Crowley County Combined Library

Judicial independence is a cornerstone of democracy, guaranteed by the Constitution and enshrined in our system of government. In a conversation with students, three Supreme Court justices discuss the Constitution and the role of judges who are sworn to uphold the laws of this nation and to protect the rights of all citizens.

Presents extracts and analysis of recent court decisions dealing with such issues on students' rights as the right of schools to conduct searches of students, to censor student publications and limit freedom of expression, and to permit drug tests of student athletes.

This conversation between Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Justice Stephen G. Breyer on the constitution, taped in 2005, is the first in a series produced by the Annenberg Foundation for use in classrooms on constitution day.

He already owned and managed two ranches and needed a third about as much as he needed a permanent migraine: that's what Alan Day said every time his friend pestered him about an old ranch in South Dakota. But in short order, he proudly owned 35,000 pristine grassy acres. The opportunity then dropped into his lap to establish a sanctuary for unadoptable wild horses previously warehoused by the Bureau of Land Management. After Day successfully lobbied...

U.S. Supreme Court Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Anthony Kennedy, and Sandra Day O'Connor fielded questions in Washington Tuesday, May 16, 2006 from 50 high school students from the Philadelphia and Los Angeles areas. The students and justices discussed the significance of the judiciary and the ways that independence is protected by the Constitution.

When six-year-old Sandra rides her horse, Chico, to see the newborn calf on her father's ranch, she encounters a rattlesnake and depends on Chico to get them back safely.

"I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashion."---Lillian Hellman -- "If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded."---Maya Angelou -- "What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family."---Mother Teresa -- "Women observe subconsciously a thousand little details, without knowing they are doing so. Their subconscious mind adds these little things together---and they call...

The first female justice on the United States Supreme Court provides a history of the American legal system, discussing landmark cases that have shaped American democracy and her own experiences as a justice.

"By a brilliant young constitutional scholar at the University of Chicago--who clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia for Judge Merrick B. Garland and on the Supreme Court of the United States for Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Stephen Breyer, and who also happens to be an elegant stylist--a powerfully alarming book concerned to vindicate the constitutional rights of public school students, so often trampled upon by the...