...Should There be Another Constitutional Convention? The Articles of Confederation was he first federal “constitution” to be upheld in the thirteen colonies. Unfortunately, under the Articles, Congress was given no power over the states so that the country could grow into an actual functioning society, though there were certain things that they did have control over, such as create war and peace time, conduct foreign affairs and etc. But under the Articles, “But Congress could not collect taxes and enforce laws directly; it had to rely on the states to provide money and enforce its laws. . .”(Dye 61). Essentially, the states did what they felt was right beneath their own respective state level government. “No respect is paid to the federal authority. Not a single state complies with the requisitions[submitted by Congress]” (Nardo 18). The Founding Fathers were disturbed by the utter discord the nation seemed to be in. Deciding that enough was enough in May of 1797, twelve of the thirteen colonies delegates, 55 delegates, gathered together in the State House of Philadelphia to, originally, fix and tweak the bugs out of the Articles of Confederation. But instead of fixing the Articles, James Madison decided that it would be better to scrap the whole document and create a whole new federal constitution. James Madison was intent on drafting a new constitution that would create a stronger, central government: The Virginia Plan. “. . . he by no means wanted that government to be so...
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...Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For other uses, see Constitution (disambiguation). A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed.[1] These rules together make up, i.e.constitute, what the entity is. When these principles are written down into a single document or set of legal documents, those documents may be said to embody a writtenconstitution; if they are written down in a single comprehensive document, it is said to embody a codified constitution. Constitutions concern different levels of organizations, from sovereign states to companies and unincorporated associations. A treaty which establishes an international organization is also its constitution, in that it would define how that organization is constituted. Within states, a constitution defines the principles upon which the state is based, the procedure in which laws are made and by whom. Some constitutions, especially codified constitutions, also act as limiters of state power, by establishing lines which a state's rulers cannot cross, such as fundamental rights. An example is the constitution of the United States of America. George Washington at Constitutional Conventionof 1787 signing of the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution of India is the longest written constitution of any sovereign country in the world,[2] containing 444 articles in 22 parts,[3][4] 12 schedules and 118 amendments, with 117,369 words in its English-language...
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...Constitution is not so much that the law is foreign, but that it is modern. He would (and does) object equally to citations of modern American legal trends to inform constitutional interpretation. Justice Scalia's Modernist Argument Against Foreign Law in Constitutional Interpretation But what if one is not an originalist? Although he did not admit it during his discussion with Justice Breyer, in many areas of constitutional interpretation, even Justice Scalia makes no effort to square his views with the original understanding. For example, Justice Scalia has written important First Amendment opinions--such as the 1992 decision in R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, which invalidated a hate-speech ordinance--that appear to expand free speech protection well beyond what the framers envisioned. (Perhaps an argument could be fashioned that James Madison and his contemporaries held the view reflected in R.A.V., but Justice Scalia's opinion in that case made no effort to present such an...
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...The idea that Supreme Court interpretations of the Constitution is the supreme law of the land is a very recent contention. There is a distinction between the Constitution and Constitutional law. The Constitution is the fundamental law, while Constitutional law is the body of law that resulted from the Supreme Court. After William Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia were sworn into their new offices, President Reagan closed his speech with a quote by Daniel Webster, “… Hold on to the Constitution of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands—what has happened once in 6,000 years may never happen again.” Which deems the constitution a stable document that does not sway as much as Constitutional Law. Hamilton, Jefferson, and all the Founding Fathers recognized that the Constitution is the supreme and ultimate expression of the will of the American people. The Supreme Court’s decisions are not supreme over the Constitution. The answers the Supreme Court gives are very important to the stability of the law so necessary for good government. Article VI of the Constitution, says that “The Constitution, and the laws of the United States made in pursuance thereof…shall be the supreme law of the land…” The Constitution created the three branches of government with limited powers to each. The notion of “judicial supremacy” is contrary to the framers’ understanding of the judicial role. The power of judicial review does not imply judicial supremacy. When the Constitution...
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...cite without permission] Written Constitutions and Unwritten Constitutionalism Mark D. Walters Faculty of Law Queen’s University February 2007 To Be Published In: Grant Huscroft (ed.), Expounding the Constitution: Essays in Constitutional Theory (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming) I. Introduction Defending the idea of ‘unwritten law’ has never been easy. Jeremy Bentham thought the very expression to be a ‘paradoxical and unmeaning epithet’.[1] In his view, social reform required ‘fixed and accurate’ laws—laws that ‘[w]e see, we hear, we touch; in short we handle…’[2] This empirical concept of law follows from the ideal of law as something produced by conscious acts of sovereign will. Central to this concept are, to use H.L.A. Hart’s expression, ‘rules of change’ that permit societies to escape the confines of ‘primitive’ custom.[3] The progressive march of legal theory, it may be said, has been away from medieval notions of law as customs practiced time out of mind or as the immutable dictates of natural law, away from the fiction that judges discover rather than make law, and towards modern notions of law as creative political acts recorded in writing. In terms of constitutional law, this march leads to the idea of written constitutionalism, a destination that the rebelling American colonists are often said to have reached first.[4] It was a task especially ‘reserved’ to the American people, wrote Alexander Hamilton, to demonstrate...
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...A Constitutional chaos. On September 17th, 1787, The Constitution of the United states of America was signed by the delegates on the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Weeks later after many arguments between the same delegates about other rights of American citizens, the Bill of Rights was written to solidify all of the basic individual freedoms of the people. It was on this document that several laws were written and many great freedoms given. But because these amendments didn't give a specific definition of these freedoms and rights problems ranging from wars being fought because of conflicting ideals in people to poor moral choices being unjustified because there is no line drawn to decide how far things will go; and the vague rules that allow and cause these things to happen need to rewritten . To learn where it all this mess starts is easy; it starts almost immediately after the signing of the Constitution. The document states that there will be freedom of speech, assembly, the right to bear arms, and other freedoms. The cause of one of the first issues that plagued America was not whether the rules are fair and good or not, but who the rules and freedoms are meant for. This was cause of the continuation of slavery in America even after men were supposed to be free because the Bill of rights did not state that a man, either black or white or red or green, has these freedoms. It just simply says that the citizens of America have these rights...
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...The Louisiana Purchase Cynthia Pullins Anthem College Online August 25, 2013 The Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase is considered the greatest real estate deal in history. The Louisiana Purchase more than doubled the size of the United States, and is the most significant event in the westward expansion of the United States. The Louisiana Purchase changed what the United States had been and had a profound effect on what the United States would become, through Spain’s secret transfer of the territory back to France, President Jefferson gamble and Congress’s ratification of a Treaty. During the years between 1686 and 1800, the French and Spanish colonized and governed the lower Mississippi River Valley. From 1699 to 1762 France controlled the land; in 1762 France gave the land to the Spain after losing the Seven Years War, the French wanted to keep from losing the colony to Britain, so King Louis of France gave the land to his cousin King Carlos II of Spain. Both the French and the Spanish knew how important it was to Americans to cross in to their territory to obtain navigation rights on the Mississippi River, the river was the chief trading channel for goods shipped among the states. It was also important to the United States to trade in New Orleans and to cultivate the economic, political and social possibilities by having access to the Mississippi River Valley (The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture, 2011). America felt comfortable with the way things...
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...Constitution What is a constitution? • Set of rules seeking to establishing the duties, powers and functions of the various institutions of government • To regulate the relationships between and among the institutions • Define the relationship between the state and the individual, define extent of civil liberty Types of Constitution • Codified and uncodified o Codified – enshrined in law and based on 1 single authoritative document outlining powers of institutions + government, as well as a statement of the rights of citizen’s ▪ Document is authoritative, highest law of the land. Binds all political institutions – leads to 2 tier legal system ▪ Provisions of it are entrenched, difficult to amend or abolish ▪ It is judiciable, all political bodies are subject to authority of the courts, in particular a supreme court. o Uncodified – increasingly rare, UK one of few ▪ Not authoritative, constitutional laws treated same as ordinary laws ▪ Not entrenched, constitution can be changed through the normal process for enacting statute law. ▪ Not judiciable, judges do not have legal standard to declare that actions of other bodies are constitutional/not constitutional. o However: ▪ No constitution is entirely written, written documents do not encompass all aspects of constitutional practice ▪ No constitution...
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...The Systematic Obliteration of the Constitutional Republic The power of the US federal government, relative to the power of the states, has increased since the ratification of the Constitution in 1791. Describe how the provisions within the Constitution pertaining to the ‘power to tax and spend’ (Art.1, sec.8, pt.1) and the ‘commerce clause’ (Art.1, sec.8, pt.3) have been used over time to expand federal power and thus the power of the President. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (Declaration of Independence, n.d.). Taken adapted from the scholar John Locke’s “Life Liberty and Estate” in his text the ‘Second Treatise of Government’, (Locke, J. 2005) and incorporated into the United States declaration of independence. Much has been said on the influence of Locke, on Thomas Jefferson during the drafting of the United States declaration of independence, such as was argued by McKay, (2005 pp. 44) . However, where Locke emphasized the importance of procuring and maintaining a limited government, it appears his influences on the political foundation of the United States drew to a halt here. As we are now bearing witness, to one of the most rapidly expanding government institutions in western liberal democracy. In this essay, I intend to discuss how the expansion of federal government power has increased...
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...putting back the pieces. The Confederacy and slavery were demolished and the development of the Constitution strengthened the rights of citizens. The movement tackled the return of southern states that had estranged, the status of previous confederate leaders, and the Constitutional status of the African-Americans. Controversy on how to handle the situations and by the 1870s Reconstruction had been considered a failure for the lack of equally integrating the recently freed slaves into the legal, political, economic and social system. The Dunning School perceived Reconstruction as a failure for different reasons. They claimed Reconstruction took freedom and rights away from qualified Caucasians and gave it to unqualified African-Americans. Revisionism focused on economics, and ultimately downplayed political and constitutional issues. They claimed that the movement was an attempt by financiers, railroad builders, and industrialists to use the Republican Party to control the national government for their own selfish economic needs. There has been much debate as far as which interpretation is best. Dunning’s interpretation is best because although it views the failure of Reconstruction, it also draws attention to what Reconstruction achieved. Reconstruction allowed for former slaves to move forward towards freedom and independence in little time, and allowed African-Americans to play a large role in the shaping of Reconstruction. President Abraham Lincoln began the arrangement for...
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...Jerry Coleman | Constitutional Law | Prof. James Kent | December 13, 2013 Jerry Coleman | Constitutional Law | Prof. James Kent | December 13, 2013 SHORT TITLE: FREEDOM OF SPEECH Freedom of Speech FIRST AMENDMENT PROTECTIONS Unit 2 Assignment Jerry Coleman LS305 Constitutional Law Prof. Judge J. Kent Kaplan University January 10, 2014 FREEDOM OF SPEECH FIRST AMENDMENT PROTECTIONS BY JERRY COLEMAN JANUARY 10, 2014 INDEX 1. COVER PAGE 2. TITLE PAGE 3. INDEX 4. PURPOSE 5. THEORY 6. FREEDOM OF SPEECH: UNALIENABLE RIGHT? 7. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 8. CASE LAW 9. CURRENT LEGISLATION AND ITS EFFECT ON THE FIRST AMENDMENT 10. CONCLUSION’ 11. REFERENCES PURPOSE The purpose of this paper is to examine, limitedly, the incursion, by Congressional Acts, Judicial Interpretation via case law, and Executive Order of the First Amendment Protections of Free Speech of The Constitution of The United States. THEORY The Bill of Rights are the Foundation of the UNALIENABLE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE, in theory and original intent of the Framers, which neither the Federal Government nor the States may repose from the People. Neither shall the Judiciary. However, given to logical consideration, as applied by the Marshall Court, the Courts have Judicial Review Authority, rendering them, if not the best locale, definitely the most appropriate, for interpretation of the Rights thusly enumerated in The...
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...In his response to General Verrilli, Solicitor General for this case, Scalia points out that, “…It may not be the statute they intended. The question is whether it's the statute that they wrote.” —From this one could assume that he would be more inclined to rule in favor of an argument that promoted the aforementioned analysis regarding not applying the absurdity exception rule to this case. Conversely, while Scalia’s interpretation generally leads him toward sticking to the plain meaning of the text, he condemns textualist who use a textual interpretation that is exclusively literal while, at the same time, promoting a version of textual interpretation that is holistic and contextual—he does this as a result of Mr. Carvin’s attempt to destroy the statute at all cost. Scalia states that there is no greater interpretive failure that is common than that of the failure to follow the entire text in the understanding of its structure and of the physical and abstract relation of its multifaceted...
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...The Constitutional Convention was an important event because it is what lead us to the government we have now. The different compromises are what lead to the methods that were used and still being used nowadays The Constitutional Convention was a meeting that took place in Philadelphia in 1787. The purpose of that meeting was to rewrite the Articles of Confederation. There were fifty five men who were delegates, their purpose was to have the federal government strengthen. The delegates did not think that rewriting the Articles of Confederation would actually work out. Eventually they wrote the U.S. Constitution. George Washington was chosen to lead the convention. All of the delegates had to agree that every state would get one vote. They did not want anyone to know about what was going on during the convention meetings. The delegates made sure to keep everything a secret, anyone who was not a delegate were not allowed to attend any meetings. We have no written documents because they kept everything a secret of what had occurred during the meetings. The only details we have today is from a notebook that belonged to James Madison. However, James Madison is known as the “Father of the Constitution.” He had also helped write the federalist papers. At the Constitutional Convention James Madison had done a very good job. When the delegates had to decided to write the “Bill of Rights” he was against it. James Madison was afraid that the future people would just go by those...
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...Open Interpretation to the Constitution Leads to First National Bank A National Bank is an essential part of this nation's economy. We know that it can further strengthen the ties between Americans and the federal government. The National Bank has allowed America to grow its economy, unit as country, and improve trade between the colonies. But when the first National Bank plan entered into Congress there was much controversy over it. Two men, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, held two very different and opposing views on the Bank plan. This led to much controversy over the plan and how they believed it would impact the nation. At the root of the controversy was wether or not the plan was constitutional. Both men interpreted the clauses in the Constitution differently, so both Hamilton and Jefferson submitted plans to President Washington in hopes their view would prevail. The conflict between Hamilton and Jefferson’s opposing views came to a head in 1791. Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury at the time, submitted a report to Congress on a plan for a National Bank. There was great controversy over the creation of a National Bank for many reasons. The main reason being that Hamilton stated that its creation was completely justified by the Constitutions elastic clause. The elastic clause grants Congress the power “to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper” (Elastic Clause Law & Legal Definition) and to carry out its duties. In his plan Hamilton wrote...
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...to not be politicians yielding real power. One of the examples of the supreme courts political power the court case Griswold v. Connecticut (1965). Estelle Griswold was the executive director of Planned Parenthood in Connecticut; she and Dr. Buxton of Yale Medical School opened a clinic in Waterbury and after only serving 10 patients Griswold and Buxton were arrested and convicted of giving information, instruction, and advice about birth control to married clients. This broke the Connecticut law prohibiting medical advice or treatment with the motive of avoiding conception. The decision was made 7-2 in favor of Griswold because it violated the Due Process Clause, but continued to implement amendments 1, 3, 4, and 9 and create a constitutional right to privacy for...
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