The Judicial Article (Treason)

1) Select ONE section from ONE article of the U.S. Constitution
2) You are asked to define it (its meaning, what it does, etc…)
3) Explain what that section has to do with the general body of the Constitution and to the citizens of the United States
4) Explain your thoughts on the section. How (or if) the section affects your life or the lives of those around you. Is the section relative today or does the section need to be changed or removed?
Note: The assignment is not over an Amendment to the Constitution!!! You are to ONLY look at the U.S. Constitution directly and speak to what you see in it.
The handout ?Grading rubric for written assignments? will provide what I will be looking for in your writing assignment.

Article3. The Judicial Article
Section 3. Treason
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
The congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of blood, or Forfeiture except during the life of the Person attainted.

Treason is the only crime defined in the U.S. Constitution. Congress established the penalty of death for treason convictions. Note that two witnesses are required to convict anyone of treason. Even in cases of treasonable conduct, seizure of estates is prohibited.

Grading Rubric for written assignments
-The paper is 5(full) to 7 pages in length, double spaced and does more than simply answer the question. Critical thinking is demonstrated by linking ideas to real-world examples and relating them to the key ideas of the course.

Each section of content/critical thinking and grammar, punctuation and spelling will be graded independently. Grade will be determined from the grades for each section and that will be your total grade for the writing assignment.
Paper request:
Papers must be 5 (full) pages to 7 pages in length.
Must be double spaced, using Times New Roman, 12 font.
Margin is to be 1? top and bottom margin and .75? margin left & right. (This is moderate margin setting in Microsoft Word 2010 and 2007. Earlier Word programs and other writing programs will have to be manually set.)
If you quote a book or article for reference, you MUST use parenthetical citations (example below)
Many scholars feel that ? by 1850 American expansion was viewed in the United States less as a victory for the principles of free democratic republicanism than as evidence of the innate superiority of the American Anglo-Saxon branch of the Caucasian race? (Reginald Horsman, Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism, Harvard University Press, 1981, pg 110)
It has been noted that with the flap over the President?s desire to give a speech before Congress and the House republicans pushing to have the date of the speech changed shows that ?the sheer lack of coordination between the parties and branches of government was a salient argument in the decision by the S&P rating agency to downgrade U.S. creditworthiness.? (Ron Elving, Washington Partisans Pick Up Right Where They Left Off, www.npr.org. Aug. 31, 2011)
Remember: this is a college class and college level work is required.

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