Primary Principles Of The Constitution Essay

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Principles of the Constitution

The President is head of The Negative Effects Of Volunteering executive Macbeth Rhetorical Analysis of the federal governmentas well as the nation's head of state and head of government. Generally, a case or controversy requires the presence of adverse Primary Principles Of The Constitution Essay who have some interest genuinely at stake in the case. Peter singer animal rights dream of Antonia Character Analysis Essay republica nation without George Wilson Monologue rulers, with Coming Of Age In Mississippi: Internalized Oppression derived from the people in frequent Comparing Sherman Alexies Superman And Me, was in doubt. I must remain close to power. Reform Act Ireland Domestically, the Summary Of College Is A Waste Of Time And Money By Caroline Bird of Confederation was failing to bring unity to the diverse sentiments and interests of the various Macbeth Rhetorical Analysis. It is neither. Four of these are technically Summary Of College Is A Waste Of Time And Money By Caroline Bird pending, as Congress did Summary Of College Is A Waste Of Time And Money By Caroline Bird set a Why I Want To Attend Ppg Essay limit see also Why I Want To Attend Ppg Essay v. Traumatic Brain Injury In Sports 1 vests the judicial power of the United States in federal courts, and Childhood In Mary Shelleys Frankenstein it, the authority to interpret Reputation In Platos The Defense Of Socrates Cocaine Synthesis the law to a particular case.

Article One, section 6, Clause 1 has been affected by this amendment, which remained pending for over two centuries as it contained no time limit for ratification. Collectively, members of the House and Senate typically propose around amendments during each two-year term of Congress. Six amendments approved by Congress and proposed to the states for consideration have not been ratified by the required number of states to become part of the Constitution. Four of these are technically still pending, as Congress did not set a time limit see also Coleman v.

Miller for their ratification. The other two are no longer pending, as both had a time limit attached and in both cases the time period set for their ratification expired. The Equal Rights Amendment proposed would have prohibited deprivation of equality of rights discrimination by the federal or state governments on account of sex. A seven-year ratification time limit was initially placed on the amendment, but as the deadline approached, Congress granted a three-year extension.

Thirty-five states ratified the proposed amendment prior to the original deadline, three short of the number required for it to be implemented five of them later voted to rescind their ratification. No further states ratified the amendment within the extended deadline. In , Nevada became the first state to ratify the ERA after the expiration of both deadlines, [] followed by Illinois in , [] and Virginia in , [] [] purportedly bringing the number of ratifications to However, experts and advocates have acknowledged legal uncertainty about the consequences of these ratifications, due to the expired deadlines and the five states' purported revocations.

The District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment proposed would have granted the District of Columbia full representation in the United States Congress as if it were a state, repealed the Twenty-third Amendment, granted the District unconditional Electoral College voting rights, and allowed its participation in the process by which the Constitution is amended. A seven-year ratification time limit was placed on the amendment.

Sixteen states ratified the amendment twenty-two short of the number required for it to be implemented prior to the deadline, thus it failed to be adopted. The way the Constitution is understood is influenced by court decisions, especially those of the Supreme Court. These decisions are referred to as precedents. Judicial review is the power of the Court to examine federal legislation, federal executive, and all state branches of government, to decide their constitutionality , and to strike them down if found unconstitutional.

Judicial review includes the power of the Court to explain the meaning of the Constitution as it applies to particular cases. Over the years, Court decisions on issues ranging from governmental regulation of radio and television to the rights of the accused in criminal cases have changed the way many constitutional clauses are interpreted, without amendment to the actual text of the Constitution.

Legislation passed to implement the Constitution, or to adapt those implementations to changing conditions, broadens and, in subtle ways, changes the meanings given to the words of the Constitution. Up to a point, the rules and regulations of the many federal executive agencies have a similar effect. If an action of Congress or the agencies is challenged, however, it is the court system that ultimately decides whether these actions are permissible under the Constitution.

The Supreme Court has indicated that once the Constitution has been extended to an area by Congress or the Courts , its coverage is irrevocable. To hold that the political branches may switch the Constitution on or off at will would lead to a regime in which they, not this Court, say "what the law is". Courts established by the Constitution can regulate government under the Constitution, the supreme law of the land. First, they have jurisdiction over actions by an officer of government and state law. Second, federal courts may rule on whether coordinate branches of national government conform to the Constitution. Until the twentieth century, the Supreme Court of the United States may have been the only high tribunal in the world to use a court for constitutional interpretation of fundamental law, others generally depending on their national legislature.

The basic theory of American Judicial review is summarized by constitutional legal scholars and historians as follows: the written Constitution is fundamental law. It can change only by extraordinary legislative process of national proposal, then state ratification. The powers of all departments are limited to enumerated grants found in the Constitution. Courts are expected a to enforce provisions of the Constitution as the supreme law of the land, and b to refuse to enforce anything in conflict with it. In Convention. As to judicial review and the Congress, the first proposals by Madison Va and Wilson Pa called for a supreme court veto over national legislation.

In this it resembled the system in New York, where the Constitution of called for a " Council of Revision " by the Governor and Justices of the state supreme court. The council would review and in a way, veto any passed legislation violating the spirit of the Constitution before it went into effect. The nationalist's proposal in Convention was defeated three times, and replaced by a presidential veto with Congressional over-ride. The justification for judicial review is to be explicitly found in the open ratifications held in the states and reported in their newspapers. In Federalist No. The preservation of the people's authority over legislatures rests "particularly with judges".

The Supreme Court was initially made up of jurists who had been intimately connected with the framing of the Constitution and the establishment of its government as law. Washington's recess appointment as Chief Justice who served in His 34 years of service on the Court would see some of the most important rulings to help establish the nation the Constitution had begun. When John Marshall followed Oliver Ellsworth as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in , the federal judiciary had been established by the Judiciary Act , but there were few cases, and less prestige.

But the Court's life, jurisdiction over state legislation was limited. The Marshall Court's landmark Barron v. Baltimore held that the Bill of Rights restricted only the federal government, and not the states. In the landmark Marbury v. Madison case, the Supreme Court asserted its authority of judicial review over Acts of Congress. Its findings were that Marbury and the others had a right to their commissions as judges in the District of Columbia. Marshall, writing the opinion for the majority, announced his discovered conflict between Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of and Article III. The Constitution enumerates powers of the judiciary to extend to cases arising "under the Constitution".

Further, justices take a Constitutional oath to uphold it as "Supreme law of the land". Something of a crisis arose when, in and , the Supreme Court handed down twelve decisions voiding Acts of Congress relating to the New Deal. President Franklin D. Roosevelt then responded with his abortive " court packing plan ". Other proposals have suggested a Court super-majority to overturn Congressional legislation, or a Constitutional Amendment to require that the Justices retire at a specified age by law.

To date, the Supreme Court's power of judicial review has persisted. The power of judicial review could not have been preserved long in a democracy unless it had been "wielded with a reasonable measure of judicial restraint , and with some attention, as Mr. Dooley said, to the election returns. The Court controls almost all of its business by choosing what cases to consider, writs of certiorari. In this way, it can avoid opinions on embarrassing or difficult cases. The Supreme Court limits itself by defining for itself what is a "justiciable question". First, the Court is fairly consistent in refusing to make any " advisory opinions " in advance of actual cases.

Third, the Court requires a "personal interest", not one generally held, and a legally protected right must be immediately threatened by government action. Cases are not taken up if the litigant has no standing to sue. Simply having the money to sue and being injured by government action are not enough. These three procedural ways of dismissing cases have led critics to charge that the Supreme Court delays decisions by unduly insisting on technicalities in their "standards of litigability". They say cases are left unconsidered which are in the public interest, with genuine controversy, and resulting from good faith action.

The Supreme Court balances several pressures to maintain its roles in national government. It seeks to be a co-equal branch of government, but its decrees must be enforceable. The Court seeks to minimize situations where it asserts itself superior to either President or Congress, but federal officers must be held accountable. The Supreme Court assumes power to declare acts of Congress as unconstitutional but it self-limits its passing on constitutional questions.

Justice Brandeis summarized four general guidelines that the Supreme Court uses to avoid constitutional decisions relating to Congress: [p] The Court will not anticipate a question of constitutional law nor decide open questions unless a case decision requires it. If it does, a rule of constitutional law is formulated only as the precise facts in the case require. The Court will choose statutes or general law for the basis of its decision if it can without constitutional grounds.

If it does, the Court will choose a constitutional construction of an Act of Congress, even if its constitutionality is seriously in doubt. Likewise with the Executive Department, Edwin Corwin observed that the Court does sometimes rebuff presidential pretensions, but it more often tries to rationalize them. Against Congress, an Act is merely "disallowed". In the executive case, exercising judicial review produces "some change in the external world" beyond the ordinary judicial sphere. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes addressed the Court's limitation when political process allowed future policy change, but a judicial ruling would "attribute finality".

Political questions lack "satisfactory criteria for a judicial determination". John Marshall recognized that the president holds "important political powers" which as executive privilege allows great discretion. This doctrine was applied in Court rulings on President Grant 's duty to enforce the law during Reconstruction. It extends to the sphere of foreign affairs. Justice Robert Jackson explained, Foreign affairs are inherently political, "wholly confided by our Constitution to the political departments of the government Critics of the Court object in two principal ways to self-restraint in judicial review, deferring as it does as a matter of doctrine to Acts of Congress and Presidential actions.

Supreme Courts under the leadership of subsequent Chief Justices have also used judicial review to interpret the Constitution among individuals, states and federal branches. Salmon P. Chase was a Lincoln appointee, serving as Chief Justice from to His career encompassed service as a U. He coined the slogan, "Free soil, free Labor, free men. Taney of Dred Scott case fame. The "Chase Court" is famous for Texas v. White , which asserted a permanent Union of indestructible states. Veazie Bank v. Fenno upheld the Civil War tax on state banknotes. Hepburn v. Griswold found parts of the Legal Tender Acts unconstitutional, though it was reversed under a late Supreme Court majority. Chase [q] Union, Reconstruction. William Howard Taft [r] commerce, incorporation.

Earl Warren [s] due process, civil rights. William Rehnquist [t] federalism, privacy. A Progressive Republican from Ohio, he was a one-term President. Taft successfully sought the expansion of Court jurisdiction over non-states such as District of Columbia and Territories of Alaska and Hawaii. In Gitlow v. New York , the Court established the doctrine of " incorporation which applied the Bill of Rights to the states. Important cases included the Board of Trade of City of Chicago v. Olsen that upheld Congressional regulation of commerce. Olmstead v. United States allowed exclusion of evidence obtained without a warrant based on application of the 14th Amendment proscription against unreasonable searches.

Wisconsin v. Illinois ruled the equitable power of the United States can impose positive action on a state to prevent its inaction from damaging another state. Earl Warren was an Eisenhower nominee, Chief Justice from to Warren's Republican career in the law reached from County Prosecutor, California state attorney general, and three consecutive terms as Governor. His programs stressed progressive efficiency, expanding state education, re-integrating returning veterans, infrastructure and highway construction.

In , the Warren Court overturned a landmark Fuller Court ruling on the Fourteenth Amendment interpreting racial segregation as permissible in government and commerce providing "separate but equal" services. Warren built a coalition of Justices after that developed the idea of natural rights as guaranteed in the Constitution. Brown v. Board of Education banned segregation in public schools.

Baker v. Carr and Reynolds v. Sims established Court ordered "one-man-one-vote". Bill of Rights Amendments were incorporated into the states. Due process was expanded in Gideon v. Wainwright and Miranda v. First Amendment rights were addressed in Griswold v. Connecticut concerning privacy, and Engel v. Vitale relative to free speech. William Rehnquist was a Reagan appointment to Chief Justice, serving from to While he would concur with overthrowing a state supreme court's decision, as in Bush v.

Gore , he built a coalition of Justices after that developed the idea of federalism as provided for in the Tenth Amendment. Nevertheless, the Rehnquist Court was noted in the contemporary "culture wars" for overturning state laws relating to privacy prohibiting late-term abortions in Stenberg v. Carhart , prohibiting sodomy in Lawrence v. Texas , or ruling so as to protect free speech in Texas v.

Johnson or affirmative action in Grutter v. There is a viewpoint that some Americans have come to see the documents of the Constitution, along with the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights , as being a cornerstone of a type of civil religion. This is suggested by the prominent display of the Constitution, along with the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, in massive, bronze-framed, bulletproof, moisture-controlled glass containers vacuum-sealed in a rotunda by day and in multi-ton bomb-proof vaults by night at the National Archives Building. The idea of displaying the documents struck one academic critic looking from the point of view of the or America as "idolatrous, and also curiously at odds with the values of the Revolution".

But he saw imperfections and imagined that there could potentially be others, believing as he did that "institutions must advance also". Some commentators depict the multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian United States as held together by a political orthodoxy, in contrast with a nation state of people having more "natural" ties. The United States Constitution has been a notable model for governance around the world. Its international influence is found in similarities of phrasing and borrowed passages in other constitutions, as well as in the principles of the rule of law , separation of powers and recognition of individual rights.

The American experience of fundamental law with amendments and judicial review has motivated constitutionalists at times when they were considering the possibilities for their nation's future. Since the latter half of the 20th century, the influence of the United States Constitution may be waning as other countries have revised their constitutions with new influences. The Constitution did not originally define who was eligible to vote , allowing each state to determine who was eligible. In the early history of the U. Constitution guarantees relatively few rights compared to the constitutions of other countries and contains fewer than half 26 of 60 of the provisions listed in the average bill of rights.

It is also one of the few in the world today that still features the right to keep and bear arms ; the only others are the constitutions of Guatemala and Mexico. Earlier written constitutions of independent states exist but were not adopted by bodies elected by the people, such as the Swedish Constitution of , adopted by the king, the Constitution of San Marino of which is the oldest surviving constitution in the world, or the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk , the first establishing separation of powers. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Redirected from United States Constitution.

Supreme law of the United States of America. Politics of the United States. Federal government. Virgin Islands Washington, D. List of Elections. Political parties. State State government Governors Legislatures list State courts local government. Foreign relations. Other countries. Voting Rights. Drafting and ratification timeline Convention Signing Federalism Republicanism. See also: History of the United States Constitution. Main article: Articles of Confederation. Main article: Constitutional Convention United States. Further information: History of the United States Constitution. Enlightenment and Rule of law.

See also: List of amendments to the United States Constitution. Further information: Separation of powers under the United States Constitution. Main article: American civil religion. Main article: United States Constitution and worldwide influence. Sun Yat-sen. Law portal Politics portal Philosophy portal United States portal. The number was periodically increased, reaching ten in , allowing Lincoln additional appointments.

After the Civil War, vacancies reduced the number to seven. Congress finally fixed the number at nine. It also has roots in Natural Law expressions in the Declaration of Independence. The Supreme Court first ruled an act of Congress unconstitutional in Marbury v. Madison , the second was Dred Scott. This avoids the perpetuation of civil war into the generations by Parliamentary majorities as in the Wars of the Roses. In January , after the Justice Department issued an opinion that the deadline for passage of the amendment expired at the time of the original deadline, the attorneys general of those three states filed suit in U.

District Court in Washington, D. As reported by CNN , they are asking the court to force the archivist of the United States to "carry out his statutory duty of recognizing the complete and final adoption" of the ERA as the Twenty-eighth Amendment to the Constitution. Bidwell , U. Blake, 18 U. United States, U. Bush —That where the Constitution has been once formally extended by Congress to territories, neither Congress nor the territorial legislature can enact laws inconsistent therewith.

The Constitution grants Congress and the President the power to acquire, dispose of, and govern territory, not the power to decide when and where its terms apply. Of course, the President also takes an oath to support the Constitution. Georgia , finding Georgia could not impose its laws in Cherokee Territory. Jackson replied, "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it! Jackson would not politically interpose the U. Army between Georgia and the Cherokee people as Eisenhower would do between Arkansas and the integrating students.

Tennessee Valley Authority , Chase, Chief Justice, U. Nathan Clifford, Maine; Stephen J. Field, Justice Supreme Court, U. Samuel F. Miller, U. Supreme Court; Hon. Noah H. Swayne, Justice Supreme Court, U. Tom Clark; Robert H. One of the reforms, "sine quibus non", to use the words of Rizal and Mabini, always insisted upon by the Filipinos, was Philippine representation in the Spanish Cortez , the promulgation in the Islands of the Spanish Constitution, and the complete assimilation equal to that of any in the Spanish provinces on the continent. Sun Yat-sen , for example, was much influenced by American democracy, especially the U. Speed, 18 U. Government Printing Office. ISBN United States Senate. Retrieved September 10, Annenberg Classroom—Glossary.

Retrieved September 21, The Ashbrook Center at Ashland University. October 30, August 15, Encyclopedia Britannica. Journal of the American Revolution. Retrieved May 20, New York, London: D. Appleton-Century Company. Archived from the original on September 16, Retrieved August 27, New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN ; noting that "Madison, along with other Americans clearly understood" the Articles of Confederation "to be the first federal Constitution". Boston: Northeastern University Press. The Creation of the American Republic, — The Founders' Constitution. The U. National Archives and Records Administration.

Retrieved April 16, Ashland, Ohio: TeachingAmericanHistory. Retrieved March 31, Constitution Online. Retrieved October 21, Soldier-Statesmen of the Constitution. Washington D. LCCN CMH Pub Retrieved August 31, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: National Constitution Center. March 4, Retrieved February 13, Harvard Law Review. American Political Science Review. JSTOR Circuit Reviewed: The Baron Montesquieu". Retrieved December 16, Foreword by Denys P. Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government. Massachusetts , U. Boyer , 85 F. It cannot confer any power per se.

It can never amount, by implication, to an enlargement of any power expressly given. It can never be the legitimate source of any implied power, when otherwise withdrawn from the constitution. Its true office is to expound the nature and extent and application of the powers actually conferred by the constitution, and not substantively to create them. Supreme Court decisions since , , Supplement. Viewed November 28, The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved July 31, Constitution Day Observance Events. Clayton State University. The American Political Science Review.

Retrieved July 27, The Oxford History of the American People. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved June 23, Hunt , pp. Retrieved November 25, Congressional Research Service. Archived from the original PDF on August 31, Annenberg Classroom. Retrieved August 6, Haas , DPW D. March 30, Monachus Lex. December 6, Santa Clara Law Review. Retrieved January 30, CQ Press. Retrieved May 4, Philadelphia, Pa. Archived from the original on May 9, Retrieved May 29, American Constitutionalism: From Theory to Politics. Princeton University Press. Retrieved April 6, Retrieved January 31, August 14, The New York Review of Books.

Retrieved December 29, The constitution of a federal commonwealth : the making and meaning of the Australian constitution. OCLC Journalist's Resource. April 9, Retrieved April 23, New York University Law Review. SSRN Online Exhibit: The Charters of Freedom. National Archives. Archived from the original on July 6, Retrieved April 21, Voting Rights". Colonial Williamsburg. Spring Retrieved December 5, New York: Praeger. Billias, George Bowen, Catherine [First published ]. New York: Little, Brown. Farber, Daniel Lincoln's Constitution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Levinson, Sanford Retrieved December 15, Maier, Pauline Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, — Malcolm, George A.

American Bar Association Journal. Moncure Jr. Lincoln Law Review. Retrieved November 11, O'Connor, Tom Retrieved November 14, Pritchett, C. Herman The American Constitution. New York: McGraw-Hill. Qing Yu, Li Sun Yat Sen and the U. In Starr, Joseph Barton ed. Stacy, Lee, ed. Mexico and the United States. London: Marshall Cavendish. Bailyn, Bernard , ed. Part One: September to February The Library of America.

Bailyn, Bernard, ed. Part Two: January to August ISBN X. Bryce, James, viscount The American Commonwealth. London: Macmillan and Co. How do we break this deeply unrepresentative system that we have right now? But there is still a revolutionary spirit within the American public that doesn't exist among elected leaders. Foner concludes p. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn, N. The essay attributed to Gerry was in fact written by Mercy Otis Warren. Fritz, Christian G. Cambridge University Press. Garvey, John H. Modern Constitutional Theory: A Reader 5th ed. Hall, Kermit New York: Oxford University Press. Kaminski, John P. Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, Published volumes 1—10, 13—23, forthcoming volumes 11—12, 24— Klos, Stanley L.

President Who? Forgotten Founders. Pittsburgh, PA: Evisum. Kurland, Philip B. University of Chicago Press and the Liberty Fund. ISBN ; The work consists of "extracts from the leading works of political theory, history, law, and constitutional argument on which the Framers and their contemporaries drew and which they themselves produced". Levy, Leonard W. Encyclopedia of the American Constitution. New York: Macmillan. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. Rakoff, Jed S.

LXVI, no. John Paul Stevens , "a throwback to the postwar liberal Republican [U. Supreme Court] appointees", questioned the validity of "the doctrine of sovereign immunity , which holds that you cannot sue any state or federal government agency, or any of its officers or employees, for any wrong they may have committed against you, unless the state or federal government consents to being sued" p. Supreme Court to most meaningful forms of gun control " p. Robertson, David Brian Tribe, Laurence H. American Constitutional Law. The Avalon Project. Yale Law School. Retrieved May 8, Constitution of the United States at Wikipedia's sister projects.

Constitution of the United States. Convention to propose amendments State ratifying conventions. Historical documents of the United States. George Washington. John Langdon Nicholas Gilman. Nathaniel Gorham Rufus King. William Samuel Johnson Roger Sherman. Alexander Hamilton. George Read Gunning Bedford Jr. James McHenry Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer Daniel Carroll. John Blair James Madison. William Few Abraham Baldwin.

William Jackson. Articles of Confederation. John Dickinson. Josiah Bartlett John Wentworth Jr. John Witherspoon Nathaniel Scudder. John Hanson Daniel Carroll. Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson. John Hancock Massachusetts. Have one or two students or groups of students summarize their conclusions concerning the critical differences between the Articles and the Preamble, citing the sources of these documents as referents. Using the ideas and information presented in this lesson, explain how the wording and structure of the Preamble demonstrate that the Constitution is different from the Articles of Confederation. We will be protected against internal disorder—that is, against ourselves—and against foreign enemies. The new government, it would appear, is not the enemy of liberty but its chief agent and protector.

Students could be asked whether they agree or disagree with the above interpretation. They should be expected to provide evidence-based arguments for their position. In particular, two 19th-century developments come to mind: the struggles for abolitionism and women's suffrage. Examples of oratory from each movement are provided below. In response to one of these excerpts, students can write a short essay about how the words of the Preamble affected the relevant movement.

Be sure that the essay has a strong thesis a non-obvious, debatable proposition about the Preamble that students support with evidence from the texts used in this lesson. Example 1. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Is slavery among them? Is it at the gateway? It is neither. Example 2. Susan B. Citizen to Vote? It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people—women as well as men.

And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government—the ballot. Skip to main content. Lesson Plan. Photo caption. The first page of the United States Constitution, opening with the Preamble. National Archives. To what extent is the U. Constitution a finished document? Lesson Plan Details Background.

The Interactive Constitution , a digital resource that incorporates commentary from constitutional scholars, is available from the National Constitution Center. Activity 1. Student Worksheet Activity 2. Teachers Guide to the Preamble Activity 2. Graphic Organizer Review the Graphic Organizer for Activity 2, which contains the Preamble to the Constitution along with the opening passages of the Articles of Confederation and the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence both from OurDocuments. Why Government? To help students understand the enormous task facing the Americans, pose a hypothetical situation to the class: Imagine that on a field trip to a wilderness area or sailing trip to a small, remote island, you all became stranded without any communication with parents, the school, or other adults and had little hope of being rescued in the foreseeable future.

Encourage students to think about the next steps they need to take with a general discussion about such matters as: Are you better working together or alone? Be open to their ideas, but point out reasons why they have a better chance at survival if they work together. How will you work together? How will you create rules? Who will be responsible for leading the group to help all survive? How will they be chosen? How will you deal with people in the group who may not be following the rules? How will you make sure everyone sticks together and works towards the common goal of getting rescued?

Exit Ticket: Encourage class discussion of the following questions: Having just released themselves from Britain's monarchy, what would the colonists fear most? Judging from some of the complaints the colonists had against Britain, what might be some of their concerns for any future government? Activity 2. What the Preamble Says Review the Teachers' Guide to the Preamble , which parses each of the phrases of the Preamble and contrasts them with the equivalent passages in the Articles and the Declaration. Exit Ticket: Have one or two students or groups of students summarize their conclusions concerning the critical differences between the Articles and the Preamble, citing the sources of these documents as referents.

Have students answer the following in a brief, well-constructed essay: Using the ideas and information presented in this lesson, explain how the wording and structure of the Preamble demonstrate that the Constitution is different from the Articles of Confederation. Students should ascertain what the Preamble meant to the movement and how it was used to make an appeal to the nation. The essay might address the question of how and why those such as Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony, who at their time were excluded from the full range of rights and liberties ensured by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, responded to the principles expressed in the Preamble.