Civics 101 is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Since the first one appeared on the docket in 1791,

there have been thousands of cases argued in the US Supreme Court.

And each one arrived there in a different way.

An individual burned a fly.

Whatever pain, freedom of expression may inflict,

it is a principle on which we can give no ground.

Another was not informed of their rights upon arrest.

A president refused to hand over secret records.

They say that the Constitution means what he says it does.

And that there is no one, not even this Supreme Court, to tell him about it.

These become landmark cases after they're decided.

But sometimes there's an issue that's so divisive,

so prevalent in the minds of Americans,

that a case is a landmark before it even gets there.

A case that lawyers and doctors, sociologists and activists

had been working on for a quarter of a century before it's day in court.

Sometimes you go through things that, well, you know, I didn't know at the time,

they were writing and writing.

What's up, men and people that go to some other studios,

they've got a cutter still yet, an awful man, an action candidate.

I don't look tired when I come to that, there's so many pictures.

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