Unit 3

Topics

• 3.1 - The Bill of Rights

• 3.2 - First Amendment: Freedom of Religion

• 3.3 - First Amendment: Freedom of Speech

• 3.4 - First Amendment: Freedom of the Press

• 3.5 - Second Amendment: Right to Bear Arms

• 3.6 - Amendments: Balancing Individual Freedom with Public Order and Safety

• 3.7 - Selective Incorporation

• 3.8 - Amendments: Due Process and the Rights of the Accused

• 3.9 - Amendments: Due Process and the Right to Privacy

• 3.10 - Social Movements and Equal Protection

• 3.11 - Government Responses to Social Movements

• 3.12 - Balancing Minority and Majority Rights

• 3.13 - Affirmative Action

Developing Understanding

Students will connect the founding principles of our government to the debates over the appropriate balance of liberty and order, noting how citizens and other groups have pursued policy solutions to protect the civil liberties and civil rights of all Americans, laying the foundation for later discussions about other ways citizens can participate in the government.

The U.S. Constitution, primarily through the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment, protects the civil liberties and civil rights of citizens, though the extent of those protections and the need to protect the safety and general welfare of individuals has long been debated. Through social movements, legal challenges, and acts of Congress, citizens have attempted to restrict the government from unduly infringing on individual rights and from denying equal protection under the law.