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Constitution of the United States: Difference between revisions

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== 26th Amendment (18-year-olds vote)==
== 26th Amendment (18-year-olds vote)==
The 26th Amendment giving the right to vote to 18-year-old people was proposed and ratified within 3 months in 1971 during the Presidency of Richard Nixon.
The 26th Amendment giving the right to vote to 18-year-old people was proposed and ratified within 3 months in 1971 during the Presidency of Richard Nixon.
== 27th Amendment (Congress salary) ==
The 27th Amendment was proposed in 1789 as part of the Bill of Rights and ratified in 1992—202 years afterwards.


==See also==
==See also==

Revision as of 18:46, June 12, 2022

The Constitution of the United States was written in 1787 and ratified the following year. It is the second fundamental law of the United States of America, having replaced the Articles of Confederation.

Preamble

The Preamble to the US Constitution contains popular sovereignty. In the past, it was common for power to rest in the hands of many gods such as the Greek gods or one god through a king (divine right of kings).

The Preamble originally read," We the People of the States of . . .”, followed by a listing of the 13 states."[1] Jeffrey Rosen of the Constitution Center has argued that the final draft of the Preamble took away power from State Governments and gave it to the People.[2]

Article 1 (Legislature): 10 sections

Article I is the longest of the 7 Articles of the US Constitution. It has 10 Sections.

The legislative branch is called the Congress; it is made up of the (1) Senate and (2) House of Representatives.

Article 2 (Executive): 4 sections

Article II creates the executive branch of the US government.


Article 3 (Courts): 3 sections

Article III tasks Congress with establishing courts inferior to the federal Supreme Court.


Article 4 (States): 4 sections

Section 1 of Article IV of the US Constitution is known as the Full Faith and Credit Clause.[3] This means that, for example, a court judgment in state will be recognized (given credit) in another state.

Section 2

Section 2 of Article IV of the US Constitution is known as the Privileges and Immunities Clause. During the 1930s Depression, there were efforts in some states to limit travel of poor migrants. This privileges and immunities clause includes the right to travel and right to settle in another state.

Saenz v. Roe (1999) is a Supreme Court case dealing with the Section 2 Privileges and Immunities Clause because of an issue dealing with the right to travel. A person wanted to move to California to receive generous welfare benefits in the 1990s.

Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3, is the Servitude Clause or the Fugitive Slave Clause.[4][5][6][7] This means that, before the US Civil War in 1860, a slave who fled from Alabama to Vermont couldn't--in theory--claim to be free in Vermont.

Section 3

Section 3 of Article IV of the US Constitution is known as the Admissions Clause. The Congress has to approve admission to the United States union.

Section 4

Section 4 of Article IV of the US Constitution is known as the Guarantee Clause. This means that every state in the Union is guaranteed a Republican form of government as opposed to other forms such as military committee (junta), monarchy, theocracy, or direct democracy. This prevented the Theodemocracy in the Utah Territory in the 1850s from joining the Union until the Mormon theocratic government laws were disbanded.

In addition, even if all the people in a state voted to be governed with a military committee, then the people's selection would run afoul of the current version of this aforesaid Section 4 Guarantee Clause.

The Section 4 Guarantee Clause, furthermore, means that the federal government will protect each member state against foreign invasion.

Article 5 (Amending): 1 ¶

Article V describes the amendment procedure; it is only 1 paragraph (¶).

An amendment can started in Congress:

  1. First, ⅔ (67%) of both the Senate and House would need to propose an amendment.[8]
  2. Second, ¾ (75%) of the state legislatures would need to ratify the amendment at a convention. (In lieu of state legislators, 75% of the members of a constitutional convention may ratify the amendment as well.)

An amendment can also be started by a proposal of ⅔ (67%) of the state legislatures. As of 2022, zero amendments have been initiated this way. All of the 27 amendments have started in the federal Congress.[9]

Bill of Rights

The Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments, were all ratified in 1791.

1st Amendment (Basic freedoms)

The First Amendment provides freedom of

  1. religion,
  2. speech,
  3. press,
  4. assembly, and
  5. petition.

10th Amendment (States' rights)

The Tenth Amendment provides states' rights.[10]


12th Amendment (Electoral College)

The Twelfth Amendment was ratified in 1804 as a result of a tie in the Electoral College for the US presidential election.

13th Amendment (Banning slavery)

The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were passed after the U.S. Civil War.

14th Amendment (Equal protection)

15th Amendment (Men's vote)

16th Amendment (Income tax)

The Sixteenth Amendment was a result of the Progressive Era.

17th Amendment (Senate)

The Seventeenth Amendment to Article I provides for the popular election of United States Senators.[11]

26th Amendment (18-year-olds vote)

The 26th Amendment giving the right to vote to 18-year-old people was proposed and ratified within 3 months in 1971 during the Presidency of Richard Nixon.

27th Amendment (Congress salary)

The 27th Amendment was proposed in 1789 as part of the Bill of Rights and ratified in 1992—202 years afterwards.

See also

References

  1. ↑ https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/interpretation/preamble-ic/interps/37
  2. ↑ https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-government-and-civics/us-gov-the-national-constitution-center/us-gov-the-constitution/v/preamble?modal=1
  3. ↑ https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-government-and-civics/us-gov-the-national-constitution-center/us-gov-the-constitution/v/article-iv-of-the-constitution?modal=1
  4. ↑ https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-4/
  5. ↑ The words slave and slavery are not used in the Constitution.
  6. ↑ Slave is a word that etymologically means Slavic people in Yugoslavia taken into servitude in the ancient Roman Republic.
  7. ↑ In the Roman Republic, slavery wasn't based on race. A slave or servant could be any skin color.
  8. ↑ https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-5/
  9. ↑ https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-government-and-civics/us-gov-the-national-constitution-center/us-gov-the-constitution/v/article-v-of-the-constitution?modal=1
  10. ↑ https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-10/
  11. ↑ https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-17/

External links

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