To test your knowledge and appreciation of the Bill of Rights, here are 10 questions devised after consulta
tion with a panel of constitutional experts headed by Professor Alexander Brooks of the Rutgers University
Law School and Professor Thomas I. Emerson of the Yale University Law School.
To answer the questions, check either "Yes" or "No."
1. In California, a teacher at a junior college was fired
for "unprofessional conduct" because he wrote a letter to
a local newspaper criticizing the county public-school system.
Did the college have the right to discharge him? (Yes) (No)
2. An American tourist returned from Europe with a
copy of a book by Samuel Becket. The Customs Bureau,
which considered the book "pornography," confiscated it,
although no court had yet judged it "obscene." Was the
Customs Bureau justified in its action? (Yes) (No)
3. In Ohio, a police detective received an anonymous
phone call indicating that a Mr. and Mrs. Smith were dope
addicts. On the strength of the tip, the detective went to
the Smith apartment. When Mrs. Smith refused to admit
him, the detective broke down the door and found narcotics
in a bureau drawer. Did he violate any of Mrs. Smith's
freedoms? (Yes) (No)
4. Mrs. Jane Brown was arrested on a charge of passing
valuable information to the Communists. She was permitted
to consult her lawyer in a visitors' room at the jail. The
room was "bugged" wired with a listening device so that
Federal agents could overhear the conversation. Were any
of her rights infringed? (Yes) (No)
5. During the 1960 Presidential campaign, a young man
handed out leaflets urging citizens to vote for neither
candidate. A local law stated that a permit was necessary
before handbills could be distributed, to avoid littering the
streets. Was the young man within his rights, despite the
ordinance? (Yes) (No)
6. George Lincoln Rockwell, the leader of the American
Nazi Party, was denied permission to hold a rally in a New
York park on the ground that the meeting would be "an
invitation to riot .and disorder." Despite the possibility of
disturbance, should he have had the right to hold his public
meeting? (Yes) (No) i
7. Planning to travel in Europe, Mr. X applied to the
State Department for his passport. His request was denied
on the grounds that "confidential information" indicated he
was a Communist sympathizer. The State Department re
fused to reveal its evidence or the source. Under the Bill
of Rights, was the State Department correct in denying
the passport? (Yes) (No)
8. From several clues gathered by police, it seemed fairly
clear that 19-year-old Joe Doe had committed a murder.
For five days, the police grilled Joe, kept him on little food
and water, and wakened him in the middle of the night for
further questioning. Finally, Joe confessed involuntarily,
and later evidence proved him guilty. Had he been cut off
from an inalienable right? (Yes) (No)
9. In Maryland, a notary public was denied a commission
because he refused to swear that he believed in God. Do
you think the action against him was warranted ? (Yes) (No)
10. To obtain evidence against suspected gamblers, police
in Washington, D.C., attached earphones to a foot-long,
pencil-thin metal spike driven through the wall of the build
ing where the gamblers met. Did the police have the right
to use such methods to fight crime? (Yes) (No)
ow compare your reactions with the answers on page 14. If you hit at least seven correct an
swers, you have a reasonable understanding of the Bill of Rights.
"Whatever your score," comments Professor Emerson, "to answer these questions intelligently
requires some appreciation of why our forefathers insisted on putting the Bill of Rights into the
Constitution. On first thought, many of us look only for immediate results and don't realize the
dangers of overriding individual or minority rights. It takes a mature and civilized people to make a democratic
system work."
Still remaining is the problem of how the Bill of Rights concepts can be conveyed to upcoming generations.
For concrete action, a recent workshop of social-studies teachers urged these remedies:
To provide basic groundwork, two courses with the thread of liberty as the dominant theme should be re
quired of all students in junior high schools.
Throughout the school years, a positive presentation of the heritage, theory, and practice of American rights
should be strengthened.
Watching the fireworks on the Fourth of July, let's not forget what we're celebrating. Our forefathers be
lieved their rights were worth shedding blood for. As Justice Douglas has pointed out, in recent years we seem
to have lost some of our appreciation for the importance of those rights.
"The American people," he says, "should be re-educated on their great inheritance." (Continued on page u)
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