1. The Supreme Court Intro The Court of Last Resort

2. The Supreme Court, defined  The Supreme Court of the United States, established in 1789, is the highest Federal court in the United States  Supreme courts typically function primarily as appellate courts, hearing appeals from decisions of lower trial courts, or from intermediate-level appellate courts.  Settles the biggest unresolved legal disputes in the United States

3. Important cases under examination  Texas vs. Johnson (1989)  U.S. vs. Nixon (1974)

4. Texas v. Johnson (1989) Gregory Lee "Joey" Johnson, then a member of the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade, participated in a political demonstration during the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas. He ended up burning an American flag during the demonstration. Johnson was charged with violating the Texas law that prohibits vandalizing respected objects (desecration of a venerated object). He was convicted, sentenced to one year in prison, and fined $2,000. He appealed his conviction to the Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas, but he lost this appeal. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals would then see his case. This was the highest court in Texas that would see Criminal Appeals. That court overturned his conviction, saying that the State could not punish Johnson for burning the flag because the First Amendment protects such activity as symbolic speech.

5. Texas v. Johnson Continued  Texas asked the Supreme Court of the United States to hear the case. In 1989, the Court handed down its decision. The Court ruled on a controversial 5-4 decision.

6. U.S. v. Nixon (1974) was a landmark United States Supreme Court decision. It resulted in a unanimous 8-0 ruling against President Richard Nixon and was important to the late stages of the Watergate scandal. It is considered a crucial precedent limiting the power of any US president.

7. U.S. v. Nixon Continued  The Watergate scandal began during the campaign between Democratic Senator George McGovern of South Dakota and President Nixon. On June 17, 1972, about five months before the general election, five burglars broke into Democratic headquarters located in the Watergate building complex in Washington, DC.

8. Watergate Hotel

9. What relationship from previous classes do we see in this case?  The justices struggled to write an opinion that all eight could agree to. The stakes were so high, in that the tapes most likely contained evidence of criminal wrongdoing by the President and his men, that they wanted no dissent. All contributed to the opinion and Chief Justice Burger delivered the unanimous decision.  After ruling that the Court could indeed resolve the matter and that Jaworski had proven a "sufficient likelihood that each of the tapes contains conversations relevant to the offenses charged in the indictment," the Court went to the main issue of executive privilege. The Court rejected Nixon's claim to an "absolute, unqualified Presidential privilege of immunity from judicial process under all circumstances."