3 1 2 the supreme court (social studies)

The Supreme Court is the most important court in the land.. The Supreme Court meets in this building in Washington, D.C... The Supreme Court does not decide who is guilty of crimes.. H

by Lisa Scorza

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS: Cover Hisham F Ibrahim 1 © Digital Stock 2 © JUPITERIMAGES/Brand X/Alamy

3 Hisham F Ibrahim 4 (l) © Eyewire (c) © Eyewire (r) Hisham F Ibrahim 5 © Eyewire 6 © MATTHEW CAVANAUGH/ epa/Corbis 7 © Richard A Bloom/Corbis 8 Photograph Franz Jantzen, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States 9 © Bettmann/CORBIS 10 © Michael Dwyer/Alamy

Copyright © by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

All rights reserved No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner unless such copying is expressly permitted by federal copyright law Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be addressed to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt School Publishers, Attn: Permissions, 6277 Sea Harbor Drive, Orlando, Florida 32887-6777

Printed in China

ISBN-13: 978-0-547-02132-4

ISBN-10: 0-547-02132-1

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0940 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11

If you have received these materials as examination copies free of charge, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt School Publishers retains title to the materials and they may not be resold Resale of examination copies is strictly prohibited.

Sometimes people think laws are

unfair Let’s say you think that you

should be able to go to any school you want But the law says you can’t What

do you do?

You go to court In court, the two sides argue about how a law should work The court decides which side is right

When people disagree about

a law, they may take their

argument to court.

When other courts can’t answer

questions about a law, the Supreme

Court may get involved The Supreme Court is the most important court in

the land

The Supreme Court

meets in this building in

Washington, D.C.

What Is the Supreme Court?

The people who formed our

government were convinced that the power to make decisions should not

belong to just one person So they

separated power into three parts, or

branches One branch is the judicial branch, which is made up of our nation’s courts The courts protect our rights They keep them safe

Each branch of our government keeps the other branches from having too much power.

The Supreme Court’s job is to explain the law The court does this by deciding who is right in a case The Supreme

Court does not decide who is guilty of

crimes It only makes sure that laws are fair, honest, and legal

The words above the front door of the Supreme Court building read,

“Equal Justice Under Law.”

How Does the Supreme Court Work?

The Supreme Court has nine justices,

or judges The president of the United States picks them The Senate then votes for or against them The justices serve for life

These nine justices are on the

Supreme Court today.

The Supreme Court meets in a

special room Lawyers from each side of

a case make speeches There is no trial There is no jury No witnesses take the stand The justices are there only to

hear about the law

The Supreme Court meets in this room.

After the speeches, the justices talk about the case They meet in a private room behind closed doors All you can hear is the murmur of their voices Then the justices vote Months later, the court gives a decision about the case, based on whether they think the law is fair The decision is final Only the Supreme

Court can change its own decisions

Justices meet once a week in a conference room to decide cases.

The court only hears a few cases

each year, but those cases can change

the laws and our lives

One famous case changed our

schools The court had to decide if it

was fair to have separate schools for

black and white children

Earl Warren was Chief Justice during

the case that ended separate schools

for black and white children.

The justices pointed to the

Constitution, which said that everyone had the same rights So the nine justices decided that separate schools were illegal because they were not equal or fair

Conclusion

The Supreme Court has a special job The court makes sure that our laws are fair It makes rules and laws that work for everyone

The Supreme Court works for us all.

TARGET VOCABULARY Word Builder

The word stand has multiple meanings

Copy this word web and list different

meanings in the circles.

Text to Self Write a short paragraph telling

when you took a stand, or position, on

something Tell why you took a stand and

what it meant to you.

Write About It

something

to place things on stand

put up

with

TARGET STRATEGY Infer/Predict Use clues to figure out more about the selection.

Which word has a sound so nice, they spelled it twice?

convinced

guilty

honest

jury

murmur pointed stand trial

TARGET VOCABULARY

ISBN-13: 978-0-547-02132-4 ISBN-10: 0-547-02132-1

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN

Online Leveled Books

Level: M

DRA: 28

Social Studies

Strategy:

Infer/Predict

Word Count: 583

3.1.2 Build Vocabulary