Here are some possible topics for a 10- to 12-page narrative paper that analyzes an amendment, landmark Supreme Court case or major constitutional crisis between the period 1876 to 1976 that resulted in a practical change to the US Constitution:
Amendments
- Sixteenth (1913) –Federal income tax
- Seventeenth (1913) –Election of US senators
- Eighteenth (1918) –Prohibition
- Nineteenth (1920) –Women’s suffrage
- Twentieth (1933) –Lame duck period reduced
- Twenty-First (1933) –Repeal of Prohibition
- Twenty-Second (1951) –Two term limit
- Twenty-Third (1961) –DC electoral votes
- Twenty-Fourth (1964) –Federal poll tax
- Twenty-Fifth (1967) –presidential succession
- Twenty-Sixth (1971) –18-year-old voting
- Twenty-Seventh (1992) –Congressional pay raises
Landmark Cases
- US v. Cruikshank (1876)
- US v. Reese (1876)
- Civil Rights Cases (1883)
- Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
- US v. Wong Kim Ark (1898)
- Insular Cases (1901)
- Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock (1903)
- Giles v. Harris (1903)
- Lochner v. New York (1905)
- Muller v. Oregon (1908)
- Bailey v. Alabama (1908)
- Schenck v. US (1919)
- Debs v. US (1919)
- Abrams v. US (1919)
- US v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp (1936)
- NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp (1937)
- US v. Miller (1939)
- Sweatt v. Painter (1950)
- McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950)
- Dennis v. US (1951)
- Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952)
- Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
- Brown v. Board of Education II (1955)
- Gayle v. Browder (1956)
- Yates v. US (1957)
- Cooper v. Aaron (1958)
- Mapp v. Ohio (1961)
- Baker v. Carr (1962)
- Engel v. Vitale (1962)
- Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)
- Abington School District v. Schempp (1963)
- New York Times v. Sullivan (1964)
- Reynolds v. Sims (1964)
- Escobedo v. Illinois (1964)
- Miranda v. Arizona (1966)
- Loving v. Virginia (1967)
- Furman v. George (1972)
- Roe v. Wade (1973)
- San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (1973)
- Miller v. California (1973)
- US v. Nixon (1974)
- Buckley v. Valeo (1976)
Constitutional Crisis
- Espionage and Sedition Acts (1917-18)
- FDR Third Term (1940)
- Japanese internment (1942-45)
- NSC-68 (1950)
- War Powers Act (1973)
- Nixon impeachment (1974)