Worksheet
From Seventeen to Ten: The Bill of Rights and the Court
Grade 8 civics: a graph of amendments from 1789 to 1791 and a table of landmark cases show how the Bill of Rights was made and how judicial review shapes it.
Grade 8Social StudiesInteractive · Printable
Aligned toCIV.8.2
What’s included
- Single worksheet
- Auto-graded online
- 1 C3 Framework standard
- Printable answer key
- 9 questions
- Classroom-ready
Details
- Format
- Interactive · Printable
- Grade
- Grade 8
- Subject
- Social Studies
- Question types
- Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Matching, Circle the answer, Short answer
About this worksheet
What students practice
- Students explain which rights the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments protect.
- Students explain judicial review and how landmark cases changed whom the Bill of Rights limits.
How to use
Read the passage together and study the graph and table, then let students answer on their own; discuss the final claim as a class.
Curriculum
C3 Framework standard covered
Explain the rights in the Bill of Rights and how the Supreme Court interprets them through judicial review and landmark cases.
Preview
OwlSheets.com
From Seventeen to Ten: The Bill of Rights and the Court
Use a graph and a table of cases to see how rights are written down and interpreted.
Writing the rights down
Read the passage and study the graph. Then answer the questions.
Ten Amendments and the Court That Reads Them
1When the Constitution went to the states in 1787, many Antifederalists objected that it had no bill of rights. Several states ratified it while asking for amendments to protect individual rights. In June 1789, James Madison, a member of the new House of Representatives from Virginia, proposed a list of amendments.
2Congress narrowed the list. In August 1789 the House approved 17 amendments. The Senate combined and cut some of them, and in September Congress sent 12 to the states. An amendment becomes part of the Constitution when three-fourths of the states ratify it. By December 15, 1791, ten had been ratified; they are known as the Bill of Rights. One of the two left behind, about pay for members of Congress, was finally ratified in 1992 as the Twenty-seventh Amendment.
3The First Amendment protects freedom of religion, speech, the press, assembly and petition. The Fourth bans unreasonable searches and seizures and requires warrants based on probable cause. The Fifth says no person may be forced to be a witness against himself or lose life, liberty or property without due process of law. The Sixth promises a speedy, public trial by jury and the help of a lawyer. The Eighth bans excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishments.
4Words on paper still have to be interpreted. In Marbury v. Madison (1803), Chief Justice John Marshall wrote, "It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is." The Court struck down part of a law passed by Congress because it conflicted with the Constitution. The courts' power to decide whether a law or government action follows the Constitution is called judicial review.
5At first, the Court read the Bill of Rights narrowly. In Barron v. Baltimore (1833), a wharf owner said city work had ruined his wharf, and he asked to be paid under the Fifth Amendment. The Court ruled that the Bill of Rights limited the national government, not the states or their cities.
6That changed after the Civil War. The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, says no state may "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." In the 1900s, the Court used these words to apply most of the Bill of Rights to the states, one case at a time.
Of the amendments the House approved, did not reach the states.
- A. Each step needed wider agreement, so some ideas were cut.
- B. Madison took back amendments after the states ratified them.
- C. The Senate voted against having a bill of rights.
- D. The states added rights that the House had left out.
- Officers search a home with no warrant and no good reason.
- A town shuts down a newspaper for criticizing its leaders.
- A man accused of robbery cannot afford a lawyer.
- A defendant is pressured to testify against himself.
- A person receives a cruel, unusual punishment for a small crime.
- A. Sixth Amendment
- B. Fifth Amendment
- C. First Amendment
- D. Eighth Amendment
- E. Fourth Amendment
- A. Three-fourths of the states ratify a new amendment.
- B. The President vetoes a bill he thinks breaks the Constitution.
- C. The Senate rejects a judge the President has chosen.
- D. The Supreme Court voids a law of Congress that limits free speech.
Landmark cases
Use the table and paragraphs 4–6.
| Case | Year | Part involved | What the Court ruled |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marbury v. Madison | 1803 | Article III | Court may void an unconstitutional law |
| Barron v. Baltimore | 1833 | Fifth Amendment | Rights limit the nation, not states |
| Mapp v. Ohio | 1961 | Fourth Amendment | State courts bar illegal-search evidence |
| Gideon v. Wainwright | 1963 | Sixth Amendment | States must provide lawyers to the poor |
| Miranda v. Arizona | 1966 | Fifth Amendment | Police in all states must warn suspects |
Marbury v. MadisonBarron v. BaltimoreMapp v. OhioGideon v. WainwrightMiranda v. Arizona
- A. The law breaks the Fourteenth Amendment, so it is void.
- B. Newspapers in the 1840s had no right to print news.
- C. The First Amendment limits Congress, not this state's law.
- D. The case belongs to Congress, so the Court will not hear it.
- A. The Court had stopped using judicial review after Barron.
- B. The Fourteenth Amendment had since limited what states may do.
- C. The Sixth Amendment was first added to the Constitution in 1963.
- D. Gideon's case was about the national government, not a state.
The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified years after the Bill of Rights.
