RESEARCH PROJECT: TOPIC PROPOSAL (20 points) M. Brown In order to most efficiently work on and submit your Topic Proposal assignment, please follow the guidelines precisely. Not doing so will result in losing points unnecessarily. If you have questions on how to complete this assignment, the time to ask is before, not after, you have submitted it. The topic can be anything you like as long as it relates to something in his class, not any other class. [ also strongly recommend - though do not require - that it be something in which you have some personal interest, not something that you would find uninteresting. Topics that students have written on in the past have included arguing one side or another of: abortion; drinking age; legalization of or reclassification of marijuana; mandatory jail sentences; 2" Amendment; hate speech; standardized tests for public school students; higher tuition rates for out-of-state (or international) students; copyright violations in song-writing or other areas of the arts; regulation of tattoo parlors; antitrust issues in major league sports, e.g., NFL, NBA, etc.; non-employee classifications for amateur athletes in college and university sports; body cameras for police officers; surveillance of non-criminal activities; net neutrality; euthanasia; regulation of commercial animal husbandry; regulation of exotic pets; animal cruelty laws in general; regulation of sky-diving; and many, many other possibilities. Otherwise, my suggestion is to go into Google and type in keywords that correspond to whatever interests you. For instance, go into Google and type in keywords such as "skiing," "skydiving," "running," "stamp collecting," "animal rights."\" etc. etc., along with keywords that pertain to this class, e.g., "crime," "criminal law," "regulations," "business," "legal," "law," etc. etc. Doing such a search will probably recover tens of thousands of hits. Just begin reading whatever catches your eye. Inevitably, you will find some things interesting and others not. At this stage, since all you are doing 1s scoping out the confluence between the legal system and whatever you are interested in, the most important thing is to simply read whatever interests you. Inevitably, too, you will almost unconsciously begin forming opinions about what you read. This is the beginning of your formulation of your thesis statement, which is, in fact, a formal statement of an opinion. Once you have formed an opinion, your next steps are to simply think of 3-4 main arguments you can make in order to support your opinion/thesis. And, presto! You have the basics, the starting point (thesis statement and arguments) for your paper! Example: You have an interest in fishing. Go mto Google and type in keywords that link your hobby to the law/legal system. So, you use keywords such as \"fishing,\" \"law,\" \"legal,\" etc. You'll probably come up with 10,000 or more hits. 7 e You glance through the hits and find some links that seem interesting and others that don't. Start reading what seems interesting. After you have read a dozen or so of the hits, you will have begun to form an opinion. For instance, you might conclude that the nearly universal, albeit somewhat uncontroversial, discrimination against non-state residents in fishing license fees is illegal. You have just formed an opinion! You will then write out your thesis statement (10 points): \"Higher fishing license fees for non-state residents violates the 14 Amendment.\" The thesis statement should 1) be argumentative (expression of opinion), not descriptive and 2) 10 words or less (not including titles, proper pronouns, or a short direct quotation (but only 1f absolutely, absolutely, necessary and can't do without it!). Now. vou will articulate vour 2-4 main arguments (10 points). You come up with: Argument 1: Discriminatory license fees violate the Equal Protection Clause. Argument 2: Discriminatory license fees violate the Due Process Clause. Argument 3: Discriminatory license fees violate the Privileges and Immunities Clause. Each argument should 1) be argumentative (expression of opinion), not descriptive and 2) 10 words or less (not including titles, proper pronouns, or a short direct quotation (but only if absolutely, absolutely, necessary and can't do without it!). There you have it! All you have to submit are the sentences above (thesis statement plus however many arguments you have, which should be no less than two arguments and not more than four arguments, for a total on the Topic Proposal of between 3-5 sentences). You now have your topic proposal in the correct format: 1) concise, argumentative thesis statement in a grammatically-complete sentence 2) concise, argumentative supporting arguments in grammatically-complete sentences and 3) some explicit reference to either specific laws or general legal principles in each sentence you have written (you need not be thoroughly familiar with all or even some applicable law(s), but you are required to express each of the sentences with some explicit reference to something explicitly pertaining to the law/legal system/legal principle(s). Because the format is given you to here as an example, there i1s no reason to deviate from this format. If your submission does deviate from the format, it will result in lost points. Y our submission, therefore, will have a format EXACTLY LIKE THE EXAMPLE BELOW: EXAMPLE: Jasmyne T. Student Thesis statement: \"Higher fishing license fees for non-state residents violates the 14" Amendment.\" Arguments: Argument 1: Discriminatory license fees violate the Equal Protection Clause. Argument 2: Discriminatory license fees violate the Due Process Clause. Argument 3: Discriminatory license fees violate the Privileges and Immunities Clause