5.6

Reading Supreme Court Dissents Aloud

A dissent or dissenting opinion is a statement by a judge expressing and explaining disagreement with a Court's majority opinion. In this activity, you will listen to one of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's famous dissents spoken aloud and consider how the media experience of hearing a dissent spoken directly by a justice might influence people's thinking about a political issue.

Each term (the time period from the first Monday in October to late June/early July), the United States Supreme Court decides between 70 and 80 cases and there are dissents in 60% of them.

On notable occasions, dissents are read aloud from the bench by a dissenting justice. The impacts of a read aloud can be far-reaching when made available to the public by the media.

Watch on YouTube

The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG) produced one of the Court’s most dramatic dissent read alouds in a famous gender pay discrimination case, Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (2007).

In 1999, Lilly Ledbetter sued her employer, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company on the grounds that she had been receiving lower pay than her male coworkers for 19 years. She won a $3.8 million settlement in federal court. However, the Supreme Court (by a 5 to 4 vote) reversed that decision, saying Ledbetter’s claim had not been made within a 180 day time charging period.

Ginsburg, the only woman justice on the Court at the time, dissented passionately, declaring that the Court “did not comprehend or is indifferent to the insidious way in which women can be victims of pay discrimination.”

Two years later, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 that reversed the Supreme Court’s decision. Ginsburg's dissent is credited as providing the political and social momentum needed to enact this major milestone in the quest for equal rights for women.

Activity: Evaluate the Impact of Spoken Words in Supreme Court Dissents

Listen to the audio of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. dissent.

Bonus Activity: Make an accessible version of the audio of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dissent for learners who are deaf or hard of hearing by presenting the text or designing a text-based video in a way that emphasizes tone and emotion and other features that make the read aloud impactful for listeners. 

Designing for Learning: Student-Created Activity Example

Evaluate the Impact of Spoken Words in Supreme Court Dissents by Alexa Sortino

Additional Resources

Connecting to the Standards

  • Massachusetts Civics & Government Standards
    • Explain the Principle of Judicial Review established in Marbury v. Madison and explain how cases come before the Supreme Court, how cases are argued, and how the Court issues decisions and dissents. (Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for History and Social Studies) [8.T5.5]
  • ISTE Standards
    • Knowledge Constructor
      • 3b: Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data, or other resources.
      • 3d: Students build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions.
    • Creative Communicator
      • 6b: Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations.
      • 6d: Students publish or present content that customizes the message and medium for the intended audiences.
  • DLCS Standards
    • Interpersonal and Societal Impact (CAS.c)
    • Digital Tools (DTC.a)
    • Collaboration and Communication (DTC.b)
    • Research (DTC.c)
  • English Language Arts > History/Social Studies Common Core Standards
    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.5
    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.7
    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.9
    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.9
    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.6
    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.7

This content is provided to you freely by Equity Press.

Access it online or download it at https://equitypress.org/mediaandciviclearning/read_dissents.