Did You Get All That? Double-Check Your BoR Notes...

Hi everyone,
Having finished our review of the first 10 amendments to the Constitution (the Bill of Rights), I'm going to go over some of the details I gave you that you may or may not have noted down.  Double-check your notes to see what you missed!

Why the Bill of Rights exists - I went over this at the very beginning of the lecture, and noticed a lot of you did not take any notes on it.  The BoR (Bill of Rights) was created to reassure people who were concerned that the switch from a confederation to a federation would create a government that was big enough and powerful enough to take away the individual rights they had fought so hard to have.  As the states argued over ratifying (agreeing to) the Constitution, the BoR was written so that people who were on the fence about the new central government would feel reassured that their liberties and privileges as citizens would not be overlooked by their government.

Limited versus absolute rights:  All of the rights given to us and to the states in the Constitution are limited, meaning they have boundaries. Absolute rights mean that there are no boundaries.  For example, if we had an absolute right to free speech, anything we said - no matter how mean, damaging, or untrue - would be considered legally protected as free speech.  Instead, we have laws against saying things that endanger or damage others just for the sake of harming them (laws against hate crimes and anti-bullying laws).

The rights of minors - People under the age of 18 do not have all the privileges OR burdens of full citizenship.  In public schools, for example, your locker is technically the property of the school, and school personnel can search it at any time.  Your parents have the right to go through your room, your cell phone, and your possessions because they are legally responsible for you.  Some of you may remember the term I used, "implied consent" - when you bring your belongings into school and put them in your locker, you have given the administration "implied" (unstated) consent to look through those things if they feel they need to do so for the greater wellbeing of the school population.

Distributive powers - This is the fancy name for the 10th Amendment (also called "distribution of powers") - basically, it means that any issues NOT covered in the Constitution should be handled by the states or the people.  This is why neighboring states can have different laws about car seats, for example.  As I mentioned in class, this is where a lot of the social issues that people feel strongly about - abortion, school choice, legalization of certain drugs, etc. - fall under the umbrella of distribution of powers.

So there they are - hope this helps!