Day 34 - Government Protects Citizens from Government...and each other

Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

Learning Targets:  Students will be able to....

• Explain how the U.S. Constitution protects individual liberties and rights.
• Describe the rights protected in the Bill of Rights.
• Explain the extent to which the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the First and Second Amendments reflects a commitment to individual liberty.

Through the U.S. Constitution, but primarily through the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment, citizens and groups have attempted to limit national and state governments to prevent them from infringing upon individual rights and from denying equal protection under the law. 

However, it has sometimes been argued that these legal protections have been used to slow reforms and restrict freedoms of others in the name of social order.

Opener:  American Freedom
Which do you think American citizens value more, their Civil Rights or their Civil Liberties?  Make sure that your response draws a distinction between the two.

No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

• 14th Amendment - Ratified in 1868

Activity #1 -  Civil Liberties Key Components - 5 questions you need to answer

1.  How does the Bill of Rights protect citizens and states from an overpowering national government?  Hint:  Recall the reason that these 10 amendments were added to the US Constitution in the first place.....cough...cough...Antifederalists....cough.....

2.  To what extent has the use of 14th amendment undermined the intentions of the 10th?  Hint:  "Incorporation"

No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws . - 14th Amendment - Ratified in 1868

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. - 10th Amendment - Ratified 1791

3.  What limitations are there on our freedom of speech and religion?  Hint: Think setting.

4.  Why are the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th considered the "rights of the accused"?  Hint:  Think like someone wrongfully accused.

5.  In what ways is the 2nd amendment different than the other civil liberties expressed in the Bill of Rights?  Hint:  "infringed"

Activity #2 -  Civil Rights Key Components - 5 questions we all need to answer

1.  Why did the court reverse the Plessy v Ferguson (1896) separate but equal doctrine the case of Brown v Board of Education (1954)?  Hint:  It is "inherently unequal"

2.  Under what power granted to them under the US Constitution did Congress pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964?  What were the limits?  Hint:  "Public Accommodation"

3.  What do you think were MLK's motives and purposes behind "A Letter from a Birmingham Jail"?  Hint:  Civil Disobedience

4.  The 19th Amendment, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and "Title IX" have all expanded civil rights beyond the issue of race addressed in the previous questions.  Which group in American society do you think more clearly saw immediate benefits?

5.  The 24th Amendment abolished the poll tax.  Why were these taxes, and literacy tests, seen as a deliberate attempt to limit minority voting?  Hint:  Look at the states that had poll taxes.

Close:  AP Test - Helper Sheet and Watch This Video!!!!

Print this out or make your own copy.  Might come in handy...on May 11th....during an event.....  

Just have it handy.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13jmerKIFY0Rz_7bu0SPKCRDCGGJdFp-UmA0kC7Ur0pQ/edit?usp=sharing