The US Constitution was ratified on June 21, 1788, with the purpose of establishing a central government of our new country, which would then provide the procedures and rules of how the government should run. The Bill of Rights, along with the other 17 amendments, states the rights that belong to and cannot be taken away from the people; these rights are protected by the Constitution, preventing the government from infringing on them. The freedom of speech, the press, religion, peaceable assembly, and the ability to petition the government is the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights and is the amendment that you could never live without. This amendment allows me freedom to believe and practice my religion. Because I am Anglican, I worship in the ways of the Anglican Church and my prayers are words that my Church has used for 500 years. If there were a State religion, then it might be illegal for me to believe and worship as I do. This amendment is important: there is a baker in Colorado who would not bake a cake for a same-sex wedding because it is against his …show more content…
religious convictions and the First Amendment allows him to practice his beliefs. The Colorado state government is violating his First Amendment rights by trying to force him to do what he cannot do. An amendment that I would change but not repeal would be the Fourth Amendment. It prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause. I would not completely remove it, but rather expand it so that the government would have to have a warrant to view personal digital information because it is an invasion of one’s personal privacy for the government or NSA to just listen in on your cellphone conversations, read your emails, look at credit reports, search your cell phone history, or see anything that you have ever done online anytime that they want. The amendment process is found in Article V of the Constitution, with the first step of amending the Constitution being that two-thirds of both houses of Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate, must pass a proposed Constitutional Amendment, this sends the proposed amendment to the States for ratification. Congress and the state legislatures are the only two groups in the government that can propose an amendment. There are a total of 100 seats in the Senate and 435 in the House of Representatives which means that in order to get two-thirds of the votes in the senate there need to be 67 yes votes and in the House of Representatives 290 yes votes are needed. After it gets the two-thirds votes it needs, then an amendment then needs 75% of the states to vote for it; 38 of the 50. After the amendment is proposed, one of the branches of Congress will then either approve it or deny it which will then send it to the other and they will tweak the proposal and either approve or deny it and, if approved, it is sent to the state legislatures. The traditional time limit for the state legislatures to ratify an amendment after the proposal is seven years. If I were to create a new amendment that I believe should be added to the Constitution, then it would be that you need to be twenty-one years old to vote.
This is important and should be added because eighteen years old is too young of an age to be making a decision such as who the President should be or how to spend our tax money. People at that age are too immature and inexperienced to make such important decisions. Both the federal government and the states feel that if you are under twenty-one years old then you are too irresponsible to make the personal decision to drink alcohol. If so, you are too irresponsible to make important decisions like electing the leader of the free world! An amendment can also be proposed by a Constitutional Convention called for by two-thirds of the State legislatures. Then, it needs three-fourths of the states to vote for it to then become part of the
Constitution. The US Constitution and the twenty-seven Amendments have a purpose, they are to establish a central government for the country and provide the procedures and rules of how the government should run. It protects the rights that are stated in the Amendments that are given to the people of the United States to live their lives. Without the Constitution and the Amendments it would mean the government would have full control and there would be no say by the people.
After the American Revolution, America had earned it’s freedom from Britain. In order to govern this new country the Articles of Confederation was created. This document was flawed by the colonists fear of putting too much power into a central government. Knowing the document needed to be fixed a constitutional convention was called. The document created at this convention has been our constitution ever since. But even the Constitution was meet with criticism. One major concern when writing the constitution was how to protect the citizens rights. The Constitution did this through the preamble, the legislative process, the limit of presidential terms, the judicial branch, and the bill of rights.
I agree with the statement, “The 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, limiting the American president to elected terms in office, has been successful and should be retained. This amendment has facilitated rotation in office and new ideas, both crucial to an effective democracy.”. The statement is an agreeable because it does not deprive citizens of their right to elect, it opens the candidate pool, problems have not arisen, and stops the country from being a monarchy. The 22nd Amendment limits the American president to two terms, totaling to eight years in office. The restrictions made by the 22nd Amendment have not proven to be a problem.
The Fourteenth Amendment What amendment to the United States constitution is considered to be illegally ratified? What amendment both grants the right to vote to men and then takes away that right to vote? If you answered the fourteenth amendment to both questions you would be right. Although most people think of the fourteenth amendment as being a "civil rights" amendment, it also defines citizenship, voting rights, and states congressional representatives and electors numbers. In this paper I will talk about how the passage of the fourteenth amendment was a relevant event in history, how it impacts our country today, how it is viewed as the civil rights amendment in our textbook, how it has both positive and negative elements to it,
Lowering the legal drinking age would create problems such as infringing on the mental and physical development of the young drinker. As a respected author, Matt Nagin puts it, “The late teens and early twenties are formative years where character building, leadership in the community, and scholastic excellence should be emphasized. Alcohol detracts from all of these.” In other words, Nagin believes that the teen years are an imperative time of growth in a person’s life. Scientists have proven that the brain is not fully developed until the age of twenty five. If Nagin’s argument is correct, and I believe it is, then people should understand that scientists have proven the negative affects that alcohol has on the development of the brain. Alcohol has the power to kill brain cells and damage growth hormones. By making alcohol legally accessible to an eighteen year old, we are literally poisoning his or her brain.
The United State of America, established by the Founding Father who lead the American Revolution, accomplished many hardship in order to construct what America is today. As history established America’s future, the suffering the United State encountered through history illustrate America’s ability to identify mistakes and make changes to prevent the predictable. The 2nd Amendment was written by the Founding Father who had their rights to bear arms revoked when they believe rising up to their government was appropriate. The Twentieth Century, American’s are divided on the 2nd Amendment rights, “The right to bear arms.” To understand why the Founding Father written this Amendment, investigating the histories and current measures may help the American people gain a better understanding of gun’s rights in today’s America.
On December 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights was ratified effective by Congress. These first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America promised the states certain rights and freedoms which could not be infringed by the government. After all, the founding fathers knew from experience that men in their weakness were often tempted by power. They had become all too familiar with this when under the control of King George in England. Therefore, in order to protect the future people of their beautiful country, they promised certain liberties which could not be taken away. Every single one of these freedoms is important for the United States of America. However, the second amendment is especially important to our nation because it allows the people to protect their freedom and defend themselves and the common good against an overreaching government.
The Bill of Rights was created as a listing of the rights granted to citizens, the Bill of Rights serves to protect the people from a powerful government. These civil rights granted to U.S. Citizens are included in the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Additionally, Locke’s ideas about checks and balances and the division of church and state were later embodied in the U.S. Constitution as well. The Constitution replaced a more weakly organized system of government as outlined under the Articles of Confederation. John Locke was an English philosopher who lived during 1632-1704.
In 1787, the Constitution, created by a group of men known as the “Framers”, is the highest law in the United States. At first, the Constitution was not ratify because it did not have a bill of rights which is a list of rights that belong to the people. Therefore to allow changes to the Constitution, the Framers created the amendment process. In 1791, congress proposed twelve changes to the Constitution. Ten of the twelve changes were agreed to by the states and were called “The Bill of Rights.” Some of these rights include the right of free speech, the right to practice your own religion and the right to be silent if you are arrested.
Our bill of rights all began when James Madison, the primary author of the constitution, proposed 20 amendments for the bill of rights and not the ten we know of today. Madison sent these twenty proposed rights through the house and the senate and was left with twelve bill of rights. Madison himself took some out. These amendments were then sent to the states to be ratified. Virginia was the tenth state out of the fourteenth states to approve 10 out of 12 amendments. This two-third majority was necessary to make the bill of rights legal. On December 15, 1791 the bill of rights were finally ratified.
In the summer of 1787, delegates from the 13 states convened in Philadelphia and drafted a remarkable blueprint for self-government, the Constitution of the United States. The first draft set up a system of checks and balances that included a strong executive branch, a representative legislature and a federal judiciary. The Constitution was remarkable, but deeply flawed. For one thing, it did not include a specific declaration, or bill, of individual rights. It specified what the government could do but did not say what it could not do. For another, it did not apply to everyone. The "consent of the governed" meant propertied white men only. The Bill of Rights did not come from a desire to protect the liberties won in the American Revolution, but rather from a fear of the powers of the new federal government.
The first amendment is the cornerstone of our American society founded years ago by our forefathers. Without the first amendment many ideas, beliefs, and groups could not exist today. The first amendment guaranteed the people of the United States the freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, and freedom of petition. Although the first amendment guarantees us, Americans the freedom of speech, we cannot use it to cause others harm. This amendment has helped shaped Americans into what we are today, because of our right to assemble, speak freely, and worship as we please.
The First Amendment of the Constitution is the most important and debatable of them all. The First Amendment states; “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, of prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The Amendment makes it illegal to make a law that establishes a religion, stops the freedom of speech, stops people from practicing their religion, stops the press from printing what they want, and stops people from exercising their right to assemble peacefully or demonstrating against the government.
The Bill of Rights was crafted in 1791 by James Madison. It was put in place to protect the rights of all people within the borders of the United States when it is applied by the government. It is a very important document that means a lot in the hearts of Americans.
The first amendment applies to every single citizen in the country, but most of them do not even know what it is about or what it means. The first amendment states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." In other words, the first amendment defends humans' rights to worship-or not worship- who ever they want, their right to express ideas and beliefs, and their right to unite and protest for what they believe right.