The Eleventh Amendment : The Outliers Of The Special Amendments

The Ninth Amendment is one of the most crucial in the Bill of Rights. It states, “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people,” (“A Guide to the Ninth” 1). As mentioned before, it

In the United States Constitution, the 8th Amendment prohibits the use and practices of cruel and unusual punishment. What exactly is considered to be cruel and unusual punishment? This question is a hot topic among America's many different current controversies. Many people are saying that the use of capital punishment (to be sentenced to death as a penalty in the eyes of the law [a capital crime]. An execution [capital punishment]) is a direct violation of the 8th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States (Capital Punishment). They say there should be another way to deal with these criminals other than having them executed. The purpose of this paper is to give a brief history of the death penalty

The amendments were put into place to protect the rights and civil liberties of all American citizens from the federal government. However, prior to the fourteenth amendment, there was no certainty with the constitution. The constitution did not state in a clear enough way who was protected under it and exactly what rights you had as an American Citizen. The 14th amendment was in response to the just passed thirteenth amendment, which ended slavery in all of the southern states. This document drastically changed the perception of the citizens, showing that it protected the civil rights of whites and blacks. While the fourteenth amendment was instated to expand citizenship, it has caused controversy and debate in the court system with two major key points, the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses.

The first point to evaluate when looking at the Eighth Amendment is its the rich history. In the 1700’s, years before the Bill of Rights was created, judges would issue unfair punishments to those convicted if the judge favored the plaintiff or prosecutor. Furthermore, there was one man, Titus Oates, that would lie to the judge about his crimes; he would, in turn, blame the crime on other people. He was responsible for killing thirty-five people and managed to avoid punishment through his lies. Oates not only lied but exaggerated causing those that had been wrongly accused to suffer horribly cruel punishment. “His testimony was responsible for the execution of some 35 persons, but, as the frenzy subsided, inconsistencies were discovered in his story.” (Editors 1). These inconsistencies ultimately lead to Oates’s execution. Another example of legal injustice that

“All men are equal” Thomas Jefferson wrote in the declaration of independance. The 24th amendment later fulfilled that all men are equal by prohibiting the federal and state governments from imposing poll taxes before a citizen can participate in a federal election. This meant that some states charged a tax to vote. This was thought to keep poor and black people from voting. This amendment made it illegal to charge a tax, or any other kind of charge to vote.It was proposed by the Congress on August 27, 1962. Then later it was ratified by the states on January 23, 1964.

In his book, “The Liberty Amendments” Mark Levin argues well on how the slow creep of federal power in the United States has slowly disenfranchised the local government under the guise of propagating and deifying a ‘national government approved’ form of democracy. The people received a message of nationalism, and personal power while at the same time receiving a watered down version of what the founding fathers had originally intended.

The genre of “Saving the Right to Organize” would be an article. This would be a secondary source because it is an article, and it refines the primary source. The topic of this source would be that it focuses on the 13th Amendment replacing the Wagner Act on labor movements in the U.S. Percentage of U.S. workers who were unionized in 1953. A good thesis from this source would be Mark Dudzic’s words, “Articulating [worker] right[s] solely as an

The 13th Amendment says “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” (Doc C) Although many years later African Americans still were not being treated like people, abolishing slavery was a big step to the stop of harsh treatment toward African Americans. The citizenship, and the right to vote are granted to African Americans by the 14, and 15 Amendments. The passing of these Amendments insured that the African Americans are people.

Thomas Jefferson was commenting that the Bill of Rights from governmental. Both the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution had more purpose; The Bill of Rights was meant to give citizens of the U.S. promising freedom to rely on. The Constitution set terms for the U.S. to abide by. The Constitution was established for the people and was a social contract; it was an agreement between the government and society to protect the nation’s deserved rights and liberties. The Bill of Rights was included in the Constitution; it is the first ten amendments which were included to guarantee personal rights. One interesting amendment that has tested numerous times through the Supreme Court is the Eighth Amendment: no cruel or unusual punishment, it definitely changed America’s on what punishment is considered cruel and unusual.

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.

The Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution limits the punishments that may be imposed by the government on American citizens. These limits are compulsory among the states by way of the Fourteenth Amendment. The English Bill of Rights of 1689 expressed concern with arbitrary and disproportionate sanctions, giving way to the Founders inclusion of the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. To explore the Eighth Amendment it is important to consider constitutionally accepted punishments, the ever-evolving practice of capital punishment, and eighth amendment protection inside prison walls.

The 9th Amendment in the Bill of Rights states “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” Ratified on September 5, 1789, James Madison introduced this Amendment to the House of Representatives due to the fact he felt that the eight preceding Amendments dealt with how the Federal Government could exercise its powers. Varying from the prior eight Amendments, the Ninth Amendment was focused on the importance of enumerable rights of the American citizens.

The Amendments were placed in the constitution to give rights and protection to African Americans after the Civil War. All three amendments implemented the essential changes that were desired in the United States: 13 gave blacks freedom, 14 gave blacks citizenship, and 15 gave black men voting rights (Doc A). Since the Civil War just ended and mostly republicans held position in the federal government, they created these amendments because

There have been many amendments that have made their way through the congress since first the constitution was instated. A few, however, never made it into the United States constitution. There were six amendments that were never ratified into the constitution. Some were justified in their reasons for not being ratified, but then there are some which to this day no one quite understands why they were not ratified into the constitution. In Americans attempt to be a fair and just country, its government made many different decisions that were later written into a simple document that would have such an impact on a nation and even the world. The six amendments that did not make the cut were either later rewritten or forgotten completely but here in this paper all six will be looked at and analyzed. The six amendments are Congressional Apportionment Amendment, Title of Nobility Amendment, Corwin Amendment, Child Labor Amendment, Equal Rights Amendment, and District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment.

The Tenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution does not reserve rights for the States that were not within their original powers. Arkansas claimed the principle of reserved powers as set forth in the Tenth Amendment allows the States to add qualifications that Congressional candidates elected within the State must meet, and that the amendment is not a qualification, but rather an acceptable use of the State’s power to regulate the “Times, Places, and Manner of Holding Elections” under Article I. The Supreme Court determined that the Tenth Amendment did not reserve this right for the States but determined that this Article only allowed the States to create procedural regulations, not to exclude classes of candidates. The Courts ruled that the