Each student will submit a 5-7 page research paper on either a piece of legislation, an executive
order, or a Supreme Court case, enacted or decided since 2000 by the US federal
government. The tool of policy that you chose must be active, meaning that it is a law that has
been passed and is currently enforced, it is an executive order that has not been rescinded, or it
is a Supreme Court case that has been decided and not overturned.
Students will use this paper to analyze the example of governmental power/action of their
choice by explaining the action to the best of their understanding and then putting the issue in
context of the broader scope of government For starters, ask yourself , what does this action say
about the power of the branch? How does it affect the power of the branch as given by the
Constitution? How does this action affect the relationship between the acting branch and the
other branches? Use these questions as a basis for your paper but expand on these ideas from
there. Analysis is based on data and facts, not suppositions. Challenge yourself to present
statistics or scholarly evidence to back up your analysis.
For this paper, students may only use scholarly, peer reviewed sources or governmental
documents. You may access research databases, through the Lone Star College Library, such
as JSTOR or Lexis Nexis for material that can help you develop the analysis associated with
this paper and the websites of the US House of Representatives, US Senate, White House, or
US Supreme Court to help you determine your topic. For Supreme Court cases, I would
encourage you to use law reviews, such as those published by Duke or Harvard. Content that
is derived from outside sources will take points away from the analysis component of the
grading rubric.
Please remember that this is a research paper and not an argumentative or opinion paper
Format:
-Submitted as a .doc or .docx file ONLY. No other forms of papers will be accepted.
-Double spaced
-12 pt Arial or Times New Roman font
-1 inch margins
-Page numbers in the bottom right hand corner
-Cover page, with student information, and Bibliography are not included in the overall page
limits
-Citations must appear as in text citations (as either parenthetical citations or footnotes) and in a
bibliography (works cited) page, no endnotes.
-You must have a minimum of 2 sources- from scholarly, peer reviewed sources,
government sources, or reputable news sources only
