• 
  
  Reflection:  (PDF Attached below)
  
  Explain your decision making for choosing the bill.
  
  
  At first I was just trying to find a bill just to get the benchmark done, but when i saw the bill I found, I was really interested in looking into it. I used to ask my mom and some of my teachers how come some people buy and bribe the voters with money, and how come no one's doing anything to stop it, and I always got the same answer: The laws around that only restrict some of the money being brought in. So when I saw the bill, and started researching, I not only was happy I found my answer to a question I've been thinking about, I also was able to actually be engaged in it and produce a benchmark that I felt was original, creative, and interesting.
  
  
• Why did you choose the particular presentation format?
  
  When I was little I used to do nothing but draw in my spare time, but as i grew up I kind of put it to the side, but I've always been interested in animations and cartoons. When Ms. Laufenberg said "don't make it boring" I thought at first, "how can i make it so people would actually be engaged in what i've made", and my first thought was "let's draw some cartoons". So what I did was I wrote each event at the bottom of the page, and on the top illustrated it as best I could, and I tried hard to make it pop out to the reader. I made it so even a kid could pay attention to it, but it could also be presented to adults
  
  
• What challenges did you overcome in completing the project?
  
  I didnt find my bill till a week and a half before the project was due. I had so much trouble finding a law, I was gonna just give up, and BS some random bill and call it a day. but when I found the one I liked, it was easy to stick with it and execute a plan for it's completion. The second problem I encountered was getting it scanned. When I was doing the project, I completely forgot it had to be electronically published, and I had hand drawn all my illustrations..
  
  
• How would you do the project differently if you had to do it over again?
  
  I probably wouldve done it electronically, or established a plan to actually, draw and get the pictures scanned before the due date. I feel as if that was my fault for forgetting that.
  
  
• What did the research and investigation tell you about the creation process... from idea to bill to law?
  
  It told me basically the history of the actually "why" the bill was presented. It showed me that there was a problem going on in Politics, and people not only saw the problem, but moved to fix it. i feel like when people in government positions realize there is a problem that needs attention, they start coming up with ideas to better the law system so they can be in control of each and every problem that has arose over the years
  
  
• Was the process easier or harder than you imagined based on your particular bill/law research?

1. Constitutional Question
   -  Was there jurisdiction to issue a certificate of appealability under 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c) and to adjudicate Gonzalez's appeal?

   - Did the application for a writ of habeas corpus run out of time under 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(1) due to the date on which the judgment became final by the conclusion of direct review?
2. Facts of the Case
   - Gonzalez was convicted of murder in Texas, June 14, 2005 in a 1995 shooting and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
   - It actually took them six years to indict him on that murder rap.
   - He filed for an appeal in the Texas intermediate court of appeals which was the same court that confirmed his conviction July 12, 2006.
   - Only problem with that was that his lawyer did not file a petition for another review of his case with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals within the 30-day time limit given by state law. 
   - Because that got messed up, on July 19th, 2007 Gonzalez filed in a Texas state court for the right to appeal. The courts denied his appeal on November 21, 2007.
   - So because of that, on January 24th, 2008, he filed another petition to appeal in the U.S District Court for the Northern DIstrict of Texas and now here he is trying to get his case heard for his right to appeal.
   
   
3. Summary of the Arguments before the SCOTUS
   
   - Basically Gonzalez argues that if the Supreme Courts sides with the state courts, the time for petitioners will be running out before they legally get the right to actually appeal which is unacceptable and unjust. Also he argued that the courts denied his petition for appeal but  it took them a year to actually finalized his conviction.  With being said there is no way he could have filed for an appeal if they hadn't even finalized his sentence.
   
   
4. Predictions on the outcome
   - I think that because they denied his claim based on a stupid technicality that he just might be granted the appeal on top of which the timing issue makes no sense the way it was handled so he's bound to get the appeal granted.
   
   Citations
   "Gonzalez v. Thaler | The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law." The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law | A Multimedia Archive of the Supreme Court of the United States. 03 Nov. 2011. Web. 11 Nov. 2011.
   
   Shay, Giovanna. "Argument Preview: Another Technical AEDPA Case Implicating State Postconviction and Counsel." SCOTUSblog. 26 Oct. 2011. Web. 17 Nov. 2011.
   
   Shay, Giovanna. "Gonzalez v. Thaler: Justices Focus on COA Issue." SCOTUSblog. 03 Nov. 2011. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. 

• I chose DOMA, because I feel like it was a big topic that would have a lot of resources about it. I chose a Prezi, because they always look good, before you even polish the project it looks better than other forms. I had to overcome the challenges of researching a bill that was passed before the internet was a common thing. I really couldn't find much, besides that Clinton said he would legalize gay-marriage than passed this instead. It was easier than I imagined, because I assumed this would be impossible to find anything pre-2000. 

Who represents me?

Michael Nutter

What do you and your representative have in common?

We like Larry’s cheesesteaks, and believe in public service to your community.

·       Learn their biographies

·       Micheal Nutter born in 1957 lived in west Philadelphia and attended Saint Joseph University. He moved on to The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania. In June 2002, as councilman, Nutter introduce a measure requiring college students under 23 years old in Philadelphia’s Fourth Council District (students at SJU). He has influenced much of the policies throughout Wynnfield.

·       

·       His main policy is direct to community affairs, to serve and help the community.

·       His interests are directed toward community service, and ethics.

·       We have worked together before and both believe in community service to better our environment.

• I chose to do my benchmark on Defense Of Marriage Act, because i thought it was interesting and i wanted to know more about it. I chose Keynote because i think keynote is awesome but sometimes it crews you over because it can't be uploaded to some places such as Scienceleadership.org so i had to screen shot the slides on my keynote and add it to google docs and make it into a presentation on there so that my teacher can see it, so of course i had to share it with her. If i had to do my benchmark over i would probably put less words, (i do not know if its to much words) because i have lots of wording in it and i think it looks smashed together, and i do not like my presentations with to much of information. When i first started researching my bill/law i noticed that the Defenses Of Marriage did have lots of problems, people had trouble with there lover because they couldn't marry the same race. I thought it was pretty hard doing because i didn't know exactly what to put on my keynote.

Why I choose to the the Non Discrimination Act was because I feel that 
it is wrong that  judge people based on looks and their gender 
identity. equality is the most important thing to have. Not everyone 
understands how important equality is.
My method for choosing a flow map was because I thought It would be 
easier way to tell a story 
If I was to do this project again I would choose a different method 
then what I did and also staying more on top of things with the 
organization process.
The research of my bill taught me that it can be either passed or fail. 
In my case my bill kept getting re- introduced and brought into congress. 
As of today they are still fighting to pass the law officially. The 
process was harder then what I imagined.