Wednesday, 10/5: The Constitution/Bill of Rights

8:20-8:56  1st Period
8:59-9:35  2nd Period
9:38-10:14  3rd Period
10:17-10:53  4th period
10:56-12:12 NEST Meeting
Student Council Candidate Speeches and Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Kathy Kelly

Starter 16:  Watch the CNN report on Morse v. Frederick (2002) aka “Bong Hits For Jesus”
Answer these three questions after watching the video:
1. Jeremy Bentham would support the Court’s ruling that the First Amendment does not protect the individual’s right to freedom of speech because we need to protect the greater good.  How does the Court’s ruling protect the greater good?

2. J.S. Mill would say the Court’s ruling was morally wrong, because protecting individual liberty actually does benefit the greater good in the long run.  How does protecting FREE SPEECH benefit the greater good in the long run?

3. The court ruled in favor of the school on this issue, thus using Bentham’s line of reasoning.  How does this change the way you understand our protections under the First Amendment especially in the context of schools?

​U.S. Constitution AGENDA
TODAY'S CORE QUESTIONS

• Where do we see the ideals of security, liberty and equality appear in our nation's founding documents?
• How do we balance these ideals when coming up with just policies for controversial political and social issues?

Video: Crash Course US History   and It's Too Late to Apologize
Discuss:

• What ideology is reflected in the way the story of the Revolution is usually told?
• What was the role of rhetoric in the American Revolution?
• What was the exigency (urgency/demand/need) of writing the Declaration of Independence?

Let's look at the Bill of Rights!
1. List of grievances (complaints) to the King of England in the Dec. of Ind 

2. Preamble to the Constitution + Bill of Rights
You'll be given the full text of the Bill of Rights, which includes the preamble of the Constitution plus the first 10 amendments to the Constitution.

Annotation Exercise – Using only the preamble, annotate with an eye to answering the following questions.

• Which words represent "security"?
• Which words represent "liberty"?
• Which words represent "equality"?

 
Now, lets get started looking at the Bill of Rights:
A. With the Bill of Rights, Full Text: With a partner, read the Bill of Rights and try to put each amendment into “real” English. What does each individual amendment really mean? Can you put it all into one or two easily understandable sentences?

B. With the Bill of Rights in Plain English: When you are finished with the full text exercise above, look at the copy of the Bill of Rights in Plain English. How did you do? Cross-reference your 'plain English' definitions with mine, and adjust yours if you need to.

C.  With the Bill of Rights Worksheet: 

1. Now, write your “final” interpretation of each Amendment next to its number.
2. In addition, you'll have to pick/draw an animal (or other symbol, but c'mon, get creative!) that best represents that amendment. Good luck!  
3. Lastly, next to each Amendment, try to decide which moral philosophy that Amendment seems to speak to the most.  For example, the 1st Amendment seems to be related to Libertarianism as well as Mills' long-term view of Utilitarianism.   

Final Class Discussion
Where do you see the moral philosophies coming through in the Bill of Rights and/or the preamble to the Constitution?​