MCAS Grade 8 Civics cheat sheet

Grade 8 Civics: Core Concepts and Skills

• The Declaration of Independence (1776) grounds natural rights in "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" and argues that government derives power from the consent of the governed.

• The Articles of Confederation created a weak central government: Congress could not tax or regulate interstate commerce, and there was no executive or national judiciary.

• The Constitution's Preamble lists six purposes, including forming a more perfect union, establishing justice, ensuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common defense, promoting the general welfare, and securing the blessings of liberty.

• Separation of powers divides authority among legislative (Article I), executive (Article II), and judicial (Article III) branches; checks and balances let each branch limit the others.

• Federalism divides power between national and state governments: delegated powers are national, reserved powers belong to states under the Tenth Amendment, and concurrent powers are shared.

• The Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments, ratified in 1791, protecting freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition, plus due process and fair-trial rights.

• The First Amendment protects speech and press but not unprotected categories such as incitement to imminent lawless action, true threats, obscenity, and defamation.

• Amendments require a two-thirds vote in each house of Congress and ratification by three-fourths of state legislatures, or by conventions in three-fourths of states.

• Supreme Court cases establish precedent: Marbury v. Madison (judicial review), McCulloch v. Maryland (implied powers, federal supremacy), and Tinker v. Des Moines (student symbolic speech).