Saturday, November 25, 2006

Amendments 16-19

16th Amendment- It states that Congress may tax the citizen’s income and they may use for whatever they like. This may very well be one of the most unpopular amendments, but it is still in place today. Congress needed a source of income after the Civil War, and they got it from the people. “The financial requirements of the Civil War prompted Congress to levy the first American income tax in 1861, a flat 3-percent tax on all incomes larger than $800; the wartime income tax expired in 1872.” (Beschloss 138)

17th Amendment- This amendment lays down how the US Senate will work. Each state will elect two Senators. They shall have one vote. They are to serve six years in office. If for some reason there is a vacancy, then the governor of that state will appoint someone. This amendment was ratified on April 8, 1913. Before this, the members were chosen by State legislatures. “Until 1913, when ratification of the 17th Amendment made them subject to popular vote, Senators were elected by the State legislatures.” (Reader’s Digest 66)

18th Amendment- This states that any alcoholic beverage is to be banned within the United States. Importing, exporting, manufacturing, and consuming was all illegal. This amendment was ratified on January 16, 1919. It would later be repealed by the 21st Amendment on December 5, 1933. More bad things came from this amendment than good things. “The national liquor ban, widely ignored, spawned bootlegging, corruption, and organized crime.” (Reader’s Digest 63)

19th Amendment- It simply states every US citizen shall be given the right to vote regardless of their gender. Or in other words, women are now given the right to vote. The women had been fighting for this for a long time and they finally got it. In 1918, the National Women’s Party urged women to vote against anti-suffrage Senators.


Beschloss, Michael. Our Documents. Oxford University Press: New York. 2003

Readers Digest, The Story of America, Creating a System of Government. Readers Digest Association: Pleasantville New York 1975.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Amendments 11-15

11th Amendment- A person in one state cannot sue another state in the Federal Court. A person cannot sue the state unless he is a resident of that state. This amendment was implemented so that the states may enjoy their sovereign immunity.

12th Amendment- This amendment completely changed how we vote for the President and Vice President of the United States. The old way was they would cast two votes for President. The person with the most votes would be president and the candidate with the second most would be the Vice President. This amendment changed the format to what we have today. We vote for a president and a vice president at the same time. It also amended the process on how the president is put into office. “Rather, it amended the process whereby the Electoral College, or in some cases the House of Representatives, chooses the President.” (12th Amendment to the United States Constitution.) Article 2, Section 1, Clause 3 of the Constitution was changed by this amendment.

13th Amendment- Slavery shall be illegal from here on out, except for a punishment of a federal crime. Although this amendment abolished slavery, unfortunately, that’s all it did do. “It did not decide whether former slaves were citizens or whether they could vote, nor did it protect them from oppressive working conditions.” (Beschloss 101) It wasn’t until March 21, 1995 when Mississippi ratified this amendment.

14th Amendment- Section 1 simply says that if you were born in the US, then you are to be considered a US citizen. Section 2 gives the voting rights to US male citizens 21 years of age or older (except if convicted of a crime). Section 3 states that no one can hold a position of power within the US government if they have committed a crime or rebellion against the country. Section 4 says that the government will not pay any debt off that has to do with criminal or rebellious funding. Section 5 closes by saying that Congress has the right to enforce the provisions of this amendment.

15th Amendment- This amendment goes in conjunction with 13 and 14 and says that all citizens shall be allowed to vote regardless of their race, color, or previous servitude history. Congress has the authority to enforce this article. This is when the 3/5’s Compromise was dealt away with. This infuriated the white men and racism began to absolutely explode. “The Fifteenth Amendment was only the beginning of a struggle for equality that would continue for more than a century before African Americans began to participate fully in American public and civic life.” (Beschloss 109)

Beschloss, Michael. Our Documents. Oxford University Press: New York. 2003

Readers Digest, The Story of America, Creating a System of Government. Readers Digest Association: Pleasantville New York 1975.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Amendments 1-3

The 1st Amendment
The 1st Amendment gives people freedom of religion, speech, press, petition and assembly. This religious freedom allows for one religion to not get to dominant. It says nothing about putting up a barrier between the government and religious institutions though. “If, taken literally, the clause creates no wall of separation, neither does it refer to a national religion or to the concept of preference; it does not permit government preference for religion over irreligion, let alone one of one religion or church over others” (Levy 80)

The 2nd Amendment
Everyone has the right to have guns in their possession for hunting and protective purposes. When they made this amendment, many times the guns were used for hunting purposes. Now-a-days this right has been abused and people have them and use them all to frequently. They don’t bear arms to protect themselves, but to hurt other people. This amendment is an amazing privilege that the government has entitled us and it applies to every U.S. citizen. “Though originally the first ten Amendments were adopted as limitations on Federal power, yet in so far as they secure and recognize fundamental rights -- common law rights -- of the man, they make them privileges and immunities of the man as citizen of the United States” (Second Amendment to the United States Constitution)

The 3rd Amendment
The militia cannot stay at someone’s home without the consent of the homeowner. Before the American Revolution, the British militia would do this to the colonists. This amendment is for the most part irrelevant in modern times because the wars are usually not in America and we have our own bases to home our soldiers.


Findlay, Bruce Allyn. Your Rugged Constitution. Standford University Press: Standford. 1950.

Levy, Leonard. Origins of the Bill of Rights. Yale University Press: Yale University. 1999.

Amendments 4-10

The Fourth Amendment
The right to be secure against unreasonable searches slightly existed before the American Revolution. This amendment came about from the American Revolution and the Magna Carta. "The Fourth Amendment emerged not only from the American Revolution; it was a constitutional embodiment of the extraordinary coupling of Magna Carta to the appealing fiction that "a man's house is his castle” (Levy 151). The Fourth Amendment protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures of their property. It also says that they may only search one's property with a Warrant. The only way to receive a Warrant is if there is probable cause. These warrants must be supported by oaths or affirmation.


The Fifth Amendment
This amendment is the right against self-incrimination amendment. It basically states that a person can only be charged for a federal crime if they have already been indicted by a grand jury. This is there to make sure that the courts go through all of the proper steps needed no matter how “infamous” the crime may be. A person also may not be tried for the same crime twice. This would be called Double Jeopardy and it is unconstitutional.

The Sixth Amendment
The sixth amendment gives right to a speedy trial without delay. The trial must be held in the place the crime took place. The defendant is entitled to be represented with an attorney present. This amendment also gives the right for cross-examination to be possible. When the trial is taking place, the court must specify why the defendant is present.

The Seventh Amendment
This gives right to a trial with a jury in a civil case. Both parties can agree to a bench trial and wave the fee if the money in the case exceeds twenty dollars. A bench trial is when no jury is present and it’s just the judge who is.

The Eighth Amendment
It does not allow for any outrageous bail fees to be part of the punishment. The punishment must fit the crime. This idea is also biblical. In Leviticus 24: 19-20 it states that, “If a man injures his neighbor, what he has done must be done to him: broken limb for broken limb, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As injury inflicted, so must be the injury suffered.” The punishment must be proportional to the crime. There will also be no cruel or inhumane punishments allowed to go on as part of the consequence.

The Ninth Amendment
This states that the laws in the Constitution may not be construed in order to deny or make more rights for themselves. They must interpret it how it was written. This amendment is very ambiguous on what its intent was. “The question whether the Ninth Amendment was intended to be a cornucopia of unenumerated rights produce as many answers as there are points of view” (Levy 242)

The Tenth Amendment
This amendment is very controversial. It can mean one of two things. The first is the person can do what he wants if the Constitution or State says nothing against it. Or it could mean that the state decides what to do when a something is not in the Constitution or its own guidelines.

Levy, Leonard. Origins of the Bill of Rights. Yale University Press: New Haven. 1999.

The Holy Bible. Zondervan Publishing House: Grand Rapids, Michigan. 1985.