Write a persuasive paper arguing for or against the statement: the popular culture of law in the United States tends to make its consumers better legal citizens. The terms of this prompt are left deliberately vague. It is up to students to decide what popular culture of law they want to write about (true crime films, courtroom fiction, prison movies, civil rights narratives, etc.) and how they want to define the content of good legal citizenship (i.e. as people who use law in everyday life, as people who make law through political participation, as people who may serve on juries, etc.). These papers must be 1,600-2,000 words in length and must analyze at least two texts (i.e. films, television shows, podcasts, popular novels). These may be texts we have viewed in class, but they do not have to be.
 
Movies from class: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Verdict, The Fugitive, 12 Angry Man, Dead Man Walking, Philadelphia, Kramer vs Kramer, Absence of Malice, Inherit the Wind, Capote, Paradise Lost.