‘Every Vote Matters’ in 5-4 Supreme Court rulings

Cases that have direct bearing on students’ lives were decided with a vote of 5-4 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Their rights to free speech, limitations on speech, drug testing and treatment in the courts might be radically different if these splits had gone a different way.

In Every Vote Matters (Free Spirit Publishing, March 2016), Judge Tom Jacobs and his daughter Natalie Jacobs review several U.S. Supreme Court cases that were decided with a single vote.

Like the title suggests, “Every Vote Matters” to Judge Tom and Natalie Jacobs, and they present a strong argument that it needs to matter to young people reading this book. Their one vote could shape who is elected president or elected to U.S. Congress — which, in turn, affects the ideology of who is appointed to the United States’ highest court.

I found the book fascinating and informative, with an interesting assortment of cases. The authors compellingly demonstrate the relevance of these cases in their young readers’ lives.

I wish to share a brief concern about the digital version of the book, with hope that it can be corrected before the book’s official release in March. I read this book in a single column of text on a handheld device. I found the main text frequently broken mid-sentence by pull quotes and brief essays (e.g. “Did You Know?”) and I had to shuffle between screens to re-establish the main text’s continuity.

Pull quotes and sidebar essays lend dynamic elements to a physical book’s layout, but their placement in the text needs to be carefully considered for a digital format. Please reformat the digital version of this book, so that it completes entire sentences and paragraphs before sharing a pull quote or supplement — even if that essentially means two “versions” of the text, one for print and one for digital.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a review copy of this book from the publisher. The opinion expressed is my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”