CH 5 - Assignments

Ch 5.1 – The Bill of Rights

A high school principal has reason to suspect some students of bringing weapons onto campus. After receiving a tip from a teacher, the principal searches the lockers of three students and finds a knife and a small handgun in one student’s locker. The other two lockers turn up nothing.

1. In this situation, what rights do the students assigned to these lockers have?

2. What rights does the principal, acting on behalf of the student body, have?

3. On a high school campus, should authorities be allowed to search student lockers whenever they want?

Section 5.2

After reading the section, answer these questions:

1. Explain the difference between civil liberties and civil rights. Give at least two examples of each.

2. Discuss the significance of the Fourteenth Amendment and of Gitlow v. New York in terms of American civil liberties and civil rights.

3. What is the role of the Supreme Court today? What happens when the Court overturns a decision made by a lower court?

Section 5.3

Read the section. Then complete the first row of the table on Notebook Handout 5 as follows:

• List the basic rights protected or guaranteed by the First Amendment.

• List and describe at least one Supreme Court case that acted as a precedent and helped further define this amendment.

• Create or find a simple symbol, illustration, or image to represent one right that this amendment guarantees.

Sections 5.4 to 5.6

For each amendment discussed in these sections, complete that row of the table on Notebook Handout 5. A shaded box indicates that no Supreme Court cases are related to that amendment. Identify a current news story or event, or a situation from your own life, in which rights are in conflict—either between two individuals, between an individual and society, or between an individual and the government.

Then do the following:

1. Briefly describe the situation.

2. Identify the rights held by one of the parties.

3. Identify the rights held by the opposing party.

4. Based on what you know about the Constitution, whose rights should take priority? Why?