Lesson Plan

Lesson Preview | Objectives

Lesson Preview

Since the Constitution was ratified in the late 1700s, new challenges have arisen as America has faced growth and changes. These challenges have caused Congress to act to meet changing conditions. The Constitution included provisions to give Congress the power to review how laws are interpreted.
 
In this lesson we will review some landmark interpretations of the Constitution and its amendments.
 

Objectives
 
When you have completed this lesson, you will be able to

• understand the changing interpretations of the Bill of Rights over time, including interpretations of the basic freedoms articulated in the First Amendment and the due process and equal-protection-of-the-law clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.

• analyze judicial activism and judicial restraint and the effects of each policy over the decades,

• evaluate the effects of the Court's interpretations of the Constitution in Marbury v. Madison, McCulloch v. Maryland, and United States v. Nixon, with emphasis on the arguments espoused by each side in these cases, and

• explain the controversies that have resulted over changing interpretations of civil rights, including those in Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, Miranda v. Arizona, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena, and United States v. Virginia.

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B. J. Subbiondo © 2004