Discuss the different ways the Constitution has changed over the years. How difficult is it to amend the Constitution? Explain why it should or should not be easier to amend the Constitution.
What will be an ideal response?
Students should concentrate particularly on the Supreme Court’s role in interpreting what is or is not constitutional. In particular, with the Fourteenth Amendment, the court extended Bill of Rights protections to state citizens. Thus, interpretation by the court has altered the Constitution and what is considered constitutional over time. However, the most direct way to change the Constitution would be by amendment. This is not easy; only twenty-seven amendments have been accepted in our nation’s history. Further, the first ten of those were amendments ratified with the Constitution, plus one amendment canceled out another one. (The Twenty-First Amendment undid the Eighteenth Amendment.) These numbers show that amending the Constitution is a particularly difficult process. Some observers suggest that the process should be made simpler, as many states provide for amendments to their state constitutions through initiatives and referenda.
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Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits:
A. African Americans from voting in Democratic primary elections. B. employers from paying unequal pay for substantially equal work to male and female employees. C. interference with anyone's right to vote in any election. D. discrimination in housing. E. employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, and religion.
President Reagan's attempt to downsize the federal bureaucracy was thwarted by
a. strong public support of the bureaucracy. b. the independent nature of bureaucratic organizations. c. Republicans in Congress. d. the Progressives. e. Democrats in Congress
When property requirements were used to determine who could vote, __________
a. no women could vote because they could not own property b. women property owners could vote in some places c. only homeowners could vote in state or local elections d. there appeared to be less fraud at the polls
Today many scientists rely on a hybrid approach to hypothesis testing that includes both _______ and _______
a. naturalism: rationalism b. intuition: empiricism c. logical positivism: falsification d. induction: deduction