...The United States Constitution The US Constitution During the American Revolutionary war with Britain, we were fighting for our freedom from England. When individuals came over from Europe to settle here in America, they were still under the thumb of the British Government. We needed to win the war to gain the independence from England, to form our own government. While the war was raging, members of all 13 colonies gathered and eventually signed the Articles of Confederation. These articles were clearly written concerning our laws, equality, standard issues, and inspiration for the people. The Articles did not come without their problems. There was a lack of representation, they had limited funds. The war effort was very expensive. The dollar of the dollar had decreased and the taxes on imports was so high that goods were unavailable. The economy was decreasing was because credit was necessary. There was problem in the fact that our navy was decreasing because the pirates were taking over our ships and stealing our goods kidnapping our soldiers a holding them for ransom. It also offered limited power. The Constitution was built upon the articles of Confederation. The articles did not have the right to tax. They were built on a single house in the legislature, thus having a single vote. They had no judicial powers either. They could not...
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...and Articles of the Constitution Part One: Table of Primary Principles of the US Constitution Self-Government | Self-government is government that is provided by or voted on by the inhabitants of the country or group as opposed to having external governing forces. The Constitution names Self-government as the ultimate and proper means of government. The US uses majority rule as part of self-government. | Separation of Powers | Separation of powers is the division of governing powers among separate branches of the government. This idea was widely favored as many states started drafting their governments and was used as a founding principle of the US Constitution. Basically, separation of powers assigns one group of people as task and another group another task. This helps in many ways, primarily it makes sure that each group is skilled at the powers assigned to them. It also paves the way for Checks and Balances. | Checks and Balances | Checks and Balances is an elaborate system that is written into the US Constitution that requires the divided branches of government to all work together to make any major decisions. Originally, this system was designed so that no one branch of government overpowered the others. A single branch cannot act decisively without the support of the other branches. The three branches of government in the US are designed to overlap so that Checks and Balances can succeed. | Checks and Balances Over the years, the US system of Checks and...
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...there were many weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation, many believed that by creating a Constitution it would solve many of the nations problems. Fortunately, the Constitution solved many problems, but created some big flaws that still remain today. One of the weaknesses in the Articles of the Confederation was that most of the governmental power was held by the states. It created a weak national government. The states were afraid that congress, due to its limited power, was unable to control the states. The government under the Articles of Confederation was a legislative branch and had no executive or judicial branches. Under the constitution, Mr. John Jay, of the Federalist Papers #3, believed that once a national government was established it would be wiser than the states. The solution was achieved by more power being held by the national government. Each state must be under the authority of the national government and each state has control of local government. These examples can be seen today in the local government and police department. Another weakness in the Articles of Confederation is it only had one branch of government. It was called the legislative branch. There were no other branches of government. In order for the legislative branch to take action on any government matter it required the approval of all of the states. In order to fix the problem in the constitution they added 2 more branches of government. These are called executive and judicial branches...
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...Assess the US Constitution The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the USA. The Constitution, originally comprising seven articles, delineates the national frame of government. Its first three articles entrench the doctrine of the separation of powers, whereby the federal government is divided into three branches: the legislative, consisting of the bicameral Congress; the executive, consisting of the President; and the judiciary, consisting of the Supreme Court and other federal courts. Since the Constitution came into force in 1789, it has been amended twenty-seven times. In general, the first ten amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, offer specific protections of individual liberty and justice and place restrictions on the powers of government. The majority of the seventeen later amendments expand individual civil rights. At seven articles and twenty-seven amendments, it is the shortest written constitution in force. The Constitution of the United States was the first constitution of its kind, and has influenced the constitutions of other nations. However, it has many flaws, firstly the amendment process is too difficult, thereby making it near impossible to change it. Secondly the power of judicial review gives the unelected unaccountable Supreme Court too much power. Thirdly the constitution leads to gridlock and finally some parts make no sense in modern society and don’t work as the Framers intended. Nevertheless there are positives; primarily...
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...A constitution can be defined as a laid down rules for the government which are time and again codified as a form of written manuscript that spells out and confines the functions and ability to exercise force of a political party (power). In the case of countries and sovereign regions of federal states the phrase refers exclusively to a constitution defining the core principles of politics, and instituting the configuration, procedures, powers and duties, of a government. Most constitutions guarantee rights to the people by limiting the government’s own reach. We will be comparing and contrasting the American constitution against the Iraqi constitution. Both constitutions are codified. Under the patronage of a British military occupation in 1925, Iraqis first constitution entered into force which then formed a monarchy which remained in effect until in 1958, the revolution established a republic. Interim constitutions have been adopted over the years but a referendum that took place in 2005 approved the constitution currently being used by Iraqis. On the other hand the American constitution is considered foundation and basis of the legal right to exercise power over another (authority) essential to the existence of the United States of America and the federal government of the United States. It grants the framework for the institute of the United States government and for the rapport of the federal government to the states, to citizens, and to all people within the United States...
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...The US constitution is a codified and entrenched document that outlines how the government should be ran, what liberties it gives to the citizens of the USA as well as outlines key principles of living in the country. As it is a liberal constitution it outlines the rights of the people. It does that in the first 10 amendments that were passed four years after the actual constitutions was created by the founders. They are called the Bill of Rights. They outline the right of every citizen of freedom of speech, religion. Also the highly disputed right to bare arms as a part of the militia. As well as these, it also refers to different rights that are granted at the time of trial. Some of them are archaic, such as the third amendment that restricts billeting and was probably made to act in the time of Civil War. The constitution also puts restrictions on the government and how it should be managed. The separation of powers allows for the government to be separated into different groups. This allows them all to focus on one job only. This also act as a barrier so one group does not have all the power. They are separated into the Legislative, Executive and Judicial. The Legislative is in charge of making laws; the executive is in charge of enforcing the laws; the judicial decides on the punishments for those who break the law. Federalism is the idea of splitting political power between a large group and smaller groups. In the case of the united states, there is state government and...
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...The U.S.S. constitution was an beautiful ship around the around late 17 hundreds. This ship was a highly engineered ship. Made by the fellow craftsman, designed by Joshua Humphrey, and with some help of Thomas Jefferson helping out with the copper fittings for the ships. The ships designed was made to protect merchant ships for trade and to protect American power. With the conflict between France and Britain both of them would attack our merchant ships and to turn our sailors to help them fight the war.All the ships were named by the famous first president George Washington and it was his idea to build a nay to protect us. The ship designed was amazing. The good known nickname “Ironsides” was given to the ship cause whenever a cannon ball would hit the ship it would bounce of like nothing. The ship was though and made out...
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...There have only been 27 constitutional amendments since it was created. This shows how difficult it is to amend the constitution and rarely it is amended; only 17 of the amendments have happened in the last 210 years. There are four key reasons why it is hard to amend the constitution but there are other reasons, not to do with the amendment process, that have meant the constitution hasn’t been, or needed to be, amended. The first reason is that the Founding Fathers created a deliberately difficult process. To amend the constitution both Congress and that States have to agree using super-majorities. The use of super-majorities makes the process even more difficult. This is shown by the hundreds of amendments that have been proposed but not successfully carried through and legitimised. The need to get support from a super-majority in all the States is also very time consuming and costly and so it is even more difficult for politicians to get and amendment passed. Furthermore there is a huge percentage of the American population which are at opposing sides of the American political compass. This means that it is often very hard to get everyone to agree to the same policies and amendments and therefore very difficult to get a super-majority at state-level. The process created by the Founding Fathers means that it is incredibly difficult to amend the constitution but it wasn’t just amendment process they created which limits the number of amendments. The Founding Fathers also...
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...them towards supporting the new U.S Constitution which was later ratified in 1788. Before 1788, Madison and Hamilton, I believe were opposed changing some articles of Confederation but they wanted to create a new Constitution where a strong Federal Government would be based on. From these two founding fathers, believe that they would say the following: “As one of the Congress member, I Alexander Hamilton do not support any policy which bear its reference to British policy. I also condemn the laxity which dominates the whole congress which has resulted into increasing acts of mob violence and disorder in the country. I hereby would like to express my dislike of the congress, the army and the whole world for sabotaging our efforts to design a federal government. I believe that through our Articles of Confederation, all the members sitting in the Confederation Congress will find insights regarding as to why creating a new constitution is paramount. I also understand that the Articles have a number of loop holes or weakness which some the members might find it handy to argue against the need for revising the existing article of the...
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...The United States Constitution overcame the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and provided organization for the new government. In the 1780’s, the United States composed their first form of government after the colonists won the Revolutionary War against the British. This first form of government was known as The Articles of Confederation, which gave power to the states and created a unicameral legislature. A new constitution was made at the constitutional convention, which formulated many different compromises such as The Great Compromise, and the Three-Fifths compromise. Some people believed that the Constitution should be ratified, and some people thought it should not be, these people became known as federalists and antifederalists. While the articles of confederation created the first form of government for the states, it had many flaws. Some of these were resolved at the Constitutional Convention by creating many compromises, but people known as anti-federalists still thought that the constitution should not be ratified. This was solved by...
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...Two sides formed during the debate on whether to ratify the U.S. Constitution or not; those who understood the necessity of a national government and those who feared another tyrannical central government. After leaving British rule, the colonists were fearful of another dictatorship and unrepresentative government. Because of this, they created the Articles of Confederation. However, the structure failed to provide the national government enough authority to successfully govern all thirteen states, because none of the state's trusted it. A group called Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Adams supported ratification of the Constitution. The Constitution would replace the weak Articles and enforce a stronger national...
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...led to a decision for the Article of Confederation to be altered to satisfy the nation. The delegates from the thirteen states met in Philadelphia in May 1787 to review the Article of Confederation. In concluding, the delegation members made a common decision that reworking the whole Constitution was better than reviewing the current Article of Confederation (Cheek, 2016). The United States Constitution is reflected to be the supreme law in the United States of America today. It specifies the standards for the association of the United States government. The foundation of the new constitution was created because of the several complications with the Articles. The...
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...Our U.S Constitution contains a list of our fundamental rights, written down by our Founding Fathers for the future generations to remember. The very First amendment promises our right to free expression, which in definition prevents the government from prohibiting people’s choice to choose and communicate their opinions. In regards to the pledge of allegiance, a decision from West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943), stated that any higher power were not able to force an established view on others for it went against the First Amendment. The case was based on the events during 1942, when the Board of Education attempted to make the salute to the flag apart of the daily activities in all their public schools and those who refuse...
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...The US Constitution, written in Philadephia in 1787 by the Founding Fathers was the product of the revolutionary war of independence, with it’s foundations strongly influenced by the works of political theorists such as Montesquieu and Locke. The Founding Fathers favoured a government that prevented any individual or particular group becoming tyrannical. Furthermore, they strongly opposed the notion of excessive government power, seen as the potential threat to individual freedom, wanting to protect minorities as well as the population as a whole, from arbitrary or unjust rule. Consequently, the Founding Fathers outlined main provisions within the US constitution in order to avoid tyranny: the separation of powers, a federal structure of government and also providing citizens inalienable and entrenched rights through the implementation of the Bill of Rights. Arguably, these provisions as a result mostly ensure, as the Founding Fathers had hope to achieve, limited government, in so much as the size and scope of the federal government is limited to an extent in which it is necessary only for the common good of people. The separation of powers prevalent in the USA, whereby political power is distributed between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary branches of government, were adopted from the Founding Fathers by the principles of Montesquieu, who argued for a separation of powers into legislative, executive and judiciary branches in order to avoid tyranny. This framework...
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...This always the judiciary The US constitution is no longer fit for purpose The Constitution was made after the first 13 colonies separated seeking independence and declaring themselves an independent nation. The constitution was created by the 4 founding fathers and includes articles which state the duties of the three main parts of government: the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, and the Judicial Branch. The articles also talk about the separate powers of the Federal and State government, and how to change the Constitution. In 1789 the Bill of rights were proposed and ratified in 1791. In this essay I will discuss whether the constitution is no longer fit for purpose. Another significant point to show the constitution is still fit for purpose is it protects the rights and freedoms of Americans. The 1st amendment guarantees the most basic and fundamental rights, freedom of religion, speech, press and assembly. An example of this is in Texas V Johnson where the meaning of freedom of speech was extended. As the Supreme Court held Johnson not guilty, this protected his rights. However The Supreme court was only able to interpret the constitution differently because it is very vague. This shows that the constitution has loop holes and therefore is not fit for purpose. Another significant point to show the constitution is still fit for purpose is federalism has proved to be an excellent compromise between strong national government and state government diversity. This...
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