Blog Post 8 Due April 7. The Birth of a Nation

Congratulations on drafting a great constitution! As a result, Today you begin your life as a nation. Your group has been given a small Carribean island on which to live. There is a native population of about 50,000 (they are not fans of yours) and you and your fellow settlers of about 75,000. There's enough room for both groups to exist either together or in separate states. The abundant natural resources (Palm plantations, oil fields and beautiful beaches) are fairly equally distributed around the island.

You must find a way to organize yourselves and decide who gets citizenship. For your first ten years, your defense is being provided by the United States. In their Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), they have put no precondition that you abide by the precepts of the US Constitution.

First, you will write a constitutional amendment that determines who has citizenship in your country.

Second, you will name your nation. Third, you will come up with its motto. These should be consistent with your constitution and group values.

You will finish this by April 7. Your blog leader must see that it gets posted on your blog by Friday at noon. Your blogging assignments will remain the same, except that one of the blog entries can be this assignment. Each member can be responsible for posting a portion of this assignment. You will also be responsible for posting on each others' blogs.

Blog Assignment 6 -- Your Midterm on March 31 -- On Life, Love and Death

For your midterm assignment, your blog group will make a twenty-minute presentation on your blog to the rest of the class. Each member of the blog must present in order to receive credit. The work you have done so far on your blog creating your constitution will give you the basis of the presentation, but I would like you to answer the following:

1. Knowing what we do about the relationship between marriage, happiness and poverty, does your group want to encourage or discourage long-term, stable marriages? What kinds of laws and policies (at least three) would you enact to realize your goal? Address who can get married and who can't.

2. Having learned more about assisted suicide, what does your group think about it? What kind of laws or policies would you develop under your constitution to encourage or discourage such practice? Are these public policies or private ones?

3. On the issue of life, what does your group think of abortion? This is where you get to play judge. Listen to the US Supreme Court oral argument in Whole Women's Health v. Hellerstadt .  It's an hour long.  Assuming United States law, how would you decide the case? Each member of your group must vote, and you must present your decision to the class.  Would the result be different under your own constitution?

To give you time to complete your group work, I will give you the entire class period next week, March 17. We will not meet as a class and you can choose to meet together on campus or elsewhere, or by skype or FaceTime, etc.

Note: obviously, for this assignment, you should have your blog posts prepared in time for class on the 31st, but they will still not be counted until midnight that night

Blog Assignment 4

There will not be a blog assignment due this week,.  Blog entry 4 will be due Midnight, Thursday, March 10th. The group members will not have to post an image or url link for this week. But they must comment on another blog, and the extra credit is still available to the group with the most comments from other groups.

You will post your own constitution.

• The constitution MUST state what form of government they are establishing, and the limitations imposed on the government's powers (if any)/ The constitution must explain who is responsible for maintaining public order and who protects boundaries.  It must explain how laws are passed, officials elected, how courts are run, and how taxes are levied.

• A bill of rights
• The primary values of the nation/ coat of arms
• The team may then elect officials from within their ranks, and make note of what positions the groups have (president, treasurer, official dragonslayer, ect.)
• 
  

Please note that this will be done collectively by the group, each member posting a portion.