When the Texas state legislature passed a law in the 1970s allowing school districts to deny enrollment or charge tuition to illegal immigrant children, the Tyler Independent School District instituted a $1,000 tuition rate for illegal immigrant children. Sixteen undocumented children from four Mexican families in Tyler filed a class-action suit in 1977 against the superintendent, James Plyler. They won their case when the federal district court judge (with the serendipitous name of William Wayne Justice) ruled that the Texas law violated the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Justice's ruling was upheld in the landmark Supreme Court case "Plyler v. Doe" in 1982. In "Plyler v. Doe," the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed all children the right to a public education regardless of their immigration status. Yet attempts to deny rights to undocumented immigrants have persisted. Thirty years later, as the controversy surrounding "Plyler v. Doe" continues to resonate, studying the court's ruling provides a genuine educational opportunity for civics and social studies students to critically debate and role play the merits of the case. This article describes how the authors used a mock trial activity with high school students to simulate "Plyler v. Doe" to help their students develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the immigration issues embodied in "Plyler v. Doe." Resources that provide teachers with background knowledge and tools to run their own mock trial are presented.