...Bill of Rights and Amendments Salvatore Coco HIS/301 AUGUST 15, 2013 Christina Winn Bill of Rights and Amendments Although the Constitution was written primarily to define and represent the ideals and dreams of men for freedom of life; liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, there were many imperfections because of the compromises required to get the document ratified by the states involved. Amendments to the Constitution were added to correct these deficiencies, including the Bill of Rights and the first 10 amendments. However, the Bill of Rights still did not adequately address the issues of slaves. Amendments 13, 14, and 15 were added in an attempt to fulfill the gaps left by the original 10. These amendments were also a precursor to future amendments addressing civil right issues during the Civil Rights movement. How and Why Amendments are added to the Constitution The Constitution was approved in 1788, including Article V stating how amendments would be added. Amendments were needed either as an improvement, a correction, or an addition. There are two ways to pass an amendment although only one has ever been used. The first method takes two-thirds of the house and Senate and three-fourths of the states to have a proposed amendment ratified. The second method, although never used requires a Constitutional Convention to be called by two-thirds of the House...
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...As all the other Amendments, the 14th Amendments was made to change how the law and the way the African Americans were treated. Its one of the longest written Amendment, The 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States granted citizenship and equal civil and legal rights to African American slaves who were emancipated after the American Civil War. This reconstruction Amendment has forbidden the states from denying any person within the state’s jurisdiction equal protection under the law and forbidding the states from denying any person of “ life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” . As you see from time to time in the newspapers, news channels, books, TV shows, and/or movies today the 14th Amendment plays a very...
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...The Bill of Rights and the 14th amendment are imperative for citizens. The first ten commandments of the U.S constitution are called the Bill of Rights because it provides the rights to individual freedom and criminal policy. Both are effective and can be shown cases like Brown v. Board, Texas v. Johnson and Gideon v. Wainwright. The 14th amendment is essential to guarantee equal rights to American people. Brown v. Board is an example of this amendment in which Linda Brown could attend an all-white school. Equal protection clause came into play when others around didn't want her to be near them, but segregation in schools was proven unconstitutional and ended in 1954. Therefore the 14th amendment is proven to used everywhere no matter what...
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...had an impact on the board of education and our lives. There was an African American girl named Linda Brown, she was a normal girl in the third grade. Linda went to a school that was a mile away even though there was an all white elementary school, seven blocks away. Her father, Oliver Brown, tried to enroll her in the white elementary school, but the principal of the school refused to let her in due to her race. Mr. Brown then took this problem to the NAACP ( National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), they agreed to help him. As this case became more known it was then later brought up to supreme court. Other cases have led up to this case, these cases included, Sweat v. Painter (1950) and McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents of Higher Education (1950). The cases leading up to Brown Vs Board of Education featured African American people dealing with segregation problems. Brown argued segregation is seen as antithetical to our whole culture. If a particular class of people are forced to stay in their own neighborhoods, have their own schools, parks, stores, restaurants, movie theaters, and not welcome in 'mainstream' places, they are not equal as citizens. This is a violation of the 'equality' provisions of the 14th amendment. One of the most basic founding principles of the US is that we have only one class of citizenship, every citizen is entitled to exactly the same rights and privileges of citizenship.Brown argued this and related it to 14th amendment...
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...Legal Issue The arguments in the case referenced the 13th Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Plessy’s case questioned whether the Louisiana law that mandated segregated accommodations was actually violating Plessy's “equal protection” under the law? The case questioned whether a State law requiring separate seating on a public railway based on race was a federal violation of equal protection. Plessy contested that his conviction be overturned, that the State law be ruled unconstitutional, and that “separate but equal” facilities did not meet the standards of the 14th Amendment? Holding/Decision The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Louisiana law necessitating segregation based on race. It was Justice Henry B. Brown that delivered the 7-1 decision of the Court. Brown declared that the Louisiana state law did not violate either the federal 13th or 14th Amendments. He specified that the 13th Amendment applied only to slavery. He also stipulated that the 14th Amendment granted political and civil equality to African Americans, but was not intended to give them social equality....
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...When the Founding Fathers were composing the Constitution, there was no formalized education for all. At the time, only boys, mainly from affluent families, attended school. Private grammar schools opened in the 1700s to prepare boys to attend ivy league colleges. Free public education for all was never a thought during the 1700 and 1800s, however those documents which were written then have an impact on education today. Even with these documents much power concerning education remains with the states. Cases such as Brown vs. Broad of Education 1954 argued the separate-but-equal doctrine violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Engel v. Vitale (1962) and 8. Abington School District v. Schempp (1963) shaped the modern understanding of how the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment constrains prayer in public schools. San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (1972) argued that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment mandates equal funding among school districts. Tinker v. Des Moines (1969) argued the Freedom of Speech. These are just a few cases that have made it to the top court in the land in part because of the way schools, districts, and states interpret statements written over two...
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...Protection Clause, where the clause originated from, give example of the clause being applied to cases, and show how the clause is enforced today. The Equal Protection Clause is part of the United States Constitutions 14th amendment. In the Constitution, it states “nor shall any State…deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” (Epstein and Walker). Meaning that the State must apply equal application of the law to...
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...Ferguson to support their claim. Jim Crows laws permitted “separate but equal” facilities for Black and Whites and was supported by Plessy v. Ferguson– Supreme Court decision (GML! 668). The. This case emerged in Louisiana when railroad companies were required to have separate cars for Black passengers and a light-skin African American man named Homer Plessy refused to move to the ‘colored ‘section of the train, leading to his arrest. The idea of “separate but equal” was imbedded in the belief that the 14th amendment enforces total equality without distinction based on color By stating that the Brown vs Board of Education case is unconstitutional is to also admit the unconstitutionality of laws, such as Jim Crows created in opposition of the 14th and 15th amendment to restrict African American liberty and rights as citizens. This was their way to legally rationalize their support for segregation, even though it demonstrated their hypocrisy toward the constitutionality of laws and amendments. In the Manifesto, they mention how in “the original Constitution does not...
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...president was given the power to detain enemy combatants whom were against the United States. An enemy combatant is an “individual who, under the laws and customs of war, may be detained for the duration of an armed conflict”. The case Hamdi v. Rumsfeld 542 U.S. 507 has had an important impact on society. In Hamdi v. Rumsfeld 542 U.S. 507 the case focuses on an individual’s constitutional rights. The main arguments involving the case are: If the government violated Hamdi’s 5th amendment right and 14th amendment right to due process by holding him without allowing him access to an attorney. This was done only on the basis of the executive branch’s power to declare Hamdi as an enemy combatant and to lawfully make decisions during wartime....
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...Bill Of Rights Assignment Week 3 Constitution HIS/301 Instructor James Newman Alan L. Olsen February 11th 2012 University of Phoenix Introduction According to Article V of the United States Constitution, when two thirds vote of Congress or State Legislature’s an amendment can be passed. Amendments are ratified by providing 3/4 of the votes in the Federal or State Legislature’s. When the Constitution was designed by the Framers, they realized that it was not necessarily an absolute law. They knew that future generations wanted to make changes and they wanted to make sure that the process was relatively smooth. That is why they added an amendment process. Amendments become part of the Constitution to enable the government to make adaptations to constitutional law. “Troubles with the existing Confederation of States finally convinced the Continental Congress, in February 1787, to call for a convention of delegates to meet in May in Philadelphia to devise such further provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union.” (Linder) The Philadelphia Convention was necessary to make modifications to the Articles of Confederation. The newly constituted federal government was made up of a strong executive, legislative, and judiciary branch. Bill of Rights The concept to create a Bill of Rights to...
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...schools for whites were of better quality than the schools for the blacks. The African-Americans argued that this situation was unjust and unconstitutional1. Education has been long regarded as a valuable asset for all of America's adolescence. However, when this benefit is deprived of to a specific group, measures must be taken to defend its educational right. In the 1950's, a courageous group of activists launched a legal attack on segregation in schools. The one who headed this attack was NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall. We find that his legal strategies would contribute wholly to the closure of educational segregation. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Congress passed the 14th amendment that stated that all people born in the United States are considered citizens. The 14th amendment also proclaims that individual states cannot make any laws to take away a person's right to life, liberty, or property. Segregation laws made it permissible to keep races distant as long as each race had its own access to equal facilities, which what was known as "separate but equal,” but many people disagreed with this. It had given a sense of hope to many African-American parents that their son or daughter could possibly now get an equal education and an opportunity to succeed. At the time, there were 14 states that were not allowed to have desegregated schools. Kansas was one out of four that gave...
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...A perfect example is the Dred Scott v Sandford case. Dred Scott had moved with his owner to free states. When his owner died he tried to purchase his freedom; however, the widow rejected. Dred Scott filed suit and the case was heard by the supreme court. Chief Justice Roger Taney issued the decision, that Dred Scott whether free or a slave is not a U.S. Citizen and therefore had not right to sue in Federal court (Lecture, 05 February). This decision is considered the worst rendered by the Supreme Court; however, would subsequently be later overturned by the passing of the 13th and 14th Amendment. With the civil war going on its third year, National Archives states, “It was only until President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, that all persons held as slaves within the rebellious states are, henceforward shall be free” (The Emancipation Proclamation, 2018). President Lincoln gave moral reinforcement to the union’s cause but also gave hope to hundreds of thousands of African Americans. Despite this victory it will be a long time before that great statement will come to fruition for the African American...
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...invigorated the discrimination towards blacks. The shows were comedic acts starring blacks slandering their demeanor and behavior through satirization. The Minstrel Shows and entertainment industry reflected the widely accepted the social differences of the time between blacks and whites and ultimately lead to the development of many black stereotypes. The conclusion of the Civil War brought huge social changes for African Americans. The 13th amendment abolished slavery, thus freeing all African Americans from their former slave masters. However, not all people followed suit with the new amendment, and the rights of the blacks varied throughout the...
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...The 13th Amendment declared that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime while exist within the united states. The 14 Amendment to the constitution ratified on July 9 , 1868 and granted citizenship to everyone born in the united states . The 15 Amendment granted african american men the right to vote . The amendment are important because they ensure equality for recently emancipated slaves. The 13th amendment and 14 amendment abolished slaves. The 13 and 14th amendment where the reconstruction amendments passed following the civil war. The 15th amendment guarantees vote to all american male of race The united states called by some the land...
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...The case originated back in 1950. In the 1950s segregation laws in many states prohibited African American children and white children from attending the same schools. Linda Brown, an African American girl, could not attend a less-crowded white school a few blocks from her home in Topeka, Kan. So instead, each and every single day little Linda brown and her sister had to walk through a dangerous railroad switchyard just to get to the bus stop for their long ride across town to their all-black elementary school. Even though there was a school just a few blocks away, it was only for whites only. The path of the case started from Linda brown and her family believing that the segregated school systems violated the 14th amendment,...
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