Debate Debriefing
I believe that the ERA should be ratified to guarantee equal rights for all. While I always though this, this belief was strengthened during the research process. Because I was working on the rebuttal, I found some great reasons for having an ERA that I wasn’t able to come up with a good counter argument for. For example, the 14th Amendment claims to protect all people but if that was true, why was black suffrage the 15th Amendment and women’s suffrage the 19th? This proves that the 14th Amendment is not enough protection.
Our weakest argument was that the ERA is repeating the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, and if Congress even discussed ratification, it would be a waste of time. This is a bad argument because the 14th Amendment doesn’t explicitly say
…show more content…
We didn’t make it long enough, and this is partially because there are so many ways that women and men are unequal not because of the law but because of bad enforcement of the law, so it’s hard to find images or videos that show how they are equal. Our high point was that we had many different ideas about why we don’t need the ERA, which we shared during the opening and closing statements, as well as the rebuttal. The other team had a much better presentation than us: they included good graphics and a video clip, and didn’t just read off the slides. Their low point was their closing statement because the people reading it appeared unprepared, and it seemed like they wrote it during the three minutes we had to make edits.
Style definitely weakened or strengthened arguments, but I don’t think it can ever truly beat out good evidence. Next time, I would spend more time working on the presentation because that’s where we can have tons of facts and I learned that it’s important to anticipate the other team’s arguments before the debate begins because this is good way to figure out what you want to say in your opening and closing
In this essay I will be writing about the effectiveness of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America and considering whether they achieved the purpose of making life better for African Americans. I’m going to start this essay by talking about the Amendments and what they were designed to achieve.
The first of the Progressive amendments is the 16th Amendment. Approved by the Senate in 1909, it introduced the graduated income tax where a person’s taxes increase relative to his or her income. Specifically, the tax charged 1 percent of incomes over $20,000 and a maximum of 7 percent on incomes over $500,000 (Walter Nugent, p.86). It was brought about after the 2 percent tax on incomes over $4,000 tariff in 1894, and was supported by President Taft, Southern and Western farmers, and the Progressives (Foner, p. 718). They believed respectively that the government should wean off obtaining money from tariffs, and that the income tax should fairly correlate to a person’s income. Moreover, it was believed that the amendment would ameliorate the drastic income disparity, and that it would provide the government with more revenue for its increasing state budgets.
Abraham Lincoln became the United States ' 16th President in 1861, delivering the Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy in 1863. If there is a part of the United States History that best characterizes it, is the interminable fight for the Civil Rights. This he stated most movingly in dedicating the military cemetery at Gettysburg: "that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. "The Declaration of Independence states “All men are created equal”.
Section 1. of the Amendment XXVI of the Constitution of the United States (US) states that the right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age. Both houses of the Congress passed the amendment in March 1971.With thirty-eight states adopting it by July 1971; the 26th Amendment was ratified because the prerequisite for three-fourths of states approval had been achieved. President Nixon signed the amendment into law in the same year making the 26th constitutional amendment the quickest to ever be incorporated into the US Constitution. The amendment evoked diverse reactions amongst the public, with some saw it as a judicious
The Fourth (IV) Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses paper, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized" (U.S Constitution, Fourth Amendment, Legal Information Institute). The fourth amendment is a delicate subject and there is a fine line between the fourth amendment and 'unreasonable search and seizure. '
The Bill of Rights became a major influence on state actions with the adoption of the fourteenth amendment. The fourteenth amendment expanded the protection of civil rights to all Americans, many court rulings have nationalized the substantive protections.
6th amendment: we should keep the 6th amendment to allow the people have the right of having assistance. The right to counsel protects all of us from being subjected to criminal prosecution in an unfair trial. This right is more important when the accused faces the death penalty. For example the case of Bradley Manning who was serving for U.S military was arrested for leaking information and aiding the enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Recently, Manning’s defense attorney, David Coombs, filed a motion stating that Manning’s charges should be dismissed because his right to a speedy trial has been completely violated”. So the point is that he at least could defend himself by the information that he had. The importance of this amendment is that
The Tenth Amendment was ratified along with the rest of the Bill of Rights on December 17th, 1791, as well, unlike most other amendments, it gave rights not only to the people, but also to the state governments. The Tenth Amendment was passed in order to delegate powers to the state governments and the people that the national government does not have, this amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”
The eighth amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishments. New Cutting edge technology carries with it the likelihood of new treatment for criminals. A fictional example of such technology is Ludovico treatment, which alters the consciousness of a criminal and makes them non-violent. The use of the Ludovico treatment on prisoners can be considered a cruel and unusual punishment and thus violate the eighth amendment. Even though this treatment may be technically unconstitutional, it would be allowed in the United States for the betterment of society.
Throughout time there have been many amendments to the United States Constitution. Some have had little to no effect on the population. One amendment that this writer will take a look at is the Fourteenth Amendment. The wording of the amendment has been debated here recently but bottom line it abolished slavery. This amendment also made an attempt to equalize everyone that is born here in America or naturalized. The ripple effect of this change to the constitution is still being felt today. It is hard to imagine living in a world where the African American community was not considered equal to the white man. A ground breaking distinction in the language written out in the document was that of it applying on the federal level as well as the state jurisdiction. This is especially important as we see the civil union marriages have conflict
The supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment seem to feel sex discrimination laws are simply not enough. The federal laws and regulations contain many loopholes, are inconsistently interpreted and may be repealed outright (NOW 1). Many supporters claim the Equal Rights Amendment is needed "to clarify law for the lower courts, whose decisions still reflect confusion and inconsistency about how to deal with sex discrimination claims (Francis 2). There is a supporting theory argument that "an amendment of equality would absolutely shift the burden away ...
In order to have an amendment ratified, you must have a total of 38 states. The ratification process can be very long, each amendment is given seven years to try and get all 38 states to ratify it. If ratification does not happen during this time, then the amendment will die. The child labor amendment only had 28 states ratify it. While the Equal Rights Amendment had 35 states ratify it. The ERA was actually extended to ten years but still did not make the cut. It was ratified by 30 states, just in one year. It slowed down very quickly. People were afraid of the things that could happen. Some women even thought that they were suppose to work at home, so why try to be like men? These things caused the ERA not to get passed.
The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia met between May and September of 1787 to address the problems of the weak central government that existed under the Articles of Confederation. The Antifederalists were extremely concerned that the national government would trample their rights. Rhode Island and North Carolina refused to ratify until the framers added the Bill of Rights. These first ten amendments outlined things that the government could not do to its people. They are as such:
The extents of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution has been long discussed since its adoption in mid-late 1800s. Deciding cases like Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade has been possible due to mentioned amendment. These past cases not only show the progression of American society, but also highlights the degree of versatility that is contained within the amendment. Now, in 2015, the concerns are not of racial segregation or abortion, the extent of the amendment was brought to a new field: same-sex marriage. In Obergefell v Hodges, we can see the epitome of the Equal Protection Clause.
This was the major victory for the movement, which also included reforms in higher education, in the workplace and professions, and in health care. Laws protecting sexual assault and alimony would be gotten rid of, and women were now allowed custody of their children in divorce cases. The military draft that was all male was now unconstitutional. Before the law was passed, there were groups that were protesting against it. The leader of the “Stop ERA Campaign” was a business woman named Phyllis Schlafly. Even though she had a law degree, she saw past her privileges feminist had gained for her and glorified the traditional roles of American women. She would open her speeches with, “I’d like to thank my husband for letting me be here tonight”, just to taunt the feminists that were listening. She argued that the ERA would bring changes to women in America that nobody wanted. Despite her protests, feminist leaders addressed the legislature and argued in support of the ERA, and was approved by The House in 1970 then in 1972 by the Senate also. The amendment was ratified by thirty of the thirty-eight states by 1973 (Ushistory.org