1. What is the difference between criminal law and civil law? Provide examples of each currently in the news.
2. What is the difference between a trial and an appeal?
3. What is habeas corpus? Why has it been controversial recently?
4. What role does the Supreme Court play? Why is it controversial?
5. Describe fully judicial review and the controversies associated with it. Describe the conflict between judicial activism and restraint.
6. Select a recent Supreme Court case and describe the process by which it went to the court and what argument the justices made regarding it.
7. How can judicial review affect lawmaking?
8. Discuss the current composition of the Supreme Court and the politics associated with the selection of Supreme Court justices.
9. How is the design of the Texas Judiciary different than the design of the US Judiciary? What are the consequences of this difference?
10. Outline the design of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and describe the problems faced by Texas prisons today.
