Life Without the Bill of Rights

Students will create storyboards that imagine the loss of the Bill of Rights in society. This is a creative activity for students that will allow them to see the harsh reality of life without freedoms. Students should choose any three freedoms from the Bill of Rights and represent how different their society would be without them. For each representation, students will write a description of their scenario in the space below each image.

What if there were no Bill of Rights?

Life without the 1st Amendment
In this scenario, the police are arresting the priest for practicing his religion. Under the 1st Amendment in the Bill of Rights, each citizen has the right to practice any religion they desire.

Life without the 3rd Amendment
By the 3rd Amendment, the government cannot quarter, or house, soldiers in the private homes of citizens, without permission. In this scenario, a man is coming home to a house full of soldiers.

Life without the 8th Amendment
In this scenario, a man is found guilty of petty theft and is being punished by eating his weight in candy or being executed. In the 8th amendment, the courts cannot enforce "cruel or unusual punishment" on a guilty party.

Extended Activity

To extend this activity, students can take the activity above to a more personal level. Students can create a storyboard that represents how their lives would be different without the Bill of Rights. Students should use examples of their day-to-day life and show what they would no longer be able to do or how their lives would be changed after the loss of the freedoms in the Bill of Rights.

Student Instructions

Create examples of what life might be like without 3 of the amendments in The Bill of Rights.

1. Click "Start Assignment".
2. In the heading, write the amendment.
3. In the descriptions, write what might happen without that amendment in place.
4. Illustrate your descriptions using appropriate scenes, characters, items, and dialogue.
5. Save and Exit