Our Documents is home to one hundred milestone documents that influenced that course of American history and American democracy. Includes full-page scans of each document, transcriptions, background information on their significance, and...

Visit The National Archives & Records Administration's website on the Bill of Rights. The site gives some background information on the drafting of the Bill of Rights, lets you view the text to the document, lets you view an image of...

Commemorating Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday, this exhibition provides several documents and photographs remembering the President's life. Resources cover his political career, slavery, the civil war and his assassination.

An article on the historical aspects of the women's suffrage movement, with a feminist viewpoint.

Describes the elements of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment as it relates to the separation of church and state and freedom of religion. Speculates on the probable constitutional issues associated with the separation of church and...

This politically oriented site outlines the degeneration of American Democracy and the erosion of democratic principles as exemplified by unconstitutional actions on the part of the Federal and State governments, as in the examples of...

The New York Times presents an interactive, online crossword puzzle on women's suffrage. Upper elementary students can participate with some guidance.

This encyclopedia article from Wikipedia gives some background history to the creation of the Bill of Rights and contains a transcription of the first 10 amendments to the Constitution in their original form.

[Free Registration/Login Required] Excerpts from Article II of the United States Constitution explaining the role of President. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.

The preamble is the introduction to the Constitution. It outlines the general goals of the framers: to create a just government and to ensure peace, adequate national defense, and a healthy, free nation. With its first three words, "We...

The Bill of Rights was adopted to protect each United States citizen's rights. Learn about how the Bill of Rights was formed and the protections it guarantees to Americans.

Here you will find an abstract summary and the vote of each justice upon the Rochin v. California case.

This summary provides the background for Schenck v. United States, a World War I-era Supreme Court case involving free speech. Schenck is an example of what can happen to basic constitutional rights in time of war.

Antoinette Blackwell was the first American woman to be ordained as a minister. She was a champion of woman's rights and lived to vote at age 95 after the adoption of the 19th amendment into the U.S. Constitution.

The National Archives and Records Administration provides a lesson, with corresponding information and documents, relating to the role of the Electoral College in the election of the president and vice-president as specified in the U.S....

The object of this instructional activity is to take a look at the USA Patriot Act and the controversies around the Act. Does the Patriot Act defy our Civil Liberties? This instructional activity will explore that question and more.

This Landmark Supreme Court Cases and the Constitution eLesson focuses on a case involving expressive conduct, and what is for many a deeply cherished symbol of America, the U.S. flag. In a closely divided (5-4) ruling, the Supreme Court...

Facts and case summary for Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989). Flag burning constitutes symbolic speech that is protected by the First Amendment.

Native people won citizenship in 1924, but the struggle for voting rights stretched on much longer. Native Americans couldn't be U.S. citizens when the country ratified its Constitution in 1788, and wouldn't win the right to be for 136...

This page provides the background of the case and the Supreme Court's decision.

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Samuel Freeman Miller, an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1862-90), a leading opponent of efforts to use the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution to protect business...