The importance of the Bill of Rights in twentieth-century United States law and politics has led some historians to search for the "original meaning" of its most controversial clauses. This approach. known as "originalism." presumes that each right codified in the Bill of Rights had au independent history that can be studied in isolation from the histories of other rights, and its proponents ask how formulations of the Bill of Rights in 1791 reflected developments in specific areas of legal thinking at that time. Legal and constitutional historians, for example, have found originalism especially useful in the study of provisions of the Bill of Rights that were innovative by eighteenth-century standards, such as the Fourth Amendment's broadly termed protection against "unreasonable searches and seizures." Recent calls in the legal and political arena for a return to a "jurisprudence of original intention." however, have made it a matter of much more than purely scholarly interest when originalists insist that a clause's true meaning was fixed at the moment of its adoption, or maintain that only those rights explicitly mentioned in the United States Constitution deserve constitutional recognition and protection. These two claims seemingly lend support to the notion that an interpreter must apply fixed definitions of a fixed number of rights to contemporary issues, for the claims imply that the central problem of rights in the Revolutionary era was to precisely identity, enumerate, and define those rights that Americans felt were crucial to protecting their liberty.
Both claims, however, are questionable from the perspective of a strictly historical inquiry, however sensible they may seem from the vantage point of contemporary jurisprudence. Even though originalists are correct in claiming that the search for original meaning is inherently historical, historians would not normally seek.
The passage suggests that a historian conducting a strictly historical inquiry would make which of the following assumptions when studying the Bill of Rights?
The following appeared in a memo from the president of Bower Builders, a company that constructs new homes.
"A nationwide survey reveals that the two most-desired home features are a large family room and a large, well-appointed kitchen. A number of homes in our area built by our competitor Domus Construction have such features and have sold much faster and at significantly higher prices than the national average. To boost sales and profits, we should increase the size of the family rooms and kitchens in all the homes we build and should make state-of-the-art kitchens a standard feature. Moreover, our larger family rooms and kitchens can come at the expense of the dining room, since many of our recent buyers say they do not need a separate dining room for family meals."
Write a response in which you examine the stated and or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
The highly dispersed nature of Panzaleo pottery throughout present-day Ecuador has led archaeologists to speculate about the pottery's origins and significance. Jijon y Caamano attributed the pottery's distribution to trade, and based on the large quantities of pottery recovered in the Ambato-Latacunga region of the central Ecuadorian highlands, he proposed that region as the probable locus of production. However. Porras suggests that inhabitants of the subtropical eastern Andean slopes, or montafta, were the original producers of Panzaleo. Porras: theory involves the forced migration of the montaria population from their homeland in the Quijos River valley into the Ecuadorian highlands. The gradual exodus and ensuing dispersal of the makers of this ware could account for the diffuse distribution of the materials.
The passage cites evidence supporting which of the following hypotheses?
Many shipwrecks dating from the period between A.D. 300 and 600 have been discovered in the Remain Sea. Well over half of those ships were carrying cargo stored in large ceramic jars, many of which were preserved largely intact on the ocean floor. During that period, such jars carried only liquid. Therefore, liquid cargo was probably carried by a majority of the cargo ships that navigated the Ramian Sea during that period.
The force of the evidence cited in the passage is most seriously weakened if which of the following is true?
Suburbanization arguably ushered in numerous changes in (he way many people in the United States lived: the suburbs_________a society based on unprecedented consumption and intense privacy.
The following appeared as a letter to the editor from the owner of a skate shop in Central Plaza.
"Two years ago the city council voted to prohibit skateboarding in Central Plaza. They claimed that skateboard users were responsible for litter and vandalism that were keeping other visitors from coming to the plaza. In the past two years, however, there has been only a small increase in the number of visitors to Central Plaza. and litter and vandalism are still problematic. Skateboarding is permitted in Monroe Park, however, and there is no problem with litter or vandalism there. In order to restore Central Plaza to its former glory, then, we recommend that the city lift its prohibition on skateboarding in the plaza."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
No act is done purely for the benefit of
Claim: others
All actions—even those that seem to be done
for other people—are based on self-interest.
Reason-
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim and the reason on which that claim is based.
Researchers concluded thai although the success of pearl millet crops in the region varied with seasonal
climatic conditions, cultivation remains_________because of pearl millet's predisposition to perform under
stressful growing conditions, including drought.
Claim: Governments must ensure that their major cities receive the financial support they need in order to thrive.
Reason: It is primarily in cities that a nation's cultural traditions are preserved and generated.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim and the reason on which that claim is based.
Since it was committed to the idea of science as an international, politically neutral enterprise, the Royal Society of London refused to_________members from enemy nations during the world wars of the twentieth century.
TESTED 31 Jan 2025
