Bill of Rights Project

1. Bill of Rights Project By: Zach Bonzelaar & Cameron Agema

2. 1st Amendment • Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances • In other words it means that government can’t pass a law that goes against our religion and beliefs. • Historical cases: Tinker v. Des Moines. In this case it says that people have the right to assembly and petition anything that they want to and that they believe in. • Current Events: COLUMBIA, S.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal over a South Carolina program that allows high school students to earn elective credit toward graduation through off-campus religious courses.

3. 2nd Amendment • A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. • This states that people have the right to own guns and that the government can’t take that right away. • Historical cases: United states v. Miller. It was about a guy who had a gun but it wasn’t registered with the government. • Current news: In January 2011, a gunman in Tucson, Ariz., armed with a Glock semiautomatic, shot and killed six people and wounded 14 others.

4. 3rd Amendment • No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. • This means that no one is required to keep a solider in their house in time of war. • There is no historic case for this amendment. • Current news: there is not any because we don’t have to worry about it because our soldiers are in other countries.

5. 4th Amendment • The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. • This amendment protects all of our rights as humans and the government can’t take them away. • Historic case: Suspicious that Dollree Mapp might be hiding a person suspected in a bombing, the police went to her home in Cleveland, Ohio. They knocked on her door and demanded entrance, but Mapp refused to let them in because they did not have a warrant. • Current news: Kite viewed a text message on the phone, which was owned by Trisha Oliver, reading "Wat if I got 2 take him 2 da hospital wat do I say and dos marks on his neck omg." This is illegal because Kite didn’t have a warrant to check the phone in the first place.

6. 5th Amendment • No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. • This amendment explains that no one should be subject to the same case twice and there is a time limit they just can’t sit in jail and wait their whole life. • Historical case: In this case a man (Miranda) was arrested and then his house was searched without a warrant. This went against the 5th amendment because his rights were not said to him. Which now has come out to be the Miranda rights. • Current events: Morris Plains man, who faces a civil lawsuit in the alleged shooting death of his girlfriend, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during pretrial questioning, according to court records.

7. 6th Amendment • In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense. • In simple terms this means that criminals have a right to a public trial, a jury, and be held where the crime was committed. • Historical Case: In Gideon vs. Wainwright, Gideon was forced to act as his own counsel and conduct a defense of himself in court, emphasizing his innocence in the case. Nevertheless, the jury returned a guilty verdict, sentencing him to serve five years in the state prison. • Current Case: Giles v. California to test the outer limits to the so-called confrontation right in the Sixth Amendment: right to fair and speedy public trial by an impartial jury.

8. 7th Amendment • In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. • In other words if value someone is suing someone else for is more than 20 dollars then they get right of trial by jury, and nothing can be re-examined. • No historical cases • A jury found that Westview's product had infringed Markman's patent. However, the District Court directed a verdict for Westview on the ground that its device is unable to track "inventory" as that term is used in the claim. In affirming, the Court of Appeals held that the interpretation of claim terms is the exclusive province of the court and that the Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial is consistent with that conclusion.

9. 8th Amendment • Protection from Cruel and Unusual Punishment & Excessive Bail • Protection from odd punishment and high bail amounts. • That overturned the death penalty for the mentally retarded, Simmons filed a new petition for state post conviction relief, and the Supreme Court of Missouri concluded that "a national consensus has developed against the execution of the mentally retarded" and held that such punishment now violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. Thus, they sentenced Simmons to life imprisonment without parole. • Graham v. Florida was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States, in 2010, in which it was held that juvenile offenders cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for non-homicide offenses.

10. 9th Amendment • The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. • In more simple terms, the Ninth Amendment essentially says you have rights other than those specifically listed in the Constitution, and the fact that they're not listed doesn't mean you've given them up.  • No historical cases • United Public Workers v. Mitchell - A significantly divided Supreme Court upheld the doctrine of privilege and the Hatch Act. Associate Justice Stanley Forman Reed wrote the decision for the majority. Justice Reed initially dealt with an issue which arose due to the untimely filing of the appeal, and concluded the Court could hear the case. The constitutionality of the Hatch Act was upheld, and the judgment of the district court affirmed. Justice Felix Frankfurter concluded that the Supreme Court should not have accepted the case, as the appeal had been untimely filed. Compelled to accept jurisdiction, however, by the majority, he concurred with the majority's reasoning on the substantive issues.

11. 10th Amendment • The Tenth Amendment states the Constitution's principle of federalism by providing that powers not granted to the federal government by the Constitution, nor prohibited to the States, are reserved to the States or the people. • Powers not granted to Federal Government by the Constitution nor denied to the States are ‘set-aside’ for States and to people • No historical cases • Bond v. United States (2011) - Bond was indicted for stealing mail and for violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993. Her appeal argued that applying the chemical weapons treaty to her violated the Tenth Amendment.[1] The Court of Appeals found Bond lacked standing to make a Tenth Amendment claim. And so the Court expressed no view on the merits of Bond's challenge to the federal statute and remanded the case to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

12. Citations • http://www.oyez.org/cases/1990-1999/1995/1995_95_26/ • http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendments.html • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roper_v._Simmons • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Public_Workers_v._Mitchell • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_v._United_States_(2011) • http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_9th_Amendment_in_simple_terms • http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment09/ • http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/high-court-wont-consider-challenge-to-s-c-religious-classes • http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/g/gun_control/index.html • http://www.streetlaw.org/en/landmark/cases/mapp_v_ohio • http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/09/police-seizure-of-text-messages-violated-4th-amendment-judge-rules/ • http://www.nj.com/morris/index.ssf/2012/08/morris_plains_man_invokes_5th.html