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Framework of Government: Exercise 5 - Changing the U.S. Constitution and interpreting its meaning
Instructions:
Read the passage and click on the correct answer. If wrong, try
again. Scroll down if you do not see the Answer box. Click
here to review the key terms for this exercise.
Let us examine an important change in American government through
judicial interpretation of the Constitution. An important clause in the Fourteenth Amendment
gives all persons "equal protection of the laws." The Supreme Court used this clause
of the Fourteenth Amendment to help decide a civil rights case in 1896 (Plessy v. Ferguson).
At that time, the judges determined that it was constitutional to have separate facilities
(such as schools and train cars) for Blacks and Whites if these facilities were of "equal"
quality. Their interpretation of "equal" had in fact legalized the segregation of
Blacks and Whites. It wasn't until 1954, fifty-eight years later, that the Supreme Court changed
that decision. In the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court judges
determined that separate facilities for Blacks and Whites could not be considered "equal,"
therefore segregation in public education was unconstitutional (illegal).
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Instructions:
Read the passage and click on the correct answer. If wrong, try
again. Scroll down if you do not see the Answer box. 
