Constitution Review part 3

October 7, 2022Blog, Personal Growth, The History Filesconstitutiondebio7 1 Comment

Today’s review will focus on The Bill of Rights section of the US Constitution. Do you recall what The Bill of Rights includes? Can you name some of those rights?

Because I am a teacher of over 40 years, let’s take a little quiz, to review what we have studied so far. Skip ahead if your quizzing days are behind you for good.

What are the major parts of the Constitution called?
What do the first three Articles tell us about?
Where do we find the phrase, “We The People”?
What was the original intention of the Constitutional Convention?
Why is The Constitution such an important document?

For the correct answers and your score, scroll to the end of this post. Good luck.

As mentioned in an earlier post, there were many to The Constitutional Convention who refused to sign the Constitution unless it contained rights for the individual. They were equally sure that the rights of the American individual must be upheld and enshrined as they were that the federal government be strengthened. Therefore, a Bill of Rights was drafted and included in Constitution soon after it was ratified.

THE BILL OF RIGHTS – was ratified on December 15, 1791 as a package deal. In the deal were the first 10 Amendments which were designed to stop Congress from taking away rights that already existed. The rights listed in these 10 amendments were not new rights granted by the Framers, but ones the Framers assumed already existed for everyone. They wanted them codified.

The First Amendment – The wording of the 1st Amendment begins like this –

Congress shall make no law…”
Amendment I – The US Constitution

This first amendment is clearly directed at the Congress and they are instructed that they shall make no laws regarding these personal rights:

establishing a religion (The US did NOT want to have a church sponsored religion like The Church of England had),
prohibiting the free exercise of religion (worship as you choose),
after religion, the next freedoms assumed were
free speech and expression
freedom of the press
freedom to assemble peacefully and
freedom to petition the government with grievances

Each of these rights, are listed in Amendment I of our Constitution and are the binding, supreme law of our land for all. Freedom of religion, freedom of speech and press, and freedom to peacefully protest against our government are guaranteed to American citizens in our Constitution.

Although, these statements seem pretty simple and straightforward, suffice it to say, that through Supreme Court rulings their interpretations have established new precedents for what these amendments may actually mean. Agree or disagree, these rulings have affected us today.

The Second Amendment – the right of the people to bear arms, or own firearms shall not be taken away.

Again this seems clear, you have a right to own a weapon and that right cannot be taken away. But the argument arises, is this amendment speaking to the colonial days when a militia was made up of farmers and common people who possessed their own guns, or to anyone today who chooses to own a weapon for recreational or any other purpose?

The Third Amendment – during times of peace no soldier can stay in your house without your permission. In times of war, soldiers can invade and stay in your home “only as prescribed by law”. Yippie.

The Fourth Amendment – your right against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and warrants may be granted only for probable cause and specific locations detailed within it.

This is the amendment that supposedly keeps the Feds off of your back and out of your house. But it also opens up issues like surveillance, court orders, excluding evidence, and police fishing expeditions for a vast array of information that is unspecified.

The Fifth Amendment – With five weighty issues herein, this amendment deals with these oft-times controversial issues:

the right against self-incrimination (I plead the 5th…don’t have to answere against myself)
the grand jury – a group of 16-23 people that form a bigger jury to determine if a person should be indicted or not. These people are involved in felonies and before a trial jury
double-jeapordy – you can’t be charged twice for the same crime; you can’t be convicted for a crime you’ve already been convicted of; and you can’t be given a second punishment for the same offense
due process – you are guaranteed a fair process in a trial or legal proceeding. (This is a fairly meaty concept with many more nuances, that I don’t care to go into here).
eminent domain – your private property, desired FOR PUBLIC USE by the government, cannot be taken from you without you being paid a fair price. (Think about the homes beside an expanding freeway. These are for public use and must be paid a fair price.)

The Sixth Amendment – guarantees you a fair “speedy” trail by jury and an attorney for your defense. It also adds the fact that you are considered innocent until proven guilty by the jury. There are a variety of other guarantees to you should you go to criminal trail.

The Seventh Amendment – you are guananteed the right to a trial by jury in civil cases as well.

The Eighth Amendment – excessive bail nor fines shall be imposed on you and no cruel and unusual punsihments shall be inflicted. Goodie.

The Ninth and Tenth Amendments – neither of these really deal with personal rights. Both are generalizations and often misunderstood, so I’ll give it my best.

Ninth Amendment – The 21 words comprising this amendment are given to help us interpret the Constitution and tells us that if something is not mentioned in the Constitution specifically, then that right belongs to the people. Within the Constitution are certain rights but those aren’t the only rigts an individual has. Before the Constitution even was, the people had rights, and the Constitution shall not deprive people of those always held rights.

Tenth Amendment – tells us that either the federal government, state government or the people have the power. Even though the power began with, We The People, we delegated some of it to the federal government, and what they didn’t receive was for the states. If a certain power wasn’t specified to either of those, then it still belongs to the people.

Our freedoms are not to be taken lightly by us or given up, yielded or snatched away by another. They are if you will, God given liberties. May we value them and hold firmly to them, not just for us, but for our children and grandchildren.

See you next time for our final review.

Debbie

Quiz Review answers

Preamble, Articles, Amendments
Our 3 branches of governmemt – Legeslative, Executive, & Judicial
In the Preamble
to improve The Articles of Confederation
it is the supreme law of our land, above all others. It tells us how our government is structured and how it is run.

Grading – if you tried at all, you get an A for effort. Way to go! If you got them all right, then you get an A+, now go and share what you know and your love of country. 🙂

Constitution Review part 2

September 30, 2022Blog, Personal Growth, The History Filesconstitution, freedom, libertydebio7 Leave a comment

The framers knew that liberty is a fragile thing, and so should we.”
William J. Brennan

A primary object… should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing… than… communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?’
George Washington

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”
Ronald Reagan

So, here we are passing it on, communicating it, because it is our pressing duty to pass on the knowledge of America’s fragile freedom.

will you take the baton of freedom and run with it?

In this review we will look at the last four Articles of the US Constitution. (Previously we reviewed the first three, The Preamble, and The Constitutional Convention. You can read those for a full picture of our review.)

Remember, there are seven Articles to the Constituion. The first three deal with our structure of government – the Three Branches: Article I- Legisative, Article II- Executive and Article III- Judiciary.

Article IV contains four sections and deals with how states are to relate with one another. It contains the famous “Full Faith and Credit” Clause. This means that every state has to recognize the laws and court decisions of the other states. It is because of this clause that states can make differing laws which may be contradictory from other states. ie: same-sex marriage, abortion, etc.

Article V spells out four intentionally complicated ways in which the Constitution can be changed or ammended. The two most used ways are:

a proposal by 2/3 majority in both houses of Congress
ratification by 3/4 of the state legislatures

Since the ratification of the Constitution in 1791 there have been 5,000 amendments introduced. Only 33 have received 2/3 vote in Congress and only 27 made it all the way through to become part of the Constitution. Of those 27, the first 10, called The Bill of Rights were voted on together, as a set in 1791, which means that only 17 amendments to the Constitution have been made from 1791 to present day. That’s 231 years!! Amazing. It must be working then, to make a “more perfect Union”. Right?

Article VI gains it’s fame from it’s “Supremacy Clause” which states that the Constitution is the supreme law of our land. It also clarifies that federal law is above state law and international treaties are above state law. Additionally, herein lies the issue of national debt.

Article VII stipulates the ratification process for the Constitution. Of the 13 states, 9 shall approve the document to make it legally binding.

It is interesting to note, that all 13 states eventually ratified the document, but it was not without a long battle with Rhode Island. (Remember too, it was Rhode Island who failed to send a delegation to the Constitutional Convention. Hmmmm, I guess the “Hope” state was holding out hope???)

Following the 7th Article you will find the signature of George Washington – President (of the convention), deputy from Virginia.

Following his signature is a list of the states present, with their representatives names listed. Twelve states, 38 representatives are named in the document. Some of the names you may recognize:

Alexander Hamilton
Roger Sherman
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Morris
James Madison

What these men created, a brand new form of representative government based on the will of the people is truely remarkable. To have the forethought and understanding of not only law, government but also people’s wishes for freedom and liberty surely must have come from a higher Source. Our Constitution is a gift for the generations.

Have you gotten your copy of the Constitution yet or gone online to check it out and make sure I am not telling you falsehoods? ha ha

Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

The Articles of the Constitution of the US

Next week we will address the first 10 Amendments- The Bill of Rights.

Let freedom ring!

Debbie

The Electoral College (and more)

December 8, 2020Blog, Personal Growth, The History Filesconstitution, electoral college, president, votingdebio7 Leave a comment

From The History Files

Election season is usually the time that we brush up on what the electoral college is and now more than ever, I believe that refresher course is needed.

America’s form of government and how it works is built upon the the Constitution of the United States of America. The Constitution determines how our government is set up, run and changed as needed.

The Constitution is not a political document, in fact it is the compass for politics, (if there must be politics). It is the guiding force of our nation, providing structure, certainty, safety and direction. It tells us how to do what needs to be done.

All Federal employees, officers, workers, and many State as well, when assuming their jobs, take an oath of office, “to uphold the Constitution of the United States”. The Constitution is our most prized and protected document, for within it we find our foundations.

In Article Two of our Constitution we find our guidelines for “The Presidency”. The four sections of that Article lay out for America, how she is to select the President of the United States. All the details are there.

In Article 2, sections 2,3, and 4 we read about the “Electors”. This is the collection of people that we, today call “The Electoral College”. I will explain more, in a minute.

Let me first say a word about why the framers designed it that way they did to choose our President.

You’ll remember, our original 13 colonies were a collection of small and big states.

From the very beginning of our nation, there has always been heated discussions between the large and small states. Both accuse the other of not understanding their state’s needs or need for power.

As early as 1787, at the Constitutional Convention, the large state of Virginia was fighting with the small state of New Jersey about representation.

Virginia believed their governmental representation should be based on population – because they were big, had a large population, they would have more status and power.

New Jersey believed that each state should have equal representation in their government and therefore equal power. (Just cuz they were small didn’t mean that they didn’t matter, right?)

They were at a stalemate and moving no where fast.

The founding fathers realized that both the big and small states must be represented in our United States, in our government and especially in our elections.

What came of it was what they called, “The Great Compromise”. One in which the states would be represented by population in the House of Representatives (the Lower House) and the states would also be represented equally in the Senate (the Upper House).

This is what has worked for 233 years, and what we call Congress, The Legislative Branch of our government.

Now, this is important and affects our presidential elections too.

Why? Because the founders had no intention of having the popular vote determine the outcome of the presidential election. They knew the large states could easily overpower the smaller states by the shear size of their voting blocks.

Therefore, in writing the Constitution they fleshed out a plan based on “electors”.

How does it work?

Rather than have a candidate win only large states, and thus not truly represent ALL Americans, the candidate would need to earn the electors from many states, thus representing a cross-section of Americans.

The popular vote of a state would determine who would receive those valued electors.

Each state would then hold their national election and it’s outcome would determine how their electors would be assigned.

How many electors does each state get?

They receive the number equal to their representatives in Congress. For example, I live in California, and CA has 55 electors – the same number that represent us in Washington DC.

The electors are people, who are selected to attend a meeting, after the general election; at which time they will cast their assigned vote, based on their states popular vote (except Maine and Nebraska) for President and Vice President. This process is called “The Electoral College”.

What this provides for is the representation of all states in our election. Candidates must work to relate to many states and their people’s needs, many differing ideas and ways. The majority, therefore represents the majority of electoral votes and not the majority of popular votes. Whoever receives 270 electoral votes, receives the majority and thereby represents a broad swath of American ideals.

This is how the Founders designed our system to work. It is not perfect, but for over 200 years it has worked, even in turbulent elections (1800, 1824, 1836, 1872, 1876, 1888, and 2000).

Now here’s the deal, our 2020 electoral college is scheduled to meet on Monday, December 14, at which time, the electors should be casting their votes.

However, because the state legislatures must certify their elections prior to the electors voting, and because that is currently NOT the case in every state, there is the possibility that the December 14 date may be affected.

Additionally, the idea of “safe harbor” – or that safe zone for disputed election results is looming today.

To be clear though, the “safe harbor” ruling says that, “if an election dispute is not resolved by the State by the safe harbor deadline, Congress has discretion over the disposition over the State’s electoral votes.” THAT is a wide open statement in my humble opinion.

Wait, what… whadoyamean?

What I mean is this – the Constitution of the United States has provided direction and guidance for us through very sketchy times, for a very long time. It is the law of the land, and it is working.

However, still to play out are the disputes and contestations – they actually have more time to evolve and will probably be sorted out by some mix of The Supreme Court and Congress. (again, in my opinion)

To close, I am a Constitutionalist, I dearly believe we need it (AND the Electoral College) to be the America we love. I also believe our current election is far from over. There are still unaddressed and contested outliers yet to be adjudicated.

I pray that all of my readers find themselves on the side of the Constitution, regardless of what side you may be on politically.

My continued prayer is God, please Bless America.

Cheers to you.