National Constitution Center
Explore Rights Around the World
How has the American Bill of Rights influenced the rest of the world? An interactive web activity helps individuals see the similarities between countries' bills of rights. A text-to-text tool compares the American Bill of Rights to...
Heritage Foundation
Procedural Rights: Amendments VI, VII, and VIII
Even in court, your class members have procedural rights provided by the amendments. Teach high schoolers this important lesson by using the 18th installment of a 20-part unit exploring the US Constitution. The resource provides several...
Curated OER
The Juvenile Death Penalty
Sensitive material is discussed in this instructional activity. Please review to ensure that the content is suitable for your class. The topic is the Eighth Amendment and how the U.S. Supreme Court makes determinations about what...
Curated OER
Bill of Rights and Lawmaking
Ninth graders consider how the Bill of Rights impacts the lawmaking process in the United States. In this Bill of Rights lesson, 9th graders discuss the amendments and their limitations. Students research the role of the Legislative...
Curated OER
Cartoons for the Classroom: Bill of Rights Day
For this current events worksheet, students analyze a political cartoon about the Bill of Rights and respond to 3 talking point questions.
Curated OER
Primary Sources by and about Mexicans and Californios
Students access many pages of unique and interesting people of Mexican/Californios decent/heritage. After reading an insert on one, they can future research that person on the Internet. Students share their findings on a power point...
Thomson Reuters
Find Law: Annotation 3: Eighth Amendment
This particular page of annotations on the Eighth Amendment discusses the background and intended meaning of the phrase "cruel and unsual punishment".
Thomson Reuters
Find Law: u.s. Constitution: Eighth Amendment
This resource contains the text of the Eighth Amendment and legal annotations.
University of California
Back on the Chain Gang
This is a very short article but is an argument against the chain gang as a method of punishment, an idea that is regaining popularity.