Are They Watching You? eLesson The Constitutional principle of due process, which holds that government must interact with citizens according to duly‑enacted laws, balances the rights of suspects with public safety. The Fourth Amendment was added to the Constitution to ensure we would be protected from unreasonable searches and seizures. But do all searches require Read more…

Brown v. Board of Education: Document C, Majority Opinion, Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Do you use document-based questions in your classroom? This fall the Bill of Rights Institute is blogging a document-based question on the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Each weekly post will feature an excerpted document related to the case, along Read more…

Bill of Rights in the News: Voters Make History with State Ballot Initiatives We’ll forgive you if you thought the recent election was only about the president. While the media focus was almost exclusively on the presidential race and national politics, there was a lot going on at the state level. These “laboratories of democracy” Read more…

Brown v. Board of Education: Document B, Section of the Fourteenth Amendment (1868) Do you use document-based questions in your classroom? This fall the Bill of Rights Institute is blogging a document-based question on the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Each weekly post will feature an excerpted document related to the case, along Read more…

Fire in a Crowded Theater – The Origins of a Limit on Free Speech In discussions of the First Amendment and the limits of free speech, it is common to hear references to Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’s famous quote from Schenck v. U.S. 1919 – “The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect Read more…

Election 2012: On Election Day, Should You Need ID? Voting is an important responsibility of American citizens, and one foundation of our democratic republic. But no electoral process can be perfect; flaws, such as fraud, can mar an election and damage the public’s confidence. The importance of ensuring the integrity of every vote cast is Read more…

Brown v. Board of Education: Document A, Virginia Criminal Code (1847) Do you use document-based questions in your classroom? This fall the Bill of Rights Institute is blogging a document-based question on the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Each weekly post will feature an excerpted document related to the case, along with some Read more…

Join us this Spring for a Constitutional Workshop We have posted details about our 8 spring constitutional workshops – stop by today and register for one of our limited spots in Miami, FL;  Memphis, TN; Atlanta, GA; Salt Lake City, UT; Mesa, AZ; Los Angeles, CA; Houston, TX; or Boston, MA. We hope you can Read more…