San Diego Student Speech case La Jolla High Senior Benches Q. Do you think students have the right to paint a political message on a school bench? Q. Do you think administrators have the right or responsibility to protect students from negative or controversial subjects?

Stratford High School Goose Creek, SC

Case of Savana Redding

Redding v. Safford Unified School District Do you think school administrators were right to search Savana, even including searching inside her underwear? Do you think there was enough proof that Savana might be carrying contraband? What would you do if you found yourself in Savanas situation?

A punishment that is by its severity degrading to human dignity ( torture ) Obviously inflicted in a wholly arbitrary fashion Clearly and totally rejected throughout society Patently unnecessary

Photo of Protestors Simulating Water-Boarding

In 1958, it was a crime in Virginia and 15 other states for a white person to marry a black person. Richard and Mildred Loving married in Washington, D.C. and tried to return to their home state of Virginia. They were arrested and sentenced to 1 year in jail for getting married if they stayed in Virginia. The ACLU took their case. In 1967, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled the law was unconstitutional.

Windsor v. United States (2013) Edie Windsor was forced to pay almost $400,000 in federal estate taxes when her beloved spouse, Thea Spyer, died in Theyd been together for 44 years, and were legally married. If Thea had been Theo, Edie would not have had to pay any estate taxes. Edie challenged the Defense of Marriage Act that caused this disparity. Passed by Congress in 1996, DOMA treated the marriages of straight people one way and the marriages of gay people another way. Edie thought this was discrimination that the U.S. government couldnt justify. In a historic civil rights ruling this June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that DOMA was unconstitutional, and that the federal government cannot discriinate against married lesbian and gay couples in determining federal benefits and protections. Compare Loving v. Virginia with Windsor v. United States.

All 27 amendments, including the Bill of Rights have been added through the first method of Congress proposing amendments. The Constitution has never been amended using the second process of the states proposing amendments. While over 10,000 have been proposed, only 17 amendments to the Constitution have been adopted since final ratification of the Bill of Rights.

Why is it so difficult to add an amendment? Should it be easier? What amendment would you add? What do you think?