In the landmark case Reynolds vs. Sims, the Supreme Court declared: "Especially since the right to exercise the franchise in a free and unimpaired manner is preservative of the other basic civil and political rights, any alleged infringement of the right of citizens to vote must be carefully and meticulously scrutinized."

How would you distinguish between civil and political rights? Why are both types of rights important in a democracy?

In general civil and political rights are set apart but they work together to protect our rights. Civil rights are the rights of citizens that is not based on race, age, status etc... Some of these rights are the rights to free speech and press, religious freedom, right to travel, and the right to equal social and economic opportunity. The political rights are the rights of the people to influence the government and what bearing they may have on the government. (CivicEd.Org) These rights include the right to vote and the right to run for office; this right is given to every qualified citizen. Because our nation is based on the representative form of democracy, the right to vote is very important. If we di

What were the major arguments made by the North and the South about the proper relationship between nation and state?

The Fourteenth Amendment says that no state shall "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection under the law." How did this phrase of the Fourteenth Amendment change the relationship between federal and state power?

Resident aliens deserve the basic rights that citizens of this country receive. I believe this because at one time all of our families were resident aliens to this country. However, I believe that privileges such as voting and other political rights should be limited to citizens that have established themselves in the country. I do feel that illegal aliens should be granted no rights except for a fair trial because they have not legally claimed to be or want to be a part of our country. Resident aliens should be granted the basic rights of humans, no more, no less, until they become a full-fledged citizen.

During the time from 1789-1861 twenty-one new states were formed. This created an issue over balance of power between the North and the South. The South felt that the North had a greater amount of power. Also the South was upset because they had to pay taxes that only benefited the North. When the new states joined the Union the larger states were free and the smaller states were slave states, which also made the south mad. In the Declaration of Independence it states that "whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government as to them shall most likely to affect their safety and happiness." This is saying that when the government becomes destructive in doing their job, then we have the right to abolish it for the common good. The south used this as their argument for succeeding saying that they were protecting their basic rights (www.kusd.edu).

d not have the right to vote then we would not be able to make decisions in our government because we could not elect anyone that would represent our ideas, becaus

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1408
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)