I chose to write about the 27th amendment, which states that members of Congress cannot increase their salary until after there has been an election of representatives. The 27th amendment is a wise policy that keeps members of Congress from misusing their power, and it is obvious that the framers who wrote the law believed people were, by nature, greedy, and therefore included a safeguard against greedy actions.
I agree with the assumptions underlying the law; it is a wise barrier against public officials abusing their power. It is easy to imagine a heavily disapproved-of representative or senator attempting to raise their salary prior to an election they were unlikely to win to give themselves a golden parachute before being voted out. This
The Eighth Amendment protects the right of prisoners before they are tried and after they are convicted. It also bars excessive fines and “cruel and unusual” punishments. In 1641, the Massachusetts Body of Liberties standards allowed the death penalty for blasphemy and had physical punishments such as cutting off ears and branding with a hot iron. But now the death penalty is no longer allowed in some states because its defined as “evolving standards of decency” and most are extremely cruel and the cost is expensive. The Eighth Amendment prohibits mentally ill persons to “cruel and unusual” punishments. The Supreme Court case in 2005 of Roper v. Simmons is about Christopher Simmons and he was sentenced to death in 1993, when he was only 17.
Until 1951, there was no law restricting the number of times the president of the United States could run for office. After the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Congress proposed the 22nd Amendment. Since its ratification, the highly controversial amendment has survived every attempted repeal. Contemporary presidents of both parties, President Regan and President Clinton, supported repealing or modifying the amendment whereas other presidents believed a repeal would result in political stagnation. While there are certain benefits of restricted term limits, the otherwise undemocratic 22nd Amendment should be repealed.
Ever since April 8, 1913, a portion of US citizens, primarily Conservatives politicians and commentators, have had mixed feelings of the ratification of the 17th amendment. Before, elected members of each House in a state would vote for two senators that they felt best represented their state. Many questioned why the amendment was necessary while a majority defended its ratification. As a result, it’s been argued that this modification took away one of the major powers of the states and increased the national government’s power. Others have said that repealing the amendment would strip away the people’s rights and bring back the corruption that took place in pre-17th amendment elections. But removing and repealing the 17th amendment would finally return powers to the states, decrease corruption, force voters to become more interested in who they’re electing, give Senate the ability to do what they are intended to do, restore the checks and balances system, and restore Federalism. Arguments to remove the amendment outweigh ones that fight to keep it. Repeal it or not, there are still going to be issues. For instance, before the ratification of the 17th amendment, U.S. Senators bought their seats through bribes (Mighell). After 1913, corruption was still present, but it was more of an “underground” deal. It used to be between a candidate and a state legislature, today, it’s the candidate and numerous unknown funding sources (The Campaign). In other words, there were obviously
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
The 14th Amendment of the United States constitution guarantees that, “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” (U.S Constitution, Sec. 1). This amendment gives the citizens of the United States their basic human rights and the process that must be taken accounted for in any given court cases. No individual born in the United States should be stripped from their rights no matter the circumstances, for example the skin color, race, religious beliefs or sexuality preferences should interfere. The Constitution is a document that was signed on September 17, 1787 for the nation in order to solve any pre-occurring disagreements that were bound to happen soon (“Constitution Faqs”). The document establishes the rights that are given to all U.S citizens laying out their rights, the freedoms that they are granted, and the series of events that were to occur in the court of law. When the Constitution was signed into effect many people at that time period had a hard time adjusting to the new laws and regulations. Despite the new laws, many would still abide their own personal traditions and not follow the new established laws. This Mentality that many had would continue to happen for the next couple of decades to come. For example,
The past 27 amendments have been the thread for America’s guide toward living life as a successful American. These amendments have fostered growth and justice for the past two-hundred years; however times are evolving which is means for new procedures. While observing the 2016 elections, I believe there are grounds for creating the 28th Amendment. The 28th amendment shall state that those running for any political office shall not be allowed to continue candidacy if examples of hate or malicious intent are present during campaigning. This year’s forum has been a very frustrating and disgraceful example of what America is not. The name calling and spiteful comments have made something that was once politically prestigious event to something that is merely a publicity stunt. It is plausible that one may get out of line sometimes and may lose sight of what is important, however this entire race has gone too far. It is unacceptable that some candidates are allowed a platform as big as the Presidential race to blatantly express their hate toward immigrants, other candidates, and even the wives of candidates. America is letting what most considered a joke turn into a reality. Unqualified candidates are turning into party nominees and
The 27th Amendment is very unique in its own specials ways. This amendment was by far the longest an amendment has ever taken to be ratified by congress. The initial proposal was made in 1789, and it took over three hundred years to be ratified, ending in 1992. The 27th Amendment is mainly focused on controlling the salary of the members of congress. This amendment was put into action to make sure the congress is not being paid too little, or too much. This ensures that congressional members do not give themselves pay raises without first letting others vote on the decision.
The 24 Amendment allows citizens to vote in federal elections regardless to them paying poll taxes or any other taxes. This amendment also allows congress to invoke this article at any time if necessary, as long as they have approval from the Senate.
The Eighth Amendment, ratified in 1791, and it had three clauses. The clauses are Cruel and Unusual Punishment, Excessive Fines, and Excessive bail. The Cruel and Unusual Punishment means that the state and federal government restrict how extreme the punishment is to a person who has done a crime. This clause is made so that the people that are accused are not tortured and killed cruelly. The Excessive Fines restrict the state and federal government the amount of money a person fined for a crime. This clause created was so that the government cannot take a lot of your money away. The Excessive bail means that courts can’t give a tremendous amount of bond to a person who has broken the law. This clause created so that the judge and jury cannot already make their decision before the case even begins. This is why the saying “an accused is presumed innocent until found guilty” is established.
Not everyone in the United States agreed with the Nineteenth Amendment being passed. Two months after the Federal Government declared that the Amendment had been incorporated to the Constitution in August of 1920, Oscar Lesser “sued to stop two women [Cecilia Street Waters and Mary D. Randolph] to vote in Baltimore, Maryland. Lesser “believed the Maryland Constitution limited the suffrage to men”. He said that Maryland had refused to vote regarding the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, and should not be subject to its application.. In 1922, Leser v. Garnett, was argued before the United States Supreme Court. The plaintiffs of the case argued that the Nineteenth Amendment was not passed constitutionally. They claimed there were “three principal grounds” to their argument, which were: that the power to amend the Constitution did not cover this amendment "because of its character"; that several states that had ratified the amendment despite the fact that their state constitutions prohibited women from voting; and that, in particular, the ratifications of the states of Tennessee and West Virginia were were invalid because they were adopted without following the rules of legislative procedure in place in those states”. In a unanimous decision, the court ruled that the amendment was passed constitutionally. In their decision, the court responded to each of the three arguments. Lesser’s first argument claimed that if Amendment’s are added without the State’s consent, it
The ninth amendment is U.S. citizens are guaranteed their rights that are not listed on the Constitution, such as the right to privacy. Some court cases that are tied with the ninth amendment is the Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), City of Richmond v. J.A. Orson Co (1989), Boy Scouts of America v. Dale (2000), and Grutter v. Bollinger.
The Constitution of the United States and the amendments that follow established the principles of our country. After the north won the civil war, reconstruction began in the south and several new laws were passed to support African American equality. In 1865, the 13th amendment was passed, which resulted in slavery being abolished. These newly freed men were made many promises. Among them were the promises of political, social, and economic justice. It seemed as though these promises would be kept as violating them was deemed unconstitutional. For example, the 14th amendment granted 3 rights to all men: the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, states cannot pass laws to abridge these rights, and the right that all men were seen equal before the law. Also, the 15th amendment was passed, which established the right to vote for all men, and thereby gave African Americans political power. In reality, however, these newly freed African Americans were still treated as inferior members of society. Reconstruction did not provide political, social, or economic justice to freed slaves.
The Fifteenth Amendment granted black men to vote. Put emphasis on men because at this time women still couldn't vote.This amendment would not be fully followed until almost a century. What the government did was that they made a literacy test so difficult that no slave could pass because they had no education. So no blacks could vote really for a long time. So to loop their loophole that made a rule called the Grandfather Clause. This made if your grandfather could vote you did not have to take the literacy test. So every white person's grandfather could vote since they lived in england. So this rule did not apply to blacks since their grandfathers were black and could not vote. One of the main reasons that they made this rule is because
Many people like to argue that prior to the ratification of the 13th Amendment different people or groups freed the slaves. However it was Abraham Lincoln who freed the slaves. Lincoln was not able to abolish slavery at first due to the fact that It was sanctioned by the highest law in the land, the Constitution. In which the Constitution included key clauses protecting the institution, including a fugitive slave clause and the three-fifths clause. Lincoln later in a three-hour speech in Illinois of 1854, he presented more clearly than ever his moral, legal and economic opposition to slavery. Only with his support of the eventual 13th Amendment, would Lincoln finally win over the most committed abolitionists. He used a multitude of methods to free the slaves, a small list that actually had an impact would start with his speech at Newhaven.
Thanks to the groundbreaking Thirteenth Amendment, no person may be forced to work except in retribution for a crime he or she committed. The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is often viewed only as the amendment that abolished the insufferable slavery of African-Americans, - and this does appear to be the case on the surface - however many more interpretations promise many useful arguments for the labor movement and cause controversy over its ineffectiveness in combating racism and its hand in creating the hotly-debated American for-profit prison system.