According to the book, “the U.S. Constitution was a controversial document, praised as a
solution to the nation’s woes and condemned as a perversion of its republican principles.”1 In
1791, Congress approved 10 Amendments to the U.S. Constitution in order to secure the rights
of individual citizens. These first 10 Amendments, also known as the “Bill of Rights,”
continues to shape our nation’s society. After the Civil War, Congress passed three more
amendments, which are referred to as the Reconstruction amendments.
To facilitate this assignment, choose one particular amendment from the first 15 amendments of
our Constitution and answer the following questions in order to explain the implications of
that particular amendment on American history.
Questions: What issue(s) did the amendment address at the time of its ratification (signing)?
How did the amendment affect politics and/or society after its ratification? (Give two
examples) What challenges does the amendment pose in our contemporary society?