Amendments to the National Constitution

The First Amendment states that "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 to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress

The United States would lose its name and stand divided if the Constitution did not bring the thirteen colonies into one body. Within this governing body, fears arise from the difficulty of controlling power in a central government, while still trying to keep unity between the states. Understanding that the United States was formed based on the people’s irritation with the corruption of the control of power in England, the Constitution reassured the people that their freedoms were going to be kept, but it required their trust. The founders of the United States Constitution established a just government through encompassing equal representation, with the people as the foundation, and protecting the injustices that could arise with the misuse of power.

"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." (Amendment I, U.S. Constitution).

The bill of rights is a popular document that was not originally in the US constitution, but anti federalists wanted a bill of rights really bad because supposedly they were afraid of a strong central government. They did not want another king so some states refused the constitution until there was a bill of rights. Along with being afraid of a central government they wanted a limited government so that government could not control them. The anti federalists also thought the government would not protect their individual rights enough so they wanted a bill of rights.

Our first amendment to the United States Constitution reads; 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

The constitution of the United States of America is the founding document on which the government of America is built. It currently has twenty-seven amendments. It lines out the specific government practices as well as the system of check and balances. It was first drafted July, 1787 after the first form of government, the articles of confederation, had proven very inefficient to a point where it became almost redundant to have them in place. After a large amount of debate the acting continental congress decide to completely revise the current system. The constitution was efficient and fair and it kept the parts of government in place while not giving too much power to one or more branches.

The framers of our Constitution knew that time has a way of changing countries and their citizens. Our country was in a whirlwind of change in 1789 as people were experiencing freedom from the tyranny of England for the first time in their lives. Our country was being molded and formed into a great nation by the founding fathers. Expectations and rules had to be set to protect the rights of the minorities and majorities. Amendments to the Constitution were written to ensure equality for all in changing times.

Before the constitution was created, there was an authoritative document known as the Articles of Confederation that ruled over America. Considering that Great Britain’s monarchy one of the main reasons why America broke off from the British, there is no surprise that they decided to change who the authority went to. However, it is known that the Articles are no longer the form of government we use, proving how horrendous it must have truly been for America to go so far as to change their own way of living. To illustrate, because of the Articles, the federal jurisdiction was no longer able to impose or collect taxes, which led to a large bankruptcy and debt in the country. Moreover, nine out of the thirteen state’s approval was needed to pass

Personally though if I lived during this period of history I would have shared the ideals of the colonist American Identity and I would have seen and understood how fully interdependent each state was to each other having shared one history as a British Colony. I would have fully supported the creation of a bigger, singular entity although I would feel a sense of insecurity on how it will pan out in the long run as there is a distinct difference in views and lifestyles between the Northern states and the Southern States. This is where, I think the Constitution triumphs over the Articles. I believe the Lockean principle of equality and I would have thought that to create an independent separate nation from the British Empire was right. The constitution empowers the citizens of the new American nation giving them a unified sense of governance and identity.

After the Revolutionary War, American colonists went through a transition that required the establishment of a new government, which impacted them politically, socially and economically. In addition, after their unpleasant experience under the tyrannical British government, American colonists decided to establish a government with balanced powers. This means that they would give the government enough power to protect the people while maintaining the rights of the people and the states. Also, even today the United States runs according to those principles which are written in the Constitutional Amendment. Therefore, as time passed the government has seen the need to increase the safety of its people by taking away basic unalienable rights and

The Constitution placed a great deal of power back into the hands of a strong, central government much like that of a monarchy. “The extraordinarily powerful national government that emerged from Philadelphia possessed far more than the additional congressional powers that were required to solve the United States’ difficulties” (Wood 151). The U.S. government was extremely revolutionary though, in the way that it viewed and handled sovereignty. “Unlike the British in relation to their House of Commons, the American people never surrendered to any political institution…their full and final sovereign power” (Wood 160). Throughout the entire American struggle to establish a suitable government, the citizens maintained their ability to influence policy in a way that the British never could.

An important provision of the Bill of Rights is the protection of freedom to publish, as provided by the First Amendment. This protection applies to all kinds of publications, even those that print unpopular opinions. In most censorship cases, every attempt is made to suppress the written word after publication, not before. Minnesota passed a law in 1925 that sought to prevent newspapers, magazines, and other publications from printing obscene, malicious, scandalous and defamatory material. This law was called the Minnesota Gag Law . This law allowed private citizens and/or public prosecutors to request a court injunction to shut down any publication that was known as a public nuisance. Publishers of newspapers had to show that they had good motives for anything they were going to print before they printed it.

To begin the comprehension of Amendment IV, one must go back to the original purposes that the law was created for. In Great Britain, during the late 1700s, the king’s assistants were allowed to search without any evidence or probable cause because they were granted general warrants. Over in America, where Britain had set up colonies, the king could use general warrants to seize items that had not been paid for in taxes. One of the reasons the Fourth Amendment has changed so much since the early years of America is that law enforcement has evolved over the past two centuries. “Policing in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was a responsibility of the citizenry… other than that, there was only a loose collection of sheriffs and constables,

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."

I chose to write about constitutional amendments. There have been many talks about a balanced budget amendment, since Thomas Jefferson in 1798. Most recently in January 2017, senators Mike Lee and Chuck Grassley introduced a measure that would consequently require congress to balance the budget. This measure would create an amendment that would make federal government expenses not to exceed its annual revenue. This amendment would also include that the federal government’s total debit for any year, will not exceed eighteen percent the GDP and require a two-thirds majority vote to raise taxes.