The American Constitution

Although the Seventh Amendment itself says that it is limited to "suits at common law", meaning cases that triggered the right to a jury under English law, the amendment has been found to apply in lawsuits that are similar to the old common law cases. For example, the right to a jury trial applies to cases brought under federal statutes that prohibit race or gender discrimination in housing or employment. Importantly, this amendment guarantees the right to a jury trial only in federal court, not in state court. The Eighth Amendment protects people from having bail or fines set at an amount so high that it would be impossible for all but the richest defendants to pay and also protects people from being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment.

Although this phrase originally was intended to outlaw certain gruesome methods of punishment, it has been broadened over the years to protect against punishments that are grossly disproportionate to or too harsh for the particular crime. This provision has also been used to challenge prison conditions such as extremely unsanitary cells, overcrowding, insufficient medical care and deliberate failure by officials to protect inmates from one another.

The Ninth Amendment declares that individuals have other fundamental rights, in addition to those stated in the Constitution. During the Constitutional ratification debates Anti-Federalists argued that a Bill of Rights should be added. The Federalists opposed it on grounds that a list would necessarily be incomplete but would be taken as explicit and exhaustive , thus enlarging the power of the federal government by implication. The Anti-Federalists persisted, and several state ratification conventions refused to ratify the Constitution without a more specific list of protections, so the First Congress added what became the Ninth Amendment as a compromise.

Because the rights protected by the Ninth Amendment are not specified, they are referred to as "unenumerated". The Supreme Court has found that unenumerated rights include such important rights as the right to travel, the right to vote, the right to privacy, and the right to make important decisions about one's health care or body. The Tenth Amendment was included in the Bill of Rights to further define the balance of power between the federal government and the states.

The amendment states that the federal government has only those powers specifically granted by the Constitution. These powers include the power to declare war, to collect taxes, to regulate interstate business activities and others that are listed in the articles or in subsequent constitutional amendments. Any power not listed is, says the Tenth Amendment, left to the states or the people.

While there is no specific list of what these "reserved powers" may be, the Supreme Court has ruled that laws affecting family relations, commerce within a state's own borders, and local law enforcement activities, are among those specifically reserved to the states or the people. The Eleventh Amendment specifically prohibits federal courts from hearing cases in which a state is sued by an individual from another state or another country, thus extending to the states sovereign immunity protection from certain types of legal liability.

Article Three, Section 2, Clause 1 has been affected by this amendment, which also overturned the Supreme Court's decision in Chisholm v. The Sixteenth Amendment removed existing Constitutional constraints that limited the power of Congress to lay and collect taxes on income. Specifically, the apportionment constraints delineated in Article 1, Section 9, Clause 4 have been removed by this amendment, which also overturned an Supreme Court decision, in Pollock v.

This amendment has become the basis for all subsequent federal income tax legislation and has greatly expanded the scope of federal taxing and spending in the years since. The Eighteenth Amendment prohibited the making, transporting, and selling of alcoholic beverages nationwide. It also authorized Congress to enact legislation enforcing this prohibition. Adopted at the urging of a national temperance movement , proponents believed that the use of alcohol was reckless and destructive and that prohibition would reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, decrease the need for welfare and prisons, and improve the health of all Americans.

During prohibition, it is estimated that alcohol consumption and alcohol related deaths declined dramatically. But prohibition had other, more negative consequences. The amendment drove the lucrative alcohol business underground, giving rise to a large and pervasive black market. In addition, prohibition encouraged disrespect for the law and strengthened organized crime.

Prohibition came to an end in , when this amendment was repealed. The Twenty-first Amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment and returned the regulation of alcohol to the states. Each state sets its own rules for the sale and importation of alcohol, including the drinking age. Because a federal law provides federal funds to states that prohibit the sale of alcohol to minors under the age of twenty-one, all fifty states have set their drinking age there. Rules about how alcohol is sold vary greatly from state to state.

The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude , except as punishment for a crime , and authorized Congress to enforce abolition. Though millions of slaves had been declared free by the Emancipation Proclamation , their post Civil War status was unclear, as was the status of other millions. This amendment rendered inoperative or moot several of the original parts of the constitution.

The Fourteenth Amendment granted United States citizenship to former slaves and to all persons "subject to U. It also contained three new limits on state power: These limitations dramatically expanded the protections of the Constitution.

This amendment, according to the Supreme Court's Doctrine of Incorporation , makes most provisions of the Bill of Rights applicable to state and local governments as well. It superseded the mode of apportionment of representatives delineated in Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3, and also overturned the Supreme Court's decision in Dred Scott v. The Fifteenth Amendment prohibits the use of race , color , or previous condition of servitude in determining which citizens may vote. The last of three post Civil War Reconstruction Amendments, it sought to abolish one of the key vestiges of slavery and to advance the civil rights and liberties of former slaves.

The Nineteenth Amendment prohibits the government from denying women the right to vote on the same terms as men. Prior to the amendment's adoption, only a few states permitted women to vote and to hold office. The Twenty-third Amendment extends the right to vote in presidential elections to citizens residing in the District of Columbia by granting the District electors in the Electoral College, as if it were a state. When first established as the nation's capital in , the District of Columbia's five thousand residents had neither a local government, nor the right to vote in federal elections.

By the population of the District had grown to over , people. The Twenty-fourth Amendment prohibits a poll tax for voting. Although passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments helped remove many of the discriminatory laws left over from slavery, they did not eliminate all forms of discrimination. Along with literacy tests and durational residency requirements, poll taxes were used to keep low-income primarily African American citizens from participating in elections.

Constitution of the United States - a highly accessible online version

The Supreme Court has since struck down these discriminatory measures, opening democratic participation to all. The Twenty-sixth Amendment prohibits the government from denying the right of United States citizens, eighteen years of age or older, to vote on account of age. The drive to lower the voting age was driven in large part by the broader student activism movement protesting the Vietnam War. It gained strength following the Supreme Court's decision in Oregon v. It stipulates that each elector must cast a distinct vote for President and Vice President, instead of two votes for President.

It also suggests that the President and Vice President should not be from the same state. Article II, Section 1, Clause 3 is superseded by this amendment, which also extends the eligibility requirements to become President to the Vice President. The Seventeenth Amendment modifies the way senators are elected.

It stipulates that senators are to be elected by direct popular vote. The amendment supersedes Article 1, Section 2 , Clauses 1 and 2, under which the two senators from each state were elected by the state legislature. It also allows state legislatures to permit their governors to make temporary appointments until a special election can be held. The Twentieth Amendment changes the date on which a new President, Vice President and Congress take office, thus shortening the time between Election Day and the beginning of Presidential, Vice Presidential and Congressional terms.

This meant that, when a new Congress was elected in November, it did not come into office until the following March, with a " lame duck " Congress convening in the interim. By moving the beginning of the president's new term from March 4 to January 20 and in the case of Congress, to January 3 , proponents hoped to put an end to lame duck sessions, while allowing for a speedier transition for the new administration and legislators.

The Twenty-second Amendment limits an elected president to two terms in office, a total of eight years. However, under some circumstances it is possible for an individual to serve more than eight years. Although nothing in the original frame of government limited how many presidential terms one could serve, the nation's first president, George Washington, declined to run for a third term, suggesting that two terms of four years were enough for any president.

This precedent remained an unwritten rule of the presidency until broken by Franklin D. Roosevelt , who was elected to a third term as president and in to a fourth. The Twenty-fifth Amendment clarifies what happens upon the death, removal, or resignation of the President or Vice President and how the Presidency is temporarily filled if the President becomes disabled and cannot fulfill the responsibilities of the office.

A concrete plan of succession has been needed on multiple occasions since The Twenty-seventh Amendment prevents members of Congress from granting themselves pay raises during the current session. Rather, any raises that are adopted must take effect during the next session of Congress. Its proponents believed that Federal legislators would be more likely to be cautious about increasing congressional pay if they have no personal stake in the vote.

Article One, section 6, Clause 1 has been affected by this amendment, which remained pending for over two centuries as it contained no time limit for ratification. Collectively, members of the House and Senate typically propose around amendments during each two-year term of Congress. Six amendments approved by Congress and proposed to the states for consideration have not been ratified by the required number of states to become part of the Constitution. Four of these are technically still pending, as Congress did not set a time limit see also Coleman v.

Miller for their ratification. The other two are no longer pending, as both had a time limit attached and in both cases the time period set for their ratification expired.

The way the Constitution is understood is influenced by court decisions, especially those of the Supreme Court. These decisions are referred to as precedents. Judicial review is the power of the Court to examine federal legislation, federal executive, and all state branches of government, to decide their constitutionality , and to strike them down if found unconstitutional. Judicial review includes the power of the Court to explain the meaning of the Constitution as it applies to particular cases.

Over the years, Court decisions on issues ranging from governmental regulation of radio and television to the rights of the accused in criminal cases have changed the way many constitutional clauses are interpreted, without amendment to the actual text of the Constitution. Legislation passed to implement the Constitution, or to adapt those implementations to changing conditions, broadens and, in subtle ways, changes the meanings given to the words of the Constitution.

Up to a point, the rules and regulations of the many federal executive agencies have a similar effect. If an action of Congress or the agencies is challenged, however, it is the court system that ultimately decides whether these actions are permissible under the Constitution. The Supreme Court has indicated that once the Constitution has been extended to an area by Congress or the Courts , its coverage is irrevocable.

To hold that the political branches may switch the Constitution on or off at will would lead to a regime in which they, not this Court, say "what the law is". Courts established by the Constitution can regulate government under the Constitution, the supreme law of the land. First, they have jurisdiction over actions by an officer of government and state law. Second, federal courts may rule on whether coordinate branches of national government conform to the Constitution.

Until the twentieth century, the Supreme Court of the United States may have been the only high tribunal in the world to use a court for constitutional interpretation of fundamental law, others generally depending on their national legislature. The basic theory of American Judicial review is summarized by constitutional legal scholars and historians as follows: It can change only by extraordinary legislative process of national proposal, then state ratification. The powers of all departments are limited to enumerated grants found in the Constitution.

Courts are expected a to enforce provisions of the Constitution as the supreme law of the land, and b to refuse to enforce anything in conflict with it. As to judicial review and the Congress, the first proposals by Madison Va and Wilson Pa called for a supreme court veto over national legislation. In this it resembled the system in New York, where the Constitution of called for a " Council of Revision " by the Governor and Justices of the state supreme court.

The Council would review and in a way, veto any passed legislation violating the spirit of the Constitution before it went into effect. The nationalist's proposal in Convention was defeated three times, and replaced by a presidential veto with Congressional over-ride. The justification for judicial review is to be explicitly found in the open ratifications held in the states and reported in their newspapers. The preservation of the people's authority over legislatures rests "particularly with judges".

The Supreme Court was initially made up of jurists who had been intimately connected with the framing of the Constitution and the establishment of its government as law. His service on the Court would extend 34 years over some of the most important rulings to help establish the nation the Constitution had begun. When John Marshall followed Oliver Ellsworth as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in , the federal judiciary had been established by the Judiciary Act , but there were few cases, and less prestige.

But the Court's life, jurisdiction over state legislation was limited. The Marshall Court's landmark Barron v. Baltimore held that the Bill of Rights restricted only the federal government, and not the states. In the landmark Marbury v. Madison case, the Supreme Court asserted its authority of judicial review over Acts of Congress.

Its findings were that Marbury and the others had a right to their commissions as judges in the District of Columbia. Marshall, writing the opinion for the majority, announced his discovered conflict between Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of and Article III.

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The Constitution enumerates powers of the judiciary to extend to cases arising "under the Constitution". Further, justices take a Constitutional oath to uphold it as "Supreme law of the land". Something of a crisis arose when, in and , the Supreme Court handed down twelve decisions voiding Acts of Congress relating to the New Deal. Roosevelt then responded with his abortive " court packing plan ". Other proposals have suggested a Court super-majority to overturn Congressional legislation, or a Constitutional Amendment to require that the Justices retire at a specified age by law. To date, the Supreme Court's power of judicial review has persisted.

The power of judicial review could not have been preserved long in a democracy unless it had been "wielded with a reasonable measure of judicial restraint , and with some attention, as Mr. Dooley said, to the election returns. The Court controls almost all of its business by choosing what cases to consider, writs of certiorari. In this way, it can avoid opinions on embarrassing or difficult cases. The Supreme Court limits itself by defining for itself what is a "justiciable question. Third, the Court requires a "personal interest", not one generally held, and a legally protected right must be immediately threatened by government action.

Cases are not taken up if the litigant has no standing to sue. Simply having the money to sue and being injured by government action are not enough. These three procedural ways of dismissing cases have led critics to charge that the Supreme Court delays decisions by unduly insisting on technicalities in their "standards of litigability". They say cases are left unconsidered which are in the public interest, with genuine controversy, and resulting from good faith action.

The Supreme Court balances several pressures to maintain its roles in national government. It seeks to be a co-equal branch of government, but its decrees must be enforceable. The Court seeks to minimize situations where it asserts itself superior to either President or Congress, but federal officers must be held accountable. The Supreme Court assumes power to declare acts of Congress as unconstitutional but it self-limits its passing on constitutional questions. Justice Brandeis summarized four general guidelines that the Supreme Court uses to avoid constitutional decisions relating to Congress: If it does, a rule of constitutional law is formulated only as the precise facts in the case require.

The Court will choose statutes or general law for the basis of its decision if it can without constitutional grounds. If it does, the Court will choose a constitutional construction of an Act of Congress, even if its constitutionality is seriously in doubt. Likewise with the Executive Department, Edwin Corwin observed that the Court does sometimes rebuff presidential pretensions, but it more often tries to rationalize them.

Against Congress, an Act is merely "disallowed". In the executive case, exercising judicial review produces "some change in the external world" beyond the ordinary judicial sphere. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes addressed the Court's limitation when political process allowed future policy change, but a judicial ruling would "attribute finality".

Political questions lack "satisfactory criteria for a judicial determination". John Marshall recognized that the president holds "important political powers" which as Executive privilege allows great discretion. This doctrine was applied in Court rulings on President Grant 's duty to enforce the law during Reconstruction.

It extends to the sphere of foreign affairs. Justice Robert Jackson explained, Foreign affairs are inherently political, "wholly confided by our Constitution to the political departments of the government Critics of the Court object in two principal ways to self-restraint in judicial review, deferring as it does as a matter of doctrine to Acts of Congress and Presidential actions. Supreme Courts under the leadership of subsequent Chief Justices have also used judicial review to interpret the Constitution among individuals, states and federal branches.

Chase was a Lincoln appointee, serving as Chief Justice from to His career encompassed service as a U. Senator and Governor of Ohio. He coined the slogan, "Free soil, free Labor, free men. Taney of Dred Scott case fame. The "Chase Court" is famous for Texas v. White , which asserted a permanent Union of indestructible states. Fenno upheld the Civil War tax on state banknotes. Griswold found parts of the Legal Tender Acts unconstitutional, though it was reversed under a late Supreme Court majority. Chase [p] Union, Reconstruction. William Howard Taft [q] commerce, incorporation.

Earl Warren [r] due process, civil rights. William Rehnquist [s] federalism, privacy.

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A Progressive Republican from Ohio, he was a one-term President. Taft successfully sought the expansion of Court jurisdiction over non- states such as District of Columbia and Territories of Alaska and Hawaii. New York , the Court established the doctrine of " incorporation which applied the Bill of Rights to the states.

Important cases included the Board of Trade of City of Chicago v. Olsen that upheld Congressional regulation of commerce.

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United States allowed exclusion of evidence obtained without a warrant based on application of the 14th Amendment proscription against unreasonable searches. Illinois ruled the equitable power of the United States can impose positive action on a state to prevent its inaction from damaging another state. Earl Warren was an Eisenhower nominee, Chief Justice from to Warren's Republican career in the law reached from County Prosecutor, California state attorney general, and three consecutive terms as Governor. His programs stressed progressive efficiency, expanding state education, re-integrating returning veterans, infrastructure and highway construction.

In , the Warren Court overturned a landmark Fuller Court ruling on the Fourteenth Amendment interpreting racial segregation as permissible in government and commerce providing "separate but equal" services. Warren built a coalition of Justices after that developed the idea of natural rights as guaranteed in the Constitution. Board of Education banned segregation in public schools. Carr and Reynolds v. Sims established Court ordered "one-man-one-vote". Bill of Rights Amendments were incorporated into the states.

Due process was expanded in Gideon v. Wainwright and Miranda v. First Amendment rights were addressed in Griswold v. Connecticut concerning privacy, and Engel v. Vitale relative to free speech. William Rehnquist was a Reagan appointment to Chief Justice, serving from to While he would concur with overthrowing a state supreme court's decision, as in Bush v. Gore , he built a coalition of Justices after that developed the idea of federalism as provided for in the Tenth Amendment. Nevertheless, the Rehnquist Court was noted in the contemporary "culture wars" for overturning state laws relating to privacy prohibiting late-term abortions in Stenberg v.

Carhart , prohibiting sodomy in Lawrence v. Texas , or ruling so as to protect free speech in Texas v. Johnson or affirmative action in Grutter v. There is a viewpoint that some Americans have come to see the documents of the Constitution, along with the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights , as being a cornerstone of a type of civil religion.

This is suggested by the prominent display of the Constitution, along with the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, in massive, bronze-framed, bulletproof, moisture-controlled glass containers vacuum-sealed in a rotunda by day and in multi-ton bomb-proof vaults by night at the National Archives Building. The idea of displaying the documents struck one academic critic looking from the point of view of the or America as "idolatrous, and also curiously at odds with the values of the Revolution".

But he saw imperfections and imagined that there could potentially be others, believing as he did that "institutions must advance also". Some commentators depict the multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian United States as held together by a political orthodoxy, in contrast with a nation state of people having more "natural" ties. The United States Constitution has been a notable model for governance around the world.

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Its international influence is found in similarities of phrasing and borrowed passages in other constitutions, as well as in the principles of the rule of law , separation of powers and recognition of individual rights. The American experience of fundamental law with amendments and judicial review has motivated constitutionalists at times when they were considering the possibilities for their nation's future.

The Constitution did not originally define who was eligible to vote , allowing each state to determine who was eligible. In the early history of the U. Earlier written constitutions of independent states exist but were not adopted by bodies elected by the people, such as the Swedish Constitution of , adopted by the king, the Constitution of San Marino of which is the oldest surviving constitution in the world, or the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk , the first establishing separation of powers.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. United States Constitution Page one of the original copy of the Constitution. Drafting and ratification timeline Convention Signing Federalism Republicanism. Constitution of the United States Law Taxation. Presidential elections Midterm elections Off-year elections. History of the United States Constitution.

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This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: February Learn how and when to remove this template message. List of amendments to the United States Constitution. Separation of powers under the United States Constitution. In addition, they will not be able to inspect any studio or home that is not open to the public. The next day, the government eliminated the limits on restaurant tables and business licenses, along with new taxes and financial requirements for entrepreneurs.

State media said that Cubans had made , comments on Article 68, with the majority asking to eliminate it. Commenters also asked the commission to eliminate presidential term and age limits and allow direct presidential elections but the draft charter maintains the two-term limit, maximum age of 65, and the selection of the president by the National Assembly.

This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed. Cuba eliminates gay marriage language from new constitution. By The Associated Press December 18, 7: House of Representatives, introduced 19 amendments to the Constitution. On September 25, , Congress adopted 12 of the amendments and sent them to the states for ratification.

Ten of these amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights , were ratified and became part of the Constitution on December 10, The Bill of Rights guarantees individuals certain basic protections as citizens, including freedom of speech, religion and the press; the right to bear and keep arms; the right to peaceably assemble; protection from unreasonable search and seizure; and the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury.

To date, there have been thousands of proposed amendments to the Constitution. The most recent amendment to the Constitution, Article XXVII, which deals with congressional pay raises, was proposed in and ratified in Through all the changes, the Constitution has endured and adapted. However, as Benjamin Franklin said on the closing day of the convention in Start your free trial today. We strive for accuracy and fairness.

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But if you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. New Hampshire becomes the ninth and last necessary state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, thereby making the document the law of the land. By , defects in the post-Revolutionary War Articles of Confederation were apparent, such as the lack of central authority On this day in , Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the Constitution, doing so by a unanimous vote.

This momentous event occurred exactly one year after the Hampshire Herald published a statement by Thomas Grover listing the demands made by the participants in On this day in , James Madison, drafter of the Constitution, recorder of the Constitutional Convention, author of the Federalist Papers and fourth president of the United States, is born on a plantation in Virginia. Madison first distinguished himself as a student at the The Articles of Confederation, ratified several months before The Constitution of the United States of America is signed by 38 of 41 delegates present at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

Supporters of the document waged a hard-won battle to win ratification by the necessary nine out of 13 U. On this day in , delegates to the Constitutional Convention begin to assemble in Philadelphia to confront a daunting task: Although the convention was originally supposed to