisions reached by ...
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Jury Without Jews Request Rejected by New York City Judge

ABC News In 2013, a terrorism suspect requested that no Jewish citizens be allowed to sit on the jury in ...
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Jury Representativeness: It’s No Joke in the State of New York

Cornell Journal of Law & Public Policy This brief article looks at recent initiatives in New York to spread the ...
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Jury Selection

New York State Bar Association A guideline for attorneys in New York on the jury selection process and how they ...
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Finding a Jury of Your Peers Is Pretty Complicated

NPR Selecting a jury that represents the population can be a difficult task, having to take into account how issues ...
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Batson Challenges and the Jury Project: Is New York Ready to Eliminate Discrimination From Criminal Jury Selection?

St. John's University School of Law Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development New York has attempted to end racial ...
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The Supreme Court’s Gap on Race and Juries

The New York Times The Supreme Court heard a case on the Batson Challenge in late 2015. Columnist Linda Greenhouse ...
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Stolen Art: From the Holocaust to the Present

Role of the Courts in Restoring Cultural Objects to Their Owners

The Document Based Question/essay prompt Stolen Art: From the Holocaust to the Present was prepared in 2018 and the resources have not been updated since that time. For more information about recent legal developments, consult national and state newspapers, legal databases, and your librarian.

Throughout history, and particularly during World War II, cultural objects have been looted from museums and private families. In the name of justice, a global effort is underway to restore art objects to their rightful owners. We ask you to explore the role of the courts, and especially the role our NYS courts play, in reuniting families and institutions with possessions wrongly taken from them.

This activity meets the following guidelines of New York State’s Common Core Social Studies Framework (2017):

  • Foundations of American Democracy: 12.G1d
  • Civil Rights and Civil Liberties: 12.G2a, 12.G2c

Image Citation: National Archives, provided by the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, Dallas.

Below is a list of the 2018 resources in a searchable table. Search by type of resource: general resources, videos, court cases, and articles.

Woman in Gold (2015)

Film Recommendation Based on the true story of Maria Altmann who fought the government of Austria to reclaim the painting ...
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Making a Killing (1998)

Documentary Film Recommendation Making a Killing is a compelling detective story about one family's 50-year quest to recover their missing art ...
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A de Kooning, a Theft and an Enduring Mystery

The New York Times Read More ...
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Heir Takes Step Toward Recovery of Nazi-Looted Art

New York Law Journal on lootedart.com Read More ...
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Gagosian Gallery to Pay New York State $4.3 Million

The New York Times Read More ...
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Nazi Art Looter’s Diary, Long Missing, Found and Online for the First Time

National Archives Blog: Pieces of History Read More ...
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Panel Allows Stolen Artwork Claims to Move Forward

New York Law Journal Read More ...
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Struggling Immigrant Artist Tied to $80 Million New York Fraud

The New York Times Read More ...
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Art Law Rising

Barron's Penta Read More ...
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Outgunned in the Search for Stolen Art

Newsweek Read More ...
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After 26 Years, Munich Settles Case Over a Klee Looted by the Nazis

The New York Times Read More ...
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3 Cases that Explain Why Restituting Nazi-Looted Art is So Difficult

Artsy Read More ...
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Reif v. Nagy

149 A.D.3d 532, 52 N.Y.S.3d 100, 2017 N.Y. Slip Op. 02920 Appellate Division Opinion ...
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Matter of Flamenbaum

95 A.D.3d 1318, 945 N.Y.S.2d 183, 2012 N.Y. Slip Op. 04165 Appellate Division Opinion ...
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Cowles v. Gagosian

2012 NY Slip Op 33156 (U) NY County Supreme Court Opinion ...
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Where the Nazis Hid $3.5 Billion of Stolen Art

Smithsonian Channel Watch Now ...
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70 Years On, the Search Continues for Artwork Looted by the Nazis

PBS Newshour Watch Now ...
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Expert Series – World War II Lost Jewish Assets

National Archives & Records Administration Documents at the National Archives helped shatter Switzerland's neutrality myth, and exposed Swiss culpability in ...
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Michael Pupa: An Immigrant’s Story

National Archives & Records Administration Video that tells the story of World War II refugee and Holocaust survivor Michael Pupa ...
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The Legal Guide for Museum Professionals

Read More ...
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Illicit Cultural Property Blog

Read More ...
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art Nazi-Era Provenance Research

Read More ...
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The Project for the Documentation of Wartime Cultural Losses

The Documentation Project Report Contents ...
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NYS Department of Financial Services Holocaust Claims Processing Office

About the HCPO ...
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Matter of Stettiner

148 A.D.3d 184, 46 N.Y.S.3d 608, 2017 N.Y. Slip Op. 01168 The painting “Seated Man with a Cane” by Amedeo ...
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Guggenheim Case

77 N.Y.2d 311, 569 N.E.2d 426, 567 N.Y.S.2d 623 (1991) In 1912, Marc Chagall painted, “Le Marchand de Bestiaux,” (“The ...
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Lea Bondi Jaray Case

253 A.D.2d 211 (1999) Lea Bondi Jaray, a Jewish woman, was forced to flee her home in Austria with nothing ...
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Justice and the New York Courts

Created by Bard College Institute for Writing & Thinking

NYS Common Core Grades 11 & 12:
United States History and Government
Participation in Government and Civics

Justice and the New York Courts is a professional development workshop produced in partnership with the Society and Bard College Institute for Writing and Thinking. The workshop is geared to middle and high school teachers of Social Studies and English Language Arts, and aims to bring writing-rich pedagogical strategies into the classroom through the teaching of primary historical legal sources.

The workshops revolved around the question: What is the nature of an independent judiciary and what is its critical importance to our Federalist system of checks and balances? Texts used among others are Alexander Hamilton’s famous dissertation on the federal judiciary in The Federalist Papers (Federalist #78); the Preamble to the United States Constitution; the seminal New York 1860 slave case State of New York v. Lemmon; a contemporaneous journalistic response to this case; and recent articles addressing current debates and considerations surrounding the proper role of the judiciary.

Also included here as a PDF are the 5-12 (2016) grade common core requirements for literacy in History and Social Studies. While these requirements may evolve over time, they provide a general and helpful rubric for evaluating pedagogical strategies that promote discerning comprehension and effective communication.

This lesson plan meets the following guidelines of New York State’s Common Core Social Studies Framework (2017):

Introduction to IWT Practices PDF

Workshop Materials PDF

Common Core Requirements PDF

Teacher Activities PDF

Student Activities PDF

The Historical Society’s website contains a wealth of related resources, including mini-biographies of the lawyers and judges included in the lesson.

Constitutional Foundations

The Federalist Papers
Written by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay

Alexander Hamilton
Author of The Federalist Papers

John Jay
Author of The Federalist Papers

NY Ratification of the US Constitution 
Transcript

The Lemmon Slave Case

The Lemmon Slave Case
Judicial Notice Article

Louis Napoleon
Conductor on the Underground Railroad

Chester Arthur
Lawyer for the Slaves

John Jay
Lawyer for the Slaves

Erastus Culver
Lawyer for the Slaves

Henry Lapaugh
Lawyer for the Lemmons

Elijah Paine
Superior Court Judge

William Evarts
Lawyer for New York

Charles O’Conor
Lawyer for the Lemmons

Samuel Foot
Former Court of Appeals Judge

William Wright
Court of Appeals Judge, Affirmed

Hiram Denio
Court of Appeals Judge, Affirmed

Thomas Clerke
Court of Appeals Judge, Dissented

George Comstock
Court of Appeals Judge, Dissented

Samuel Selden
Court of Appeals Judge, Dissented

Image citation: Collection of the New York Court of Appeals.

Thinking Historically through Writing

Created by Bard College Institute for Writing & Thinking

NYS Common Core Grades 11 & 12:
United States History and Government
Participation in Government and Civics

The purpose of this workshop is to provide tools for teachers to understand how to better help their students learn about the law. Featuring primary source documents from the era of John Locke to contemporary times, these materials include information about text rendering, collaborative reading, radical revision, process writing, and metacognitive thinking. Other tips for teachers include different types of informal writing, creating dialectical response journals, and different principles of writing.

This lesson plan meets the following guidelines of New York State’s Common Core Social Studies Framework (2017):

Workshop Materials PDF

Teacher Activities PDF

Image citation: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-28379. 

The Role of the Courts in a Democratic Society

Created by Meghann Walk & Steven Mazie

NYS Common Core Grades 7 & 8:
History of the United States and New York

The purpose of this unit plan is to provide an introduction to the judicial branch of government and the role of the courts in American democracy. Students learn about conceptual matters of justice and the need for an independent judiciary; the structure of the court system in the United States; and how judges should be selected and how their roles should be conceived. Students also have the opportunity to view courts in action through a field trip to some of New York State’s courts while developing writing, critical thinking, and discussion skills.

This lesson plan meets the following guidelines of New York State’s Common Core Social Studies Framework (2017):

  • American Independence: 7.3c
  • The Constitution in Practice: 7.5b, 7.5c
  • Reconstruction: 8.1c
  • Domestic Politics and Reform: 8.9a, 8.9b

Lesson Plan PDF

Student Resources PDF

The Historical Society’s website contains a wealth of related resources, including mini-biographies of the lawyers and judges included in the lesson.

The Federalist Papers
Written by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay

Alexander Hamilton
Author of The Federalist Papers

John Jay
Author of The Federalist Papers

NY Ratification of the US Constitution 
Transcript

Rutgers v. Waddington
Judicial Notice Article

Rutgers v. Waddington
1784

Courthouse Tours

Image citation: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-65055.

People v. Croswell: Proving or Disproving Libel about Thomas Jefferson

Created by Prof. Jess McIntosh,
BHSEC Faculty

NYS Common Core Grades 11 & 12:
United States History and Government
Participation in Government and Civics

The case of People v. Croswell discusses concepts of criminal libel and sedition, in which Harry Croswell was accused of publishing defamatory statements about President Thomas Jefferson. Croswell’s defense argued that the charges were relics of an unenlightened era, where power and politics trumped reason and truth. Both in legal opinion and in the popular press, this unit, and these disputes, expose different perspectives on the relationships between truth and calumny; evidence and opinion; and national security and First Amendment rights.

This lesson plan meets the following guidelines of New York State’s Common Core Social Studies Framework (2017):

Lesson Plan PDF

Student Resources & Activities PDF

The Historical Society’s website contains a wealth of related resources, including mini-biographies of the lawyers and judges involved in the case.

People v. Croswell
Judicial Notice Article

People v. Croswell
3 Johns. Cas. 337 (N.Y. 1804)

Alexander Hamilton
Lawyer for Croswell

James Kent
Chief Justice of New York

Smith Thompson
NY Supreme Court Justice

Henry Brockholst Livingston
NY Supreme Court Justice

Ambrose Spencer
Lawyer for the People & NY Supreme Court Justice

Morgan Lewis
NY Supreme Court Justice

Image Citation: The Wasp, 1803. Public domain. 

Lemmon Slave Case: Courts Rule Slaves Brought into NYS Free Before the Civil War

Created by Petra Riviere
Adapted from Prof. Laura A. Hymson high school curriculum

NYS Common Core Grades 7 & 8:
History of the United States and New York

The Lemmon Slave Case provides students of U.S. history a window into the legal challenges and moral conflicts over slavery before the Civil War. This case requires a close examination of federal and state law. The New York courts freed slaves brought into the free state, while the United States Supreme Court decided Dred Scott was not free though he had traveled to a free state with his master’s family. Many curricula place a strong emphasis on the Dred Scott decision, but the Lemmon case shifts focus to New York and allows students to contemplate state’s rights implications and the interpretation of the law through a lens of human equality.

This lesson plan meets the following guidelines of New York State’s Common Core Social Studies Framework (2017):

  • The Constitution in Practice: 7.5b, 7.5c
  • Reform Movements: 7.7b
  • A Nation Divided: 7.8b

Lesson Plan PDF

This lesson plan is based on a lesson plan for high schoolers available here.

The Historical Society’s website contains a wealth of related resources, including mini-biographies of the lawyers and judges involved in the case.

The Superior Court Judgment

The Lemmon Slave Case
Judicial Notice Article

Louis Napoleon
Conductor on the Underground Railroad

Chester Arthur
Lawyer for the Slaves

John Jay
Lawyer for the Slaves

Erastus Culver
Lawyer for the Slaves

Henry Lapaugh
Lawyer for the Lemmons

Elijah Paine
Superior Court Judge

Appeals to the Court of Appeals

William Evarts
Lawyer for New York

Charles O’Conor
Lawyer for the Lemmons

Samuel Foot
Former Court of Appeals Judge

William Wright
Court of Appeals Judge, Affirmed

Hiram Denio
Court of Appeals Judge, Affirmed

Thomas Clerke
Court of Appeals Judge, Dissented

George Comstock
Court of Appeals Judge, Dissented

Samuel Selden
Court of Appeals Judge, Dissented

Image Citation: Eyre Crowe, Slaves Waiting for Sale, Richmond, Virginia, 1861, via University of Virginia, The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas.

Lemmon Slave Case: Courts Rule Slaves Brought into NYS Free Before the Civil War

Created by Prof. Laura A. Hymson,
BHSEC Faculty

NYS Common Core Grades 11 & 12:
United States History and Government
Participation in Government and Civics

The Lemmon Slave Case provides students of U.S. history a window into the legal challenges and moral conflicts over slavery before the Civil War. This case requires a close examination of federal and state law. The New York courts freed slaves brought into the free state, while the United States Supreme Court decided Dred Scott was not free though he had traveled to a free state with his master’s family. Many curricula place a strong emphasis on the Dred Scott decision, but the Lemmon case shifts focus to New York and allows students to contemplate state’s rights implications and the interpretation of the law through a lens of human equality.

This lesson plan meets the following guidelines of New York State’s Common Core Social Studies Framework (2017):

Teacher’s Guide PDF

Lesson Plan PDF

Student Activities PDF

The Historical Society’s website contains a wealth of related resources, including mini-biographies of the lawyers and judges involved in the case.

The Superior Court Judgment

The Lemmon Slave Case
Judicial Notice Article

Louis Napoleon
Conductor on the Underground Railroad

Chester Arthur
Lawyer for the Enslaved People

John Jay
Lawyer for the Enslaved People

Erastus Culver
Lawyer for the Enslaved People

Henry Lapaugh
Lawyer for the Lemmons

Elijah Paine
Superior Court Judge

Appeals to the Court of Appeals

William Evarts
Lawyer for New York

Charles O’Conor
Lawyer for the Lemmons

Samuel Foot
Former Court of Appeals Judge

William Wright
Court of Appeals Judge, Affirmed

Hiram Denio
Court of Appeals Judge, Affirmed

Thomas Clerke
Court of Appeals Judge, Dissented

George Comstock
Court of Appeals Judge, Dissented

Samuel Selden
Court of Appeals Judge, Dissented

Image Citation: Eyre Crowe, Slaves Waiting for Sale, Richmond, Virginia, 1861, via University of Virginia, The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas.

Justice Workshop: Discovering Intersections between Justice and Other Disciplines

Created by BHSEC Faculty

NYS Common Core Grades 11 & 12:
United States History and Government
Participation in Government and Civics

BHSEC welcomes new students each year with a Writing and Thinking Workshop in which students engage a topic in small groups and write, think and discuss the topic in depth. In 2010, the theme of this workshop was “Justice.” Students read from an anthology of sources that included some of the most read texts on the subject, starting with Plato and covering the Founding Fathers to Bob Dylan. The students then explored these ideas in their classrooms and in visits to courtrooms in New York City.

Topics include:

  • Foundations of Justice,
  • Bioethics,
  • Sports & Games,
  • Economic Justice,
  • Intellectual Property, Copyright & Fair Use, and
  • Dilemmas: Equality, Religious Freedom, Criminal Justice & Immigration.

This lesson plan meets the following guidelines of New York State’s Common Core Social Studies Framework (2017):

Anthology PDF

Image Citation: Courtesy of the Historical Society of the New York Courts. 

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