Civil Rights in the United States

Can a prosecutor appeal an "not guilty" verdict?  NOPE!


Civil War Amendments

Amendment XIII

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment XIV

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.
Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Amendment XV

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.


Woodrow Wilson's work in a pro-Klan movie:

Major Civil Rights Laws:

The Civil Rights Act (CRA) of 1964 

• Prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex.
• Prohibits discrimination in federally funded programs or activities on the basis of race, color, or national origin
• Prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin in public accommodations.

Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), enacted shortly after the CRA and which was designed to prevent the disenfranchisement of black voters in the South, prohibits voting practices that discriminate on the basis of race, color, or membership in a language minority group.



The Fair Housing Act (FHA), which was originally enacted in 1968, prohibits discrimination in the sale or rental of housing on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, or familial status.



The Equal Pay Act of 1963 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex with regard to the compensation paid to men and women for substantially equal work performed in the same establishment




Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Like Title VI of the CRA, Title IX’s prohibition on discrimination is tied to federal funding. Specifically, Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded education programs or activities.




The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in federally conducted and federally funded programs or activities, as well as in employment by the federal government and by federal contractors.



The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), which is the most recently enacted piece of major civil rights legislation in the nation, prohibits discrimination based on disability in employment, public services, public accommodations, transportation, and telecommunications.

Civil Liberties

• Why did the original Constitution not contain a bill of rights?  See Federalist #84
• Barron v. Baltimore held that the Bill of Rights did not apply to the states.
• Things changed with "selective incorporation."
• Definition of "strict scrutiny"

The Bill of Rights

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

• The First Amendment as an international outlier.
• The Lemon Test
• "Fighting Words"
• Prior restraint
• The Miller Test

Amendment II

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

• DC v. Heller
• McDonald v. Chicago

Amendment III

No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.






Amendment V

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment VI

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

Amendment VII
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Amendment VIII

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Writing Comments

• Visit The CMC Writing Center
• Introduction of quotations: Quotations should never suddenly appear out of nowhere. Name the author, and where appropriate, give his or her credentials.
• Superscripts and punctuation: Superscript footnote numbers follow punctuation. Use superscript Arabic numerals, not lower-case Romans.  Some idiot at Microsoft made the latter the default option, but it is easy to convert to proper format.
• Single and double quotation marks:  In American English, use single quotation marks (') only to set off quoted material (or a minor title) inside a quotation. "I think she said `I will try,' not `I won't try,'" explained Sandy.
• Author names in footnotes and endnotes:  In Turabian format, the author's first name goes first.
• Tense consistency: In summaries or narration, stick to a single tense unless you intend to indicate a change in time frame.
• Dangling modifiers: A dangling modifier is a word or phrase modifying a word that the sentence does not clearly lay out.

CMC's Admission Policies and the Supreme Court

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/22/us/justices-to-hear-case-on-affirmative-action-in-higher-education.html?scp=1&sq=supreme%20court%20race%20admissions&st=cse


In 2003 the Supreme Court ruled that it was okay for public universities to have race-conscious admission policies. They have just decided to hear another case in which a white student is suing the University of Texas to end this practice. This article explains that by merely agreeing to hear the case, the court signaled that it may be seeking to reverse the decision it made in 2003.

When the SAT scandal occurred there was a lot of discussion about CMC's admission policies. CMC has no explicitly stated goals for the racial demographics of an admitted class, however the admissions office has been trying to increase the population of international students in recent years. I'm not sure this ruling would have any effect on private colleges, but if it did, would it have an impact on CMC's admissions policy? I'm curious whether a policy to promote international diversity could be affected by an affirmative action case like this.

Liberties and Rights

As Chinese Vice President Xi concluded his visit to the U.S., the takeaways of the trip are still being debated. However, on Feb 20^th, the day of his return to China, the Chinese social network underwent shock as some Chinese ‘netizens’ gained access to Google+. Surprisingly, the first thing on their list was to “occupy” U.S. President Barack Obama’s Google+ page. ‘Netizens’ flocked to Obama’s page, posting hundreds of comments underneath each of his campaign updates. Due to the restriction on the number of comments, ‘netizens' even discussed the possibility of occupying Mitt Romney’s page. Although, a few ‘netizens’ have stressed on U.S. intervention of releasing Chinese civil rights activists under house arrest, most left trivial posts as evidence of their new gained privilege. For them, the significance of posting comments surpasses the context of these comments.

Freedom of speech in China is sometimes more of a privilege than a right, or a civil liberty as viewed in the United States. Some people forget they are entitled to speak freely, more importantly, their responsibility in speaking up against the wrongdoings of authorities and corporations. However, the entire population of the United States was not given the same civil liberties and rights since the founding of the country, as demonstrated through the inequalities of African-Americans, women and minorities in chapter seven. For African-Americans, why did Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. trigger civil rights movements a century after the Emancipation Proclamation? If decades of inequality and segregation lay the foundation for these movements, why was the outburst in the 1950s to 1960s? For a society without segregation or obvious inequality, what fosters the sense of civil liberties and rights leading to movements and possibly political change? 

Second Assignment

Below is your second assignment.   Each of you has a different Supreme Court case dealing with citizenship, civil liberties, civil rights, or voting rights.  In your essay, tell why the case was significant.  Specifically, answer these questions:

• What was the issue?
• What was the historical and legal context?
• What was the long-term legal and political impact of the case?

Before writing it, re-read Strunk and White. Also see my writing advice, which in turn contains links to model papers. 

1. Chris Albanese, North Haven Board of Education v. Bell
2. Ratik Asokan, Plyler v. Doe
3. Christian Ayala, Shaw v. Reno
4. Aja Brofferio, O'Connor v. Board of Education
5. Dan Campbell,  Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music
6. Danial Ceasar, Everson v. Board of Education
7. Karen Chen, Ex parte Milligan
8. Elizabeth Eggert, Victor v. Nebraska
9. Jack Flannery, Escobedo v. Illinois
10. Vikrant Jain, US v. Bhagat Singh Thind
11. Julia Keinan, Hirabayashi v. US
12. Jessica Laird, Gratz v. Bollinger
13. Willy Leach, Pierce v. Society of Sisters
14. Blake Li, Graham v. Richardson
15. Linda Lin, US v. Wong Kim Ark
16. Yi Luo, Hendrick Hudson District Board of Education v. Rowley
17. Margot Penn, NCAA v. Smith
18. Felipe Peterson,  Ozawa v. United States
19. Samuel Pitcavage, San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez
20. Sridhar Poddar, Afroyim v. Rusk
21. Elena Segarra, Ex parte Merryman
22. Ben Tillotson, Jacobson v. Massachusetts
23. Kyle Weiss, FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life
24. Danmai Xiang, Chae Chan Ping v. US
25. Nikki Yea, Texas v. Johnson

Do research to document your claims. Do not write from the top of your head. Your paper must cite at least three hardcopy or microform books or government publications. In other words, you must go to the library.

Your sources may include specialized references such as The Almanac of American Politics, but do not cite general-purpose encyclopedias such as Encyclopaedia Britannica and Encyclopedia Americana. And especially do not count on Wikipedia, which is sometimes unreliable. (You might be able to get leads from Wikipedia, but then go elsewhere for verification and citable sources.) In your answer, you should not merely identify persons or concepts. You should also explain the subject matter’s political significance.

You may find relevant links here.

• Essays should be typed (12-point), stapled, double-spaced, and no more than four pages long. I will not read past the fourth page.
• Put your name on a cover sheet that is blank on the reverse side. Do not identify yourself on the text pages.
• Cite your sources with endnotes, which should be in a standard style (e.g., Turabian or Chicago Manual of Style). Endnote pages do not count against the page limit.
• Watch your spelling, grammar, diction, and punctuation. Errors will count against you.
• Return essays by the start of class, Wednesday, March 7. Late essays will drop a gradepoint for one day's lateness, a letter grade after that.  I will grant no extensions except for illness or emergency.

What role do you think secularism can have in American politics?

After reading about the role of religion in American rhetoric and politics, and hearing that there is only one openly atheist member of congress at the moment, it got me thinking about the role of secular beliefs in American politics.

I did some research and found some statistics. Overall, about 16% of Americans say they are not affiliated with any religion. However, this non-religious minority can hardly be called politically relevant considering their representation in government. Mormons, who make up a mere 1.7% of the country, hold much more sway in congress with 11 representatives and 4 senators (did you know Harry Reid is Mormon?).

I guess it doesn’t really surprise me that many voters would not vote for an outspoken atheist, but what I do wonder is this: what is the future of the secular minority in American politics?

Although comprising only 16% of all voters, 25% of voters under the age of 29 identify as having no religion, showing that the demographic is changing. In fact, the non-religious population is the fastest growing among all beliefs. American voters seem to be in the habit of requiring their elected officials to have some kind of religion, but will that tradition remain forever if the demography keeps changing? I’d love to know the thoughts of the class.

Civic Culture in the United States

Tocqueville  wrote: "The religious atmosphere of the country was the first thing that struck me on arrival in the United States." (p. 295 of Lawrence-Mayer ed.) See here for relevant data.


In June 2006, Barack Obama gave an important speech on religion in politics, which the textbook quotes on page 140. See prepared text here.


The president's remarks at 2012  National Prayer Breakfast:






Individualism and Religion

• Distrust of government
• Regulation of business
• Health care
• Comparative data on individualism and religion

Evolution

• Comparative data on evolution.
• A closer look at US attitudes on evolution.

Patriotism

• Winthrop's "City on a Hill"
• The Great Seal of the United States
• The Liberty Bell
• The national motto, "In God We Trust"
• Pledge of Allegiance (... see old salute)
• Early Thanksgiving Proclamations

Charity and Service

• Giving statistics:

• Comparative data on giving
• Volunteering in the United States
• And note where Americans volunteer

Remarks at a Lunch in Honor of Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping

The link is the video of speeches by the U.S Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Hilary, and Chinese Vice President Xi on February 14, 2012.

China and the United States

The Hill reports on the ad we saw in class yesterday:

The actress featured in a Senate campaign ad for former Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) that prompted accusations of racism has apologized and asked her community for forgiveness.

"I am deeply sorry for any pain that the character I portrayed brought to my communities," Lisa Chan wrote Wednesday on her Facebook page. "I feel horrible about my participation and I am determined to resolve my actions."

Chan appeared in an ad Hoekstra used to attack Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), whom he hopes to unseat in November. The ad features Chan in what appears to be a rice paddy in accented, broken English attesting to how her economy is booming thanks to Stabenow's spending.

"Debbie spend so much American money, you borrow more and more from us," Chan says in the ad. "Your economy get very weak. Ours get very good. We take your jobs. Thank you, Debbie Spend-it-now."

Hoekstra pulled the ad and an associated website after Asian groups and Democrats accused him of promoting a racist portrayal of Asian Americans. The ad appeared to have backfired, as Stabenow expanded her lead over Hoekstra to fourteen points in a poll conducted after the ad was released. 

Tyler Olson, a member of the Iowa House of Representatives and CMC alumnus, writes in his online newsletter:

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping visited Iowa this week. I attended the formal welcome dinner Wednesday evening along with many other legislators, elected officials, members of the Chinese delegation and other leaders from across the state. Vice President Xi’s visit is a big opportunity for Iowa. China is a large trading partner with Iowa and the visit was a chance to deepen our economic ties to one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

Chinese agricultural leaders signed agreements to purchase 317 million bushels of soybeans worth $4.31 billion during their visit to Des Moines. Chinese officials also met with other business leaders and toured manufacturing facilities and a farm while in Iowa. Hopefully the relationships made and strengthened during the future Chinese leader’s visit will be a strong driver for economic growth.

Citizenship and Tocqueville

A banner at Ellis Island:

From the Pew Hispanic Center:

Nearly all Hispanic adults born in the United States of immigrant parents report they are fluent in English. By contrast, only a small minority of their parents describe themselves as skilled English speakers. This finding of a dramatic increase in English-language ability from one generation of Hispanics to the next emerges from a new analysis of six Pew Hispanic Center surveys conducted this decade among a total of more than 14,000 Latino adults.

From the Center for Immigration Studies:

Immigrants account for one in eight U.S. residents, the highest level in 80 years. In 1970 it was one in 21; in 1980 it was one in 16; and in 1990 it was one in 13. Overall, nearly one in three immigrants is an illegal alien. Half of Mexican and Central American immigrants and one-third of South American immigrants are illegal. Since 2000, 10.3 million immigrants have arrived — the highest seven-year period of immigration in U.S. history. More than half of post-2000 arrivals (5.6 million) are estimated to be illegal aliens.

More on Hispanic demographics

Who was Tocqueville?

• Short biography
• Reasons for coming to America
• Itinerary
• Map of his travels, along with journal entries
• The Tocqueville Fraud

From Tocqueville, p. 237:

The common man in the United States has understood the influence of the general prosperity on his own happiness, an idea so simple but nevertheless so little understood by the people. Moreover, he is accustomed to regard that prosperity as his own work. So he sees the public fortune as his own, and he works for the good of the state, not only from duty or from pride, but, I dare almost say, from greed.

There is no need to study the institutions or the history of the Americans to recognize the truth of what has just been said, for their mores are sufficient evidence of it. The American, taking part in everything that is done in his country, feels a duty to defend anything criticized there, for it is not only his country that is being attacked, but himself; hence one finds that his national pride has recourse to every artifice and descends to every childishness of personal vanity.

Nothing is more annoying in the ordinary intercourse of life than this irritable patriotism of the Americans. A foreigner will gladly agree to praise much in their country, but he would like to be allowed to criticize something, and that he is absolutely refused.

Page 244:

Democracy does nor provide a people with the most skilful of governments, but it does that which the most skilful government often cannot do ; it spreads throughout the body social a restless activity, superabundant force, and energy never found elsewhere, which, however little favoured by circumstance, can do wonders. Those are its true advantages.

Tocqueville wrote: "The religious atmosphere of the country was the first thing that struck me on arrival in the United States." (p. 295 of Lawrence-Mayer ed.) See here for relevant data.

Federalism and Marijuana

In the Bessette/Pitney blog, there is an article about the Justice Department's decision not to prosecute marijuana growers and suppliers that comply with their states' laws. In it, Kleiman states that "the regulation of medical practice is a state and not a federal responsibility." On what does he base that assertion?

This is a Test

This is text.  But what if you want to link or embed?

United States Citizenship

Ways of becoming a citizen

Fourteenth Amendment


The Oath of Allegiance

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen;  that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against allenemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law;  that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.

• Note requirements for naturalization.
• New citizenship test.

The complex status of Native Americans and further background

Click here to see a graph showing the foreign-born population of the US 1850-2000.

Data on foreign-born population 

Immigration in much in the news.

The duties of citizenship

Federalism, continued

Federalist 5: multiple nations?
Federalist 6:  commercial republics
Federalist 7: sources of interstate disputes
Federalist 8: fear of standing armies
Federalist 39: party federal, partly national
Federalist 45: "few and defined" national powers
Federalist 46:  attachments will be to the states


Perceived Advantages of Federalism:


Attitudes toward government waste

Perceived Problems of Federalism:

• Federalism and alcohol
• Federalism and the Station Fire:
• The first includes home video of the fire;
• The second involves an investigation of alleged federal incompetence;
• The third describes the resulting mudslides and a mayor's demand that "thefederal government must take responsibility for their mud that is coming out of their hills."

Federalism I

Systems Of Government Powerpoint (Unitary, Confederation, Federal)

View more PowerPoint from North Gwinnett Middle School

Number of governments

Federalist 51 on "double security"


Constitutional provisions

• Article IV
• Article VI
• Tenth Amendment
• Fourteenth Amendment
• Sixteenth Amendment
• Seventeenth Amendment
• Eighteenth and Twenty-First Amendments

more regarding constitution

As sort of a follow up to my last post on the constitution, while the framers intentionally left loose-ends to ensure the flexibility and, more pertinent to the point of this post, the longevity of the constitution, this article suggests that at least the text of constitution is rapidly growing outdated given the ever-increasing rate of exchange of (in this case, democratic) ideas around the world. However, as the article also argues, the democratic ethos that many consider a defining point of America could not have become  what it is today without the rock-solid foundation that is the Constitution. The most powerful part of the Constitution may be the spirit in which it was written and that it represents, not necessarily its utility today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/us/we-the-people-loses-appeal-with-people-around-the-world.html?_r=1&hp

James Madison Meets Darth Sidious

[A] dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the forbidden appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government. History will teach us that the former has been found a much more certain road to the introduction of despotism than the latter, and that of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants.

 

The Federalist Papers

Ron Chernow's biography undercuts the notion that Alexander Hamilton was a well-born defender of privilege. Here is a passage summing up what the born-out-of-wedlock Hamilton and his brother faced in their youth:

Let us pause briefly to tally the grim catalog of disasters that had befallen these two boys between 1765 and 1769: their father had vanished, their mother had died, their cousin and supposed protector had committed bloody suicide, and their aunt, uncle, and grandmother had all died. James, 16, and Alexander, 14, were now left alone, largely friendless and penniless. At every step in their rootless, topsy-turvy existence, they had been surrounded by failed, broken, embittered people. Their short lives had been shadowed by a stupefying sequence of bankruptcies, marital separations, deaths, scandals, and disinheritance. Such repeated shocks must have stripped Alexander Hamilton of any sense that life was fair, that he existed in a benign universe, or that he could ever count on help from anyone. That this abominable childhood produced such a strong, productive, self-reliant human being -- that this fatherless adolescent could have ended up a founding father of a country he had not yet even seen -- seems little short of miraculous.

Here is the hip-hop version (no kidding):








Concerns for deliberative democracy:

• Federalist 1: "[O]f those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants."

The Need to Suppress Insurrection:

• Federalist 9

Controlling power

• Federalist 10
• Federalist 51
• Federalist 47
• Federalist 48

Madison anticipated modern social psychology.


Federalism

• Federalist 9: The proposed Constitution, so far from implying an abolition of the State governments, makes them constituent parts of the national sovereignty, by allowing them a direct representation in the Senate, and leaves in their possession certain exclusive and very important portions of sovereign power. This fully corresponds, in every rational import of the terms, with the idea of a federal government.

First Essay Assignment

Below is your first assignment. Before writing it, make sure that you read Strunk and White. Also see my writing advice at http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/pages/faculty/JPitney/writing.htm, which in turn contains links to model papers.


Pick one of the following:

• Find a recent (since October 2011) article pointing to a problem that Publius anticipated. (You may search newspapers at news.google.com.  Explain how The Federalist sheds light on the story. In this instance, is the political system working as the Founders hoped?
• Pick a crime issue (e.g. drug possession). Explain how federalism either fosters or hinders progress on this issue.  That is, how does the division of power between the states and federal government create or solve problems (or both)?
• See the box on p. 64 of the textbook. Would you favor or oppose a new constitutional convention? Explain.
• See the box on pp. 94-95 of the textbook. Pick one state government (information here) and explain what major action it has recently taken on illegal immigration.  What should it do?
• See the box on pp. 128-129 of the textbook. Do you believe that the government should encourage or discourage dual citizenship? Explain.

Whichever essay you choose, do research to document your claims. Do not write from the top of your head.

You may find links to many relevant stories at  www.bessettepitney.net)

Essays should be typed, stapled, double-spaced, and no more than four pages long. I will not read past the fourth page.

Put your name on a cover sheet. Do not identify yourself on the text pages.

Cite your sources with endnotes, which should be in a standard style (e.g., Turabian or Chicago Manual of Style). Endnote pages do not count against the page limit.

Watch your spelling, grammar, diction, and punctuation. Errors will count against you.

Return essays by the start of class, Wednesday, February 15. Late essays will drop a gradepoint for one day's lateness, a letter grade after that.  I will grant no extensions except for illness or emergency.