Reflection

1. 1 thing I learned in this class is that civil liberties protect you from the government, and civil rights protect you from other people.
2. I thing I found surprising was that the state can give the electoral votes to a candidate who didn't win the majority of the population vote, even though this is very unlikely to happen.
3. I thing I disagree with is that the US used to restrict immigrants who came in based on their quality. They banned different races, poor people, etc, but I am glad we don't do this anymore.
4. Us government makes you a more rounded person because it informs you on issues that go on and how our government sorts me out. This is important to know when you vote.
5. I think it could be a better class by teaching more about what's going on today and how to vote. 

Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

Why We Fight: 
1. WWII changed America by making Americans into defenders of liberty worldwide. It also changed our ideas on liberty and government power.
2. Major tensions that occurred had to do with national security, national identity, free speech, and individual rights.
3. Biskupic meant that the 9 justices don't sort everything out in order after a war but they do get the job done.

Background Essay:
The essay discusses how Americans felt during and after WWII. During the war, many Americans felt like they were fighting for freedom. When some of the soldiers got back, they felt betrayed because of some restrictions on their freedoms, for examples, blacks were still not able to vote due to poll taxes and literacy tests.

Rights Are Relevant, Not Absolute:
This means that the rights we have are not guaranteed in all cases. For example, we have freedom of speech but I cannot yell "fire!" in a crowds place because it would start a riot. I also cannot speak of overthrowing the government because that would be seditious speech, and it is illegal.

3 Branches Review

Principal Lay

I think principal Lay should be allowed to have prayer in the school... Outside of school hours. If he wants to start a club for students and facility who want to participate in Christian activities, they should be allowed to do that and promote it like any other school club. They should not be allowed to have prayer, or any other religious activity, in public schools during school hours because some people are not Christian. They may be Muslim, Hindu, or even Atheist or Agnostic, and our first amendment protects their right to freedom of or from religion. 

The pros of teaching Christianity in schools are:

Christian students, parents, and faculty are happy

No one can say our country is failing because of the lack of god in schools

It brings people together (assuming they are all Christian)

The cons are:

Some students have a different religion or no religion at all

Separation of church and state / freedom of/from religion

Religion is a parents job, not the schools

Bill of Rights Scenarios

1. 4th amendment: no unreasonable searches or seizures
2. 1st: freedom to assemble
3. 5th: can't have property taken for you
4. No amendment was broken
5. 6th: right to a lawyer

Articles Failure

The videos is about why the articles of confederation, our first constitution, failed. Basically the states were too powerful and the federal government didn't have enough power.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bO7FQsCcbD8

Government Branches

This cartoon is saying that when problems occur in our government, the branches just blame each other instead of taking responsibility. I agree with the cartoon because it seems like when something goes wrong, all 3 branches turn to blame each other.