By analyzing various primary and secondary sources, students will determine how citizen activism among the disabled community led to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. After reviewing ADA provisions that improved access to public facilities and the workplace, students will identify continued areas of need for people with disabilities and develop public service announcements that promote personal responsibility for maintaining accessibility

The papers of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), lawyer, representative from Illinois, and sixteenth president of the United States, contain approximately 40,550 documents dating from 1774 to 1948, although most of the collection spans from the 1850s through Lincoln’s presidency (1861-1865). Roughly half of the collection, more than 20,000 documents, comprising 62,000 images, as well as transcriptions of approximately 10,000 documents, is online. Included on this website in their entirety are Series 1-3 of the Lincoln Papers and the original materials in Series 4. Excluded from this online presentation is a sizeable portion of Series 4, which consists of printed material and reproductions of government and military documents made from originals in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration.

Treasures in the collection include Lincoln’s first and second inaugural addresses, his preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, the two earliest known copies of the Gettysburg Address (the Nicolay and Hay copies), his August 23, 1864, memorandum expressing his expectation of being defeated for re-election in the upcoming presidential contest, and a condolence letter written to Mary Todd Lincoln by Queen Victoria following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. The Lincoln Papers are characterized by a large number of correspondents, including friends and associates from Lincoln’s Springfield days, well-known political figures and reformers, and local people and organizations writing to their president.

The Andrew Jackson Papers collection documents Jackson's life in its several phases, including Jackson's military career in the War of 1812, the Creek War, and Florida; his transactions as a land-holder and Tennessee businessman; his personal and family life, including correspondence with his wife, Rachel Jackson, and other family members and wards associated with the Hermitage; and his controversies with associates and strangers, which sometimes came to confrontation. Prominent is documentation related to his complex two-term presidency, during which the nation debated issues of nullification, tariff rates, banking procedures, Indian policy, public improvements, and the relative power and sovereignty of the individual states in the Union in relation to the federal government. The collection also contains information on military orders and court martial proceedings, diplomatic and Indian treaty negotiations, and the experiences and/or opinions of those Jackson led in battle, collaborated with or opposed in politics, or trusted as cabinet members, allies and friends.

Responding to questions from Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson discusses the 4th Amendment's provisions for privacy and for unreasonable searches and seizures during her confirmation hearing to be a Supreme Court justice.

This is a featured conversation from Future Hindsight, a podcast with a simple premise: civic participation is essential to a functioning democracy. So how do we do it? In this episode, host Mila Atmos speaks with Sung Yeon Choimorrow, the executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, about Asian American stereotypes, changing the narrative about who Asian-Americans are, and activating Asian communities to take civic action.

Genocide is one of the tragic repeating features of history. It elicits feelings of horror and revulsion throughout the world. Yet both the international community and the United States have struggled to respond to this recurring problem. Confronting Genocide: Never Again? allows students to wrestle with the reasons why local actors, the international community, and the United States responded as they have to various cases of genocide over the past century. The unit is divided into two parts. Each part includes:

Student readings
Accompanying study guides, graphic organizers, and key terms
Lessons aligned with the readings that develop analytical skills and can be completed in one or more periods
Videos that feature leading experts

This unit also includes an Options Role Play as the key lesson and additional synthesis lessons that allow students to synthesize new knowledge for assessment. You do not need to use the entire unit; feel free to select what suits your classroom needs.

Constitution 101 is a 15 unit curriculum that provides students with a basic understanding of the Constitution’s text, history, structure, and caselaw. Using multiple primary source documents students will study the historical and philosophical foundations of America’s founding principles from a range of diverse voices The curriculum guides students to think like constitutional lawyers—cultivating the skills necessary to analyze all sides of constitutional questions. Each unit contains detailed materials for classroom teachers, as well as opportunities for guided discovery and practice and tools to check for understanding.

iCivics offers a variety of different ways to engage in the celebration of Constitution Day. They offer a simple one-day lesson, but also expand to more in-depth WebQuests, DBQs, and online games related to the Constitution and its effect on our government and our way of life. To gain full access, educators must establish a free account.

This website offers a wide variety of ready-to-use lessons related to the Constitution for students K-12. Developed by the Center for Civic Education, the lessons include: matching with the US Constitution (K); the Constitution Rap (1-3); Basic Ideas in the Preamble (3-6); 9/11 & Civil Liberties (3-5, 9-12); Citizenship & the Constitution (9-12); and so many more topics that lend themselves to celebrating Constitution Day or for a more in-depth study of our government & the founding documents.

The National Park Service has created a K-12 curriculum that focuses on scaffolded lessons that focus on Martin Luther King’s advocacy, the March on Washington and other leaders of the Civil Rights movement.

What is defamation? Libel? Pre-trial discovery? Actual malice? Today we go into everything tied to the recently settled Dominion Voting Systems vs Fox News Network defamation lawsuit; including slander, libel, discovery, settlement, and the "whackadoodle email."

Our guide through the world of defamation legalities is Jane Kirtley, Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. We talk about why these lies were presented to the public, and the possible reasons why Dominion chose to settle instead of continue with the trial.

Democracy in America is a unique 15-part course for high school teachers to provide a deeper understanding of the principles and workings of American democracy. By combining compelling video stories of individuals interacting with American government, theoretical discussions of the meaning of democracy, and problem-solving, hands-on exercises, the course gives life to the workings of American democracy.

In preparation for the upcoming midterms, we talk about lies. This is the true story of the fake world created in disinformation campaigns. The voting populace spreads it like there's no tomorrow, without ever knowing what's real. We tell you what it is and how to avoid it. Our guests today are Samantha Lai of the Brookings Institute and Peter Adams of the News Literacy Project.

Website Description:
Take a close look at the structure of Athenian democracy and how it influenced the U.S. government. In this lesson, students explore the democratic ideals and practices of the ancient Greeks and search for evidence of them in the U.S. Constitution.

Student Learning Objectives:
* Identify political institutions and principles in ancient Athenian democracy
* Explain the organization of Athenian democracy and the importance of citizenship
* Analyze the purpose, strengths, and shortcomings in the rules and structure of Athenian democracy
* Discover aspects of Athenian democracy found in the U.S. Constitution

Support your students to embrace the larger questions featured in American Creed that ask:

What ideals unite us as a nation?
Where does a nation’s identity come from?
These lesson plans bring together teaching strategies, videos, and activities that will help you explore themes such as common ideals and national identity.

Voting for the right person to represent us in government to make policies we feel are the right ones is an important decision! In this lesson, students will consider important qualities when choosing a representative. Using a variety of sources, students will evaluate strengths of supporting evidence to answer the question, "What qualities are important in an elected representative?"

Be it suspicion of voter fraud, fear of hackers or the general belief that something is amiss, legislators across the country have passed election laws designed to make our elections more secure. Those very same laws are widely criticized for making voting less accessible, especially to certain voting groups. So how insecure are our elections? What do election security laws really do? What is the best way to feel better about the state of elections in this country?

Our guests are Jessica Huseman, Editorial Director of Votebeat and Justin Levitt, constitutional law professor and newly appointed White House Senior Policy Advisor for Democracy and Voting Rights.

In this activity, students will analyze documents pertaining to the woman suffrage movement as it intensified following passage of the 15th Amendment that guaranteed the right to vote for African American males. Documents were chosen to call attention to the struggle’s length, the movement’s techniques, and the variety of arguments for and against giving women the vote.

In 1968, a raucous Democratic nominating convention was overshadowed only by the shouts outside to end the war. This is the story of how eight different protestors from very different walks of life ended up before an increasingly indignant judge and walked away scot-free -- but not before putting on a good show.

The Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission is commonly known by its acronym, GLIFWC. Formed in 1984, GLIFWC represents eleven Ojibwe tribes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan who reserved hunting, fishing and gathering rights in the 1836, 1837, 1842, and 1854 Treaties with the United States government.GLIFWC provides natural resource management expertise, conservation enforcement, legal and policy analysis, and public information services in support of the exercise of treaty rights during well-regulated, off-reservation seasons throughout the treaty ceded territories.