Updates from the Bill of Rights Institute

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Liberty and equality ([link removed]) are two of the philosophical principles which provide the focus for the governing structure of the United States. They are also the themes we have chosen for our Constitution Day Live program this year ([link removed]) . Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan stood up for the principle of equality in his lone dissent in the notorious Plessy v. Ferguson case ([link removed]) . What are your favorite examples from history of people standing up for equality? How does standing up for equality also protect liberty? Sign up for Constitution Day Live to learn more. ([link removed])
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The Bill of Rights Institute is here to help you and your students make sense of current events with insights and relevant lessons. One of the ways we do this is with Rachel's weekly "This Week in Civics ([link removed]) " video broadcast every Monday morning at 9 a.m. ET live on YouTube and Facebook. This week, in light of the refugee situation created by the U.S. and allied withdrawal from Afghanistan, Rachel takes a look at lessons related to refugees, immigration, and what creates the "Unum" in our national motto of "e Pluribus Unum." If you miss the live broadcast, you can always catch the recording later on our YouTube channel ([link removed]) !
As a thank you, we will enter you into our raffle. This year we're giving away ten $50 Amazon gift cards and one $500 Amazon gift card. Profile updates must be made before August 31st to be eligible for the raffle.
Update Your Profile Today! ([link removed])
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Mask mandates in public settings have been a hotly debated issue for the last year, and now the dispute has shifted to schools. This week's Think the Vote debate prompt invites students to share their thoughts on the question: Should schools require students to wear masks? ([link removed]) As we do each week, we will reward two students on each side of the question and their referring teachers with gift cards and swag. Winning students also have a chance to win a $1000 grand prize scholarship at the end of the school year.

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Did the framers of the Constitution, as abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas, and some contemporary historians claim, create a proslavery document, or did they, as Douglas’s contemporary Abraham Lincoln and other historians claim, create a document that put slavery on the path to ultimate extinction? This point-counterpoint lesson ([link removed]) from Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness ([link removed]) , our free U.S. history resource tackles this historical debate head-on. Sign up for a free account here ([link removed]) .

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How does the structure of our federal government promote the common good? Join Kirk Higgins in ** Part 2 of analyzing James Madison’s Federalist 10 ([link removed])
. How can the government balance the competing interests of the public good and rights of individual citizens? What constitutes a republican form of government? What makes a republican government work?
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Educator Spotlight

Meet Kimberly Hammers!
A Bill of Rights Institute Teacher Council member from Chesapeake, Virginia, Kimberly Hammers has been teaching AP U.S. Government and Politics for fifteen years. In a fun nod to her Masters in Political Science, while teaching at Grassfield High School, Kimberly set a Guinness World Record for the "Largest In-Person Politics Lesson."** ...Read More. ([link removed])

BoE: Bottom of Email

Dear John,

234 years ago, on September 17, 1787, the Founders affixed their signatures to a blueprint for governing the nation they had "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" (in the words of Lincoln) eleven years before when they declared independence from Great Britain. We know that many of them worried whether that nation and its government would stand the test of time.

At the end of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin, noticing the sun painted on the back of George Washington's chair, is said to have remarked:

** "I have...often and often, in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the President, without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting; but now at length, I have the happiness to know, that is a rising, and not a setting sun." ([link removed])

And that sun has somehow continued to rise. Through wars abroad, economic hardships, civil war, and civil unrest, successive generations have taken on the task of building the "more perfect union" described in the Preamble. Whether it continues to rise will depend entirely on our own commitment to the principles the Constitution was designed to protect, including the ones we have chosen to focus on this year: liberty and equality.

Look for the first in the series of videos and viewing guides on these themes starting tomorrow on our YouTube channel, and be sure to ** sign up ([link removed])
so you don't miss any of the new resources.

Here are a few of the speakers you will hear from this year:
* ** Jeremy Ray, Manager of History Interpretation at George Washington's Mount Vernon ([link removed])
* ** Anastasia Boden, Senior Attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation ([link removed])
* ** Carol Berkin, Ph.D., Presidential Professor of History, Emerita | Baruch College & The Graduate Center, City University of New York ([link removed])
* ** Nick Capodice, Host, Education Outreach Producer for Civics 101 ([link removed])

Finally, we hope you and your students can join us for all or part of the live broadcast from 10:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET on Friday, September 17. Those that ** sign-up ([link removed])
in advance will be invited to submit questions to our live show.

Warmly,

Laura Vlk
Director, Educator Engagement
Bill of Rights Institute
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