Teachable Moment: G20 in Pittsburgh

This weekend's G20 summit in Pittsburgh is an excellent opportunity to engage students in current events and the Constitution. The summit will receive plenty of news coverage in local, national and international news outlets. It will also certainly be featured on the Center's Constitution Newswire, where our Education team features news stories that relate to the U.S. Constitution.

So how exactly does the G20 summit relate to the Constitution?
President Obama will act as the nations representative at the conference, a responsibility that is articulated in Article II, Section 3, where it states that the president is the nation's top diplomat.

There will be plenty of protests voicing their opinions of the summit and those attending. This is an excellent opportunity to have your students dig into the First Amendment. Students can deliberate what forms of protest are permitted under the Constitution, what, if any, steps the government should take to balance security and the protesters right to free speech, assembly and to petition their government.