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In Their Own Words

This section presents primary source information about each issue from each of the institutions of democracy: The Congress, the Courts, the Presidency, the Press and the Schools. Find Presidential speeches; policy positions from members of Congress; Supreme Court decisions; and New York Times editorials here.

The In Their Own Words navigator occupies the lower portion of the Justice Learning Home page and can also be found on each Issue page within the site. Clicking the icon or text legend for an Institution of Democracy loads the In Their Own Words page for that institution.

Legislative	The Congress: These pages feature two types of primary source: Legislation - actual excerpts of laws, amendments and bills presented before the Congress, and Congress Speaks - quotes from lawmakers on the Issue at hand.
Courts	The Courts: These pages feature excerpts from actual cases presented before the U.S. Supreme Court. They may be portions of arguments, or excerpts of the Justices' opinions in support, or in dissent, of the majority opinion. Most cited cases will also be accompanied by links to a full text version of the entire case.
Executive	The Presidency: These pages feature quotes from sitting and former Presidents of the United States. Wherever possible, these are supplemented by links to the full text of their speech or statement, and may - in the case of more recent Presidents - also include links to multimedia resources, such as radio addresses or television appearances.
Press	The Press: These pages reference commentary that appeared in The New York Times Editorial or Op-Ed pages. The links accompanying each entry are to copies of the editorials within The New York Times Learning Network, a public resource that does not require registration to use.
Schools	The Schools: As with The Press, these pages reference news articles that appeared in The New York Times on the subject of Schools or School policy. Each article as displayed on the page includes its title and a brief description. The accompanying links are to copies of the articles within The New York Times Learning Network, a public resource that does not require registration to use.