Race and the United States Constitution

Race and the Constitution Student Handout

You will be assigned a partner from your class.

You and your partner will be assigned one of the following Supreme Court cases dealing with race:

• Korematsu v. United States (Japanese Internment)
• Rice v. Cayetano (Racially Segregated Voting)
• Plessy v. Ferguson (14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause)
• Saenz v. Roe (14th Amendment Right to Travel)
• Wesberry v. Sanders(14th Amendment Right to Vote)
• South Carolina v. Katzenbach (15th Amendment State Control of Voting Rights)
• Baker v. Carr (Legislative Reapportionment)
• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas (14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause)
• Terry v. Adams (Voting Rights)
• Dred Scott v. Sandford (Slavery/Citizenship)
• University of California Regents v. Bakke (Quotas)

You and your partner will complete the Case Investigation Form (CIF). (This form includes URLs that you can use to search for cases.) Be thorough while filling out the form. The more pertinent information you get, the easier it will be to complete your poster presentation.

Once you and your partner complete the Case Investigation Form, bring it to your teacher. Once your teacher lets you know that your CIF form is completed you may begin your poster for your Poster Presentation.

You and your partner should follow the Poster Presentation Directions when completing your assignment.

When preparing your poster, make certain you put effort and creativity into it. The entire process of this project will be graded using the Poster Project Rubric. You should keep a copy of it to help guide you as you work. Remember—effort and creativity are good things.

You will present your poster to the class in a three-to-five minute presentation.

After the completion of all students' poster presentations, each student will write a one-page reflection on the following:

The Preamble to the Constitution identifies ideas that the government stands for and states the purpose of the Constitution:

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

One of the goals in the Preamble is to “establish Justice.” First, define what “establish Justice” means to you. Then, after listening to everyone's presentations, explain if the United States has established justice over time. If it has, how? If not, why not?