Jasmine Johnson and Heidi Voigt posted the best finish for the all-girl team, gaining an honorable mention for their website which detailed the facts of the case of Katz v. U.S.A. before the U.S. Supreme Court.  The case established the concept of the right to individual privacy involving electronic eavesdropping by the government.  According to the two historians, Katz, represented by attorney Harvey A. Schneider, prevailed in the case, resulting in a ruling that required law enforcement to obtain a warrant before conducting electronic surveillance. That ruling remained in effect until passage of the Patriot Act in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

 

Carly Pruszinske, Gabby Proefrock, Alaina Nelson and Nicole Larrison produced a short dramatic piece based on the Supreme Court cast of Tinker v. Des Moines, in which the court ruled 7-2 in favor of the plaintiff in a matter involving freedom of expression as it relates to clothing students are allowed to wear while attending school.  Students and their supporters sued over the right to wear armbands in protest of the war in Viet Nam, and the case had broader applications to attire worn by public school students.

 

Daisy Kent and Rachel Tauer produced a documentary on the case of Loving v. Virginia, a Supreme Court ruling that resulted in the laws forbidding marriage between blacks and whites being struck down across the country.  Macy Erson and Brinley Zoller produced a website on the Flight of 1877, involving the members of the Nez Perce tribe who fled their reservation after being forcibly relocated when gold was found on their ancestral lands in Idaho.

 

Kami Ziebarth also examined the case of Living v. Virginia in her individual website entry. A point of interest in her research was that the laws only applied to unions between blacks and whites, and did not extend to prevent marriage among whites and Asians or Latinos or other ethnic groups.  Sophia Christianson’s presentation explored the Stamp Act of 1765, a principal cause of the Revolutionary War.  She would one day like to continue her studies in London.

 

Brianna Corey’s presentation examined the controversial Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade, in which plaintiff Jane Roe sued the State of Texas over the constitutionality of its abortion laws and won, making abortion legal across the nation.  The plaintiff’s baby was born in the time it took the matter to move through the courts, and she later became an anti-abortion activist, Corey said. Bridget Buchholz reviewed the Dred Scott decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled that slaves were the property of their masters, and had no standing as individual citizens before the law.

 

All of the historians said they had enjoyed taking part in the state-wide competition, and all urged future freshmen to take part in the project. The preparation and presentations were exciting, they all said, and the chance to meet and see other student presentations from around Minnesota added to the excitement of participating in the event.