The landmarkcases.org Web site concept came to Street Law at almost exactly the same time from two outstanding educators who each knew us well but had not talked together about this idea. Diana Hess, assistant professor of education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Nancy McCullough, a Montgomery County (MD) Public Schools government teacher, each spoke to Street Law in 1998 about the idea. The vision was that the Web site would feature Supreme Court cases and concepts that would adhere to state social studies standards. The Web site would present the cases and concepts within a "one-stop shopping" site that would appeal to both teachers and students.

Diana Hess's doctoral student, Anand Marri, provided research on state standards that helped in the identification of the cases. Nancy McCullough put Street Law in touch with an extraordinarily talented group of government teachers in the Montgomery County Public Schools, who eventually became the content developers for the site. The contribution of this idea was one of the many ways that Nancy McCullough enriched Street Law (and those we serve) during the two years that she was our teacher in residence.

The fifteen cases and accompanying teaching materials were developed by a talented writing team headed by Jennifer Brandsberg, then a government teacher at Walter Johnson Senior High School in Bethesda, Maryland. Jennifer had also studied with Diana Hess in her teacher education program.

Jennifer Brandsberg-Engelmann, First lead content developer
Walter Johnson High School
Bethesda, Maryland

Stacy Farrar Dimmick, Second lead content developer
Blair High School
Silver Spring, Maryland

Dave West
Blair High School
Silver Spring, Maryland

Margarita Borquez
Blair High School
Silver Spring, Maryland

Steve Miller
Walter Johnson High School
Bethesda, Maryland

Jennifer Souder
Watkins Mill High School
Gaithersberg, Maryland

Stacy Dimmick has also had a special role in demonstrating the partially completed Web site with various audiences of educators and developing strategies for disseminating information about the completed site. Stacy has shown remarkable patience (and endurance) as the completion of this project has stretched far beyond the original plan.

The overall design of the Web site reflects the creative work of Michael Logan, Web master at Street Law, Inc. All the educators mentioned above reviewed and provided input on the design and features of the site.

Our organizational partners in the development of this site have been the Supreme Court Historical Society and Glencoe/McGraw-Hill. In many ways the site is a natural outgrowth of the Supreme Court Summer Institute for Teachers that the Supreme Court Historical Society has funded Street Law to present since 1995. A grant from the Hazen Polsky Foundation to the Society supported both the initial study that made the site possible and the completion of the first half of the site's materials. The Society recruited a team of legal reviewers to ensure the accuracy of the materials. The legal review team consisted of Barbara Bridges of the Tarlton Law Library of the University of Texas at Austin and Patricia Evans of the Library of the Supreme Court of the United States. Finally, the Society engaged Savina Lambert to obtain the permissions required to post various pieces of the Web site's content. The ongoing commitment of the Society's Program Committee and Executive Committee to this project, and to Street Law's other jointly operated programs, is appreciated.

Early field-tests of the Web site revealed an interest among teachers in having access to answers for questions and activities that have been included among the case materials. A separate Web site with this material is available to teachers. Teachers who want access to this site should send an e-mail to landmarkcases@streetlaw.org, indicating the course they are supplementing with the Web materials and requesting access to this additional site. Materials for this additional site have been developed by lead content developers Stacy Dimmick and Jennifer Brandsberg-Engelmann. In addition, we were extremely fortunate to have Thomas G. Krattenmaker from the Washington, DC office of the Mintz Levin law firm to serve as our legal/historical reviewer of the answers. Tom is a long-time supporter of Street Law programs, past dean of William and Mary Law School, and a former professor of constitutional law at Georgetown University Law Center.

Glencoe/McGraw-Hill is the publisher of the Street Law textbook Street Law: A Course in Practical Law, as well as many other fine social studies products. Glencoe/McGraw-Hill provided funding that helped us to complete this project. In addition, the Glencoe Social Studies Technology Team and McGraw-Hill New Media contributed in other important ways, providing assistance with copyediting of all Web site content and final formatting of the site. We anticipate that Glencoe/McGraw-Hill will link to the site from many of its print and Internet products, assuring widespread use of the site in classrooms across the United States.

Completion of this Web site was not quick. Like many good things, however, we hope it has been worth the wait. Street Law's staff has been both encouraging of and patient with this project. Street Law staff members and law student research assistants have contributed to the development of the site, including Matt Kavanagh, June Marshall, and Sarah Shapiro.

We hope you are as excited to use this resource as we were to create it. We are interested in ideas or comments on how the Web site can be improved. We welcome your feedback.

Lee Arbetman
Director of U.S. Programs
Street Law, Inc.
Summer 2002

Credits for the Second Edition of the Web Site

The public’s response to the landmark cases web site has been much more positive than any of its creators could have imagined.  During 2004, there were more than 2,000,000 visits to the site, and Street Law, Inc. has have received a great deal of positive feedback by educators who use the site extensively.

The only complaint we heard was that there was a need for a few more cases.  So in 2004 we hired Jeremy Stoddard, a doctoral student of Professor Diana Hess at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, to re-do the initial research on case selection that Anand Marri had done in 2002.  This research resulted in the identification of two additional cases – Roe v. Wade and Korematsu v. US –specifically mentioned in a significant number of state social studies content standards.

With the help of the Supreme Court Historical Society, McGraw-Hill/Glencoe, and partial funding (through the Supreme Court Historical Society) from the SBC Foundation we have created a new edition of the site.  The new edition includes updates of the original 15 cases as well as the presentation of the same type of materials for the two new cases, Roe and Korematsu.

Once again we turned to expert educators Stacy Farrar Dimmick and Jennifer Brandsberg-Engelmann, our lead content experts for the original cases, for help with the new material.  We also had help from law students Kelly Koscuiszka, a Georgetown student who had also taught in the Street Law program, and Stephanie Schlatter, a law student at Western New England School of Law, former AP government teacher, and Street Law’s law student in residence for the summer of 2005.

Tom Krattenmaker, our legal scholar, has moved from the law firm he was with in 2002 to the Federal Trade Commission but has continued to provide expertise in terms of legal and historical accuracy.

At Street Law, Inc., Megan Hanson has taken the lead in bringing this project to completion. She has provided a complete edit of the materials, served as liaison with our publisher, and done all the little things that have to be done to complete a project of this complexity.

Many of the specific improvements on the site came from comments and suggestions from teachers who use the site.  We are grateful to these teachers for the way they have enthusiastically embraced www.landmarkcases.org and for their input.  We continue to welcome comments from our users.  For access to the answer site (for teachers only) that has been created to complement this site, please send a note to landmarkcases@streetlaw.org.  For on-site training in how to use this site, please contact larbetman@streetlaw.org.

Lee Arbetman
Summer 2005