Assignment

Choose one Amendment enacted AFTER the Civil War and research it. Provide a brief history of why the amendment was created. Then, give one example of how the amendment was used positively and one negatively in a US or State court. Each review should include a summary abstract of the case. A summary abstract is generally 120 to 250 words. While this is a graduate-level course, these are meant to be short reviews, so you only need to research three to five resources. Remember to use Turabian citation format.

Categorize your analysis into the following sections: Key Learnings, Applications, the Items or Ideas that need further investigation and/or research, and your opinion of why the cases' effects were positive and/or negative to the population of the US as a whole. See the example; there is little benefit not to follow its format.

Items under each category should be complete sentences, not simple phrases with a period at the end. See the example in the course folders for further guidance.

The review should be five to six pages double-spaced. Cover pages are not necessary since everything is loaded onto the web, but put your name and page number in the header of your paper. Make sure you check the spelling and grammar of your review before uploading it. If you cite specific definitions or sources, make sure you include the complete reference for the citation at the end. I will deduct points if assignments have misspelled words or incomplete or inaccurate reference citations!

Be careful if you choose to cover the Fourteenth Amendment; it is the most detailed and wide-ranging of the post-Civil War Amendments, and most students fail to cover all of its elements adequately within the parameters of the assignment.