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Advanced Placement United States Government 

and Politics Resources

N.B.  The Study Guide must be completed for each chapter including the study guide essay questions.

Chapter 1:  Introducing Government in America

• Policy. Action Network

• National Center for Policy Analysis- Idea House

• American Political Science Association

• Core Documents of US Democracy

• Chronology of US Historical Documents

• PBS Democracy Project 2000

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Part One - Constitutional Foundations

Chapter 2: The Constitution                                The Bill of Rights Institute      The Founders Constitution    The National Constitution Center

Supreme Court Cases:    Marbury v. Madison (1803)    

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Chapter 3: Federalism

• Cases and Materials on American Federalism

Supreme Court Cases:  

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

McCulloch summary)

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824

US v Lopez (1995

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Chapter 4: Civil Liberties and Public Policy

The Government and the Web (8/25/09)	First Amendment Issues	The Bill of Rights Institute	ACLU - American Civil Liberties Union	Football, Subways and the Fourth Amendment

Supreme Court Cases:  

Barron v Baltimore (1833)  Wikipedia	Gitlow v NY (1925)   Wikipedia	Lemon v Kurtzman (1971) (Wikipedia)	Engle v. Vitale (1962)  (Wikipedia)	SD Abington Twp. v. Schempp (1963)  (Wikipedia)
W. Va. Bd. of Ed. v. Barnette (1943) (Wikipedi	NYTimes Co. v. US (1971)  (Wikipedia)	Near v. Minnesota (1931) (Wikipedia)	Schenck v US (1919) (Wikipedia)	LAWRENCE et al. v. TEXAS 2003
Zurcher v Stanford Daily (1978)	Roth v. US (1957) (Wikipedia)	Miller v California (1973) (Wikipedia)	NY Times v Sullivan (1964) (Wikipedia)	Texas v. Johnson (1989) (Wikipedia)
Miami Herald v. Tornillo (1974) (Wikipedia)	Red Lion Broadcasting v FCC (1969) Wikipedia	NAACP v Alabama (1958) (Wikipedia)	Mapp v Ohio (1961)  Wikipedia	Miranda v. Arizona (1966) (Wikipedia)
Gideon v.Wainwright (1963)  (Wikipedia)	Gregg v Georgia (1976) Wikipedia	McCleskey v Kemp (1987) Wikipedia	Roe v Wade (1973)   Wikipedia	Planned Parenthood v Casey (1992)    Wikipedia
Lawrence v. Texas (2003)

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Chapter 5: Civil Rights and Public Policy

Landmark Cases on Equal Protection	Landmark Cases on Civil Rights	Civil Rights Act (1964)  Wikipedia	National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)	Seneca Falls Convention (1848)  Library of Congress: Seneca Falls Convention    Freedom of Assembly: Seneca Falls (Bill of Rights Institute)	The History of Jim Crow
Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Rights Movement

• Obama said "I Don't" and He Just Might Mean It (8/2/09)

• Theodore Olson's Road to Championing Same Sex Marriage (8/19/09)

Supreme Court Decisions: 

Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)  Wikipedia	Plessey v. Ferguson (1896) Wikipedia	Korematsu V  US (1944)  Wikipedia	Brown v. Board of Education (1954)  Wikipedia	Reed v Reed )1971)  Wikipedia
Craig v. Boren (1976  Wikipedia	Adarand Constructors v. Pena (1995)  Wikipedia

Affirmative Action Cases:

Regents of Univ. of California v. Bakke (1978)  Wikipedia

GRUTTER v. BOLLINGER et al 2003

GRATZ et al. v. BOLLINGER et al. 2003

Ricci v. DeStefano, et al 2009

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Part Two - People and Politics

Chapter 6: Public Opinion and Political Action

• The NES Guide to Public Opinion and Electoral Behavior

• Grolier's - The American Presidency: Public Opinion

• Gallup Poll   Polls can effect Presidents hold on Party.

• US Census

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Chapter 7: The Mass Media and the Political Agenda

• CNN - All Politics

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Chapter 8: Political Parties            Links to Political Websites

Sotomayor is sworn in: But the Politics is far from over (8/9/09)

The reshaping of the GOP (8/21/09)

How Bob Brady Thrives &Survives (8/25/09)

    Political Party Platform Comparison assignment.

• Democratic National Committee        Democrats Choose Terry McAuliffe to Lead Party

• Republican National Committee        Racicot named to head the RNC

• Directory of US Political Parties

• Mugwumps

Where do you fit?

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Chapter 9: Nominations and Campaigns

• Federal Election Commission (FEC)

• The Brookings Institution's Campaign Finance Reform Home Page

• The Great Debate and Beyond:: The History of Televised Presidential Debates

Buckley v. Valeo, 1976    Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)

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Chapter 10: Elections and Voting Behavior

Battle For America 2008 Part 1: A Political Odyssey	Part 2: High Risks, High Reward	Part 3: Snaring the Lion of the Senate	Vote-Smart.org	The Living Room Candidate (American Museum of the Moving Image)
Republicans reconsider primary schedule (8/09)	A Loss for Voting rights (8/5/09)	Supreme Court Affirms Ban on Soft Money (6/30/10)

• The National Commission on Federal Election Reform

• The History of Voting Machines

•  2000 Electoral Vote Totals    2000 Popular Vote Totals

• Electronic Voting

• Grolier's - The American Presidency: Primary Elections

• How direct should democracy be?

"Deadlock: The Inside Story of America's Closest Election"

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Chapter 11: Interest Groups

American Association of Retired Persons. AARP	AFL-CIO United Farm Workers	National Education Association  NEA	National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NAACP	American Medical Association  AMA
US Chamber of Commerce	National Organization of Women   NOW	Common Cause	Mothers Against Drunk Driving  MADD	National Rifle Association   NRA
The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference	United States Conference of Catholic Bishops	National Catholic Education Association NCEA	Lobbyist Says It's About Information, Not Influence (NYT7/2/10)	Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)

Catholic bishops use their clout to influence the health-care bill    Three Out of Every Four Oil & Gas  Lobbyists Worked for the Government (7.21.10)

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Part Three - The Policymakers

Chapter 12: Congress    Vote-Smart.org

 (United States Capitol)     [ Project Vote Smart]    Biographical directory of the US Congress (1774-present)    Congress Online Project,

The US House of Representatives Speaker, Maj Leader, Majority Whip Republican Leader., Republican whip	The US Senate Maj. Leader, Maj. Whip Min. Leader, Min Whip	Pay and Perquisites of Members of Congress Congressional Pay Rates	The Congressional Record 111th Congress	Reference Resources on Congress - Project Vote Smart govtrack.gov
Pa. US District 1 Robert Brady	Pa US District 2 Chakka Fattah	Pa. US. District 7 Joe Sestak	Pa. US District 13 Allyson Schwartz	Pa. US District 16 Joseph Pitts
Pa US District 6 Jim Gerlach	Apportionment of the US House of Representatives 108th Congress  through the 114th Congress	Congress Link	Congress Merge: Online Congressional Directory	Roll Call

How a Bill Becomes a Law (Project Vote Smart)   Lobbyist get power access via caucuses (7/23/09 Look at what Congress has done so far this  year (8/9/09)	Senator Robert Casey, Jr. Senator Arlen Specter  Congress Link (The Dirksen Congressional Center)
The Opinionator: Senate Heal Thyself (18.13.09)	Gerrymandering

Issues of Importance:

(Campaign Finance Reform),     (The Brookings Institution's Campaign Finance Reform Home Page),  ,     ( opensecrets.org -your guide to the money in American elections),    (Racial -  Gerrymandering),      ,  (Congress in Action),,   ,   Apportionment of the US House of Representatives 108th Congress.     

Supreme Court Cases:

Powell v. McCormack (1969)

US Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton (1996)

Reynolds v. Sims (1964)

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Chapter 13: The Presidency

The White House	Official US Executive Branch Web Sites	American Presidency.org	Presidents of the United States	The President' House in Philadelphia	USNWR - Best & Worst presidents USNWR The 10 Worst Presidents
The World's Best Health Coverage-Free (8/9/09)		Presidential Libraries IDEA Network	Presidential Inaugurations: Menu of all Presidents	Historical Tour of the White House	The American Presidency - A Glorious Burden
Cuban Missile Crises:, 1962: A Perspective after 40 years.	The Great Debate and Beyond: The History of televised Presidential Debates	Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency	The Founding Playboys The 10 Worst Presidents		Archives: State of the Union Speeches

Supreme Court Decisions:    Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company v. US (1952)     US v. Nixon (1974),    Bush v. Gore (2000),

Issues of Importance:   Polls can effect Presidents hold on Party.     Will Sotoamyor Limit Obama's Next Top Court Pick (7/23/09)

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Chapter 14: The Congress, The President, and the Budget: The Politics of Taxing and Spending

• The Office of Management and Budget

• The Congressional Budget Office

• National Priorities Project

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Chapter 15: The Federal Bureaucracy

• Federal Independent Agencies and Commissions

• The Pendleton Act (1883)

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Chapter 16: The Federal Courts    The Supreme Court of the United States

US Supreme Court  http://ourcourts.org/	Supreme Court Justices The High Court Rookie (8/9/09)	Landmark Supreme Court Cases	Supreme Court Decisions Exploring Constitutional Law	Exploring Constitutional Conflicts
Famous Trials of the 20th Century,	Judicial activism influence (commentary -10/10/03))	Justice Learning	Federal Court Concepts	The Dissenter: Justice John Paul Stevens
Sotomayor In-Depth (WP 8/09	Past Confirmation Votes (8/10/09)	C-Span The Supreme Court		Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)

•  Time: How Rehnquist Changed America (6/30/03)    Time: Rehnquist Courts Biggest Decisions

•  In A Momentous Term, Justices Remake the Law, and the Court

• Time: Top10 Supreme Court Nomination Battles (7/09)   Lessons for future (Justices) nominees (7/19/09)

• Time: Four Enduring Myths About Justices (7/09)            Will Sotoamyor Limit Obama's Next Top Court Pick (7/23/09)

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Chapter 17: Economic Policymaking

• The Federal Reserve System

• FED101 - the Federal Reserve Today

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Chapter 18: Social Welfare Policymaking

• Social Security Administration      The World's Best Health Coverage-Free

• The Sky Will Fall in 2016       

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Chapter 19: Policymaking for Health, Energy, and the Environment

• US Department of Health & Human Services

• US Department of Energy

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Chapter 20: Foreign and Defense Policymaking

Somalia is Obama's New Afghanistan (8.6.09)

• US Department of State

• Department of Defense

• NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization

• United Nations Virtual Tour

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Chapter 21: The New Importance of State and Local Government

Governors Race Exposes Republican Rift in Texas (8.15.09)

Hawaii: Happily a State, Forever an Island (8/21/09)

Postcard from Hawaii on its 50th Birthday (8/23/09)

• PA PowerPort - Pennsylvania's Home Page

• On Politics: Pennsylvania's Governor

• 50states.com - States and Capitals

• A Background to Philadelphia Pennsylvania

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This page last updated on Thursday, July 22, 2010