1.1 The Fight for Students’ Rights

Bridget Mergens was denied opening a Christian Advocacy group at her high school
- With the help of the conservative National Legal Foundation she brought the issue up to supreme court
- The claim was based off the Equal Access Act of 1984
- The EAA stated that it shall be unlawful for any public secondary school to deny access/fair opportunity, or discriminate against, any students who wish to conduct a meeting on the basis of the contents of the meeting.
A similar thing happened with Boyd County Students trying to open a GSA club
- They took the help of liberal American Civil Liberties Union
Any individual can use the power of the American Judicial System to get their goals by using tactics effectively

1.2 American Political Culture

Thomas Jefferson used ideas about liberty and government that were well known in Britain and the Colonies
The idea of democracy in which power is held by the people
Ideas were also borrowed from the enlightenment thinker John Locke
- He argued that everyone was born with natural rights, nobody can take away
- These rights include life, liberty, and property
- According to him, a government is based on a social contract in which people give their governments the ability to rule over them to keep a functioning society and if a government violates that, the people have the right to replace them
Jefferson took an idea from Baron de Montesquieu
- The idea that power in government should be divided in different branches so no one branch becomes too powerful
Jefferson relied on enlightenment thinkers such as David Hume too
- Hume believed that government should be designed to keep the greedy from abusing the power
These ideas created shared beliefs called American political culture
There are multiple and often contradictory political traditions
The Declaration of Independence has 5 parts and in one he said citizens’ rights are life, liberty, and happiness
The 5 parts are the Preamble, the State of Human Rights, Charges against Human Rights, Charges against the King and the Parliament, and the Statement of Seperation
The Declaration is a statement of politcal philosophy and not a governing document
On July 4, 1776, the Declaration was approved