2. CONSTITUTIONAL
FLEXIBIITY
“The real test of any constitution is the way it serves its own
people. As historical conditions change, so do the needs of a nation.
A workable constitution must be able to adjust to these changing
needs as they arise, to renew itself without violence and upheaval.”
3. W H AT W O U L D T H E S I G N E R S O F T H E
CONSTITUTION THINK ABOUT HOW IT HAS
PERFORMED?
4. THE CIVIL WAR
The Civil War was a long, violent argument over how to resolve the
slavery issue, and how the Constitution should be interpreted or
changed.
17. LIVING CONSTITUTION
“The real test of any constitution is the way it serves
its own people. As historical conditions change, so
do the needs of a nation. A workable constitution
must be able to adjust to these changing needs as
they arise…”
18. THINK ABOUT IT…
If the Constitution couldn’t change, would it still be the
great basis for governing society?
Editor's Notes
Discuss: Resolving the slavery issue: States rights vs. Federal Rights, abolition of slavery, rights for freed slaves as citizens
What would these slaves have thought of the Constitution in 1860? Today?
19th Amendment was approved by Pres. Wilson a few years later.
WWII Post-Pearl Harbor
Korematzu v. U.S.: Supreme Court upheld the right of the government to intern peoples of a certain ethnicity during a time of war. In 2011, Dept. of Justice stated the decision was an error, and cannot be used as a precedent for later cases. Think about 9/11….
Amendment Process, Supreme Court Rulings (Interpretation), Congress passes laws (establishes courts, works within its rights), Presidential Executive Powers (treaties, executive orders…)Have students go to book and look at pgs.56, 36, 30, 24, 10…find changes.
Create the plays: Pass laws within their power: Supreme Court decides if they are constitutional (if there is a question)…Affordable Care Act/ObamacarePresident: Executive Order: Abolished slavery within the southern states by using his Constitutional Role of Commander-in-Chief. Not in the Constitution yet!
Decide Constitutionality: Health Care Bill
Sometimes, they change their minds years later.
In 1890, the state of Louisiana passed a law requiring that blacks and whites sit in separate cars on trains (this is before cars are common) A New Orleans streetcar company didn’t want to have to buy extra railway cars and wanted to challenge the law (as did many citizens—Louisiana and New Orleans had a history of racial tolerance compared to most Southern states) They found Homer Plessy—who was only one-eighth black, but considered fully ‘colored’ under the law—to challenge the law. He boarded a “whites-only” railway car and was arrested by a detective hired by the railway company. Plessy’s lawyers argued that the law violated his rights under the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court of the US disagreed, writing that a policy of “separate but equal” was Constitutional. This legal notion lasted until the 1950s and 1960s.
Declared State laws establishing separate public schools for blacks and whites as unconstitutional. Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson regarding schools, and forced integration. “ Inherently unequal “Eisenhower had to send in the National Guard to protect the students in Arkansas even after the Supreme Court decision.
