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Article Five, clause two of the United States Constitution
states, under the Authority of the United States, [the Constitution]
shall be the supreme law of the land. As a result of the fact that
College Essays on The U.S. Constitution
the current activist government is pursuing inconsistent policies,
many believe the Constitution has become irrelevant because no guiding
principles seem to exist. Thomas Jefferson once said, The
Constitution belongs to the living and not to the dead. Accordingly,
it is often referred to as a living document because of its regular
alteration and reexamination; therefore, the Constitution has not
become irrelevant in defining the goals of American government. This
will be shown by examining how the Constitution ensures and upholds
American ideas of rights, defines governmental structures, allows for
an increase in governmental growth, and permits the Supreme Court to
shape and define public policy through Constitutional
interpretation.
Through years of research on court cases, political scientists
are in agreement that most people favor rights in theory, but their
support diminishes when the time to put the rights into practice
arrives. For example, a strong percentage of Americans concur with
the idea of free speech throughout the United States, but when a court
case such as Texas vs. Johnson (18) arises, most backing shifts away
from complete freedom of speech. In the case, a Texan named Gregory
Johnson set fire to an American flag during the 184 Republican
National Convention in Dallas in order to protest nuclear arms
buildup; the decision was awarded to Johnson in the midst of stern
opposition (Beth 68).
Lockean philosophy concerning the natural rights of man also
serves amajor role in an Americans idea of rights. Many citizens
feels that it is the task of the state to preserve such birthrights as
life, liberty, and property. The juristic theory of rights deals with
the hypothesis that a mans natural rights only amounted to the
quantity of power he can exercise over any other man. A more general
and logical definition of a right is a claim upheld by the law, in
which case the Bill of Rights becomes important (Benn 15).
Although the Constitution originally did not contain the Bill
of Rights, the states threatened to delay ratification until the
amendments were made. The main purpose of implementing the first ten
amendments to the United States Constitution, was to safeguard
fundamental individual rights against seizure by the federal
government and prohibit interference with existing rights. The
Revolutionary War with Britain was still quite clear in the American
mind during the writing of the Constitution, so the Bill of Rights had
full support of the public because it protected citizens against
everything which had angered the colonists about the British (Holder
5).
The Constitution is extremely ambiguous concerning individual
rights and personal freedoms of man. It does, however, prohibit the
passage of ex post facto laws, which punish people for an act they
committed before such an act was illegal, disallow bills of attainder,
which punish offenders without a trial, and prevent suspension of the
writ of habeas corpus, which requires a detained man to be notified of
the offense he committed (Gilbert 1). The Constitution also
prohibits religious qualifications for seeking and holding a
governmental office, and it secures the right of a trial by jury of
peers in a criminal case (Gilbert 6).
Articles One, Two, and Three of the United States Constitution
define the three structures of the national government, and include
each branchs composition and function.
Article One deals with the Congress, the legislative structure
of the federal government. It is the Congress, rather than the
President, who is bestowed by the Constitution with the lawmaking
duty. The legislative branch contains two Houses, one being the
Senate, which is based upon equal representation of the states, and
the other being the House of Representatives, which is based upon
state population. The Framers envisioned Congress as the most
important and most powerful branch of government, although today much
of the significant legislation is initiated by the President and the
executive department (Holder 0).
In order to be a Representative, one must be twenty-five years
of age or older, a United States citizen for at least seven years, and
reside in the state from which he is elected (Holder 1). On the
other hand, Senators must have attained the age of thirty years, be a
citizen for at least nine years, and also reside in the state from
which he is elected. While Representatives serve two year terms,
Senators serve six year terms (Holder ).
The powers belonging to Congress can be classified as either
economic or military. Economic powers include the authority to levy
taxes, borrow money, regulate commerce, coin money, and establish
bankruptcy laws (Holder 8). Certain military powers involve declaring
war, raising and supporting armies, regulating and maintaining navies,
and supplying militias (Holder ). Article One also contains, in
section eight, clause 18, and elastic clause which allows Congress
to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper...
The Constitution also elaborates upon certain acts to which it
is prohibited. Such acts include no Bill of Attainder or ex post
facto laws, no suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus, other
individual rights that man possesses (Holder ).
Article Two discusses the executive branch of the government-
specifically the President of the United States- and specifies his
powers, duties, responsibilities, and requirements for office (Holder
5). The President is the Commander in Chief of the United States
Army and Navy; he has the power to make treaties and fill vacancies
during a recess of the Senate (Holder 7). He is required to give a
state of the union address each year in order inform Congress
of the present condition of the United States as a whole (Holder 8).
In order to hold the office of the Presidency, one must be a natural
born citizen of the United States, over the age of thirty-five, and a
resident of the United States for fourteen years. The case of his
removal from office, the powers of the President are handed over to
the Vice- President and he shall complete the Presidents term in
office (Holder 6).
Article Three deals with the third branch of government- the
judicial branch. This Article lays the foundation for a Supreme Court
of the United States, but all lower courts and federal courts,
including the Supreme Court, is under the jurisdiction of Congress.
The organization of the federal court system established by Congress
is hierarchical. The highest court, the Supreme Court, is located in
Washington D.C. and consists of nine justices, there are eleven
Circuit Courts of Appeals distributed throughout the country, and
approximately ninety federal District Courts (Holder 40).
Judicial power extends to all cases in which law and equity
arise under the Constitution (Holder 4). The Supreme Court consists
of eight associate justices and the chief justice, all appointed by
the president with the consent of the Senate. Members of the Court are
appointed for life terms and can be removed only by resignation or
impeachment (Holder 44).
Over time, the United States Government has grown steadily in
size and complexity, and it is continuing such growth daily. In
recent years, such growth in the state and local levels has led to an
increased interest in implementation activities- those activities and
tasks undertaken after a law is passed (Ripley 4). Graphical trends
show that government spending, employment, and spending as a
percentage of the Gross National Product have increased at a healthy
pace since the beginning of our nations existence, and such trends
are predicted to continue their rise well into the twenty-first
century (Ripley 5). Implementation of programs on the federal level
are rarely directed straight from the national government in
Washington, D.C. Most require a combination of federal field offices,
state governments, local governments, and local nongovernmental
actors. Such actors, through providing services to beneficiaries, have
become important implementers. For example, many programs created to
compensate the unemployed are implemented by a network of groups
including the United States Employment Service, fifty separate state
employed security agencies, and countless local offices as a result of
those fifty state agencies. Other employment agencies include the
national office of the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) of
the United States Department of Labor, ten regional ETA offices, fifty
state offices, and between five hundred and six hundred local service
delivery areas. As shown, one governmental program can easily
encompass numerous agencies and office space, and with such programs
arising daily, this translates into rapid governmental expansion
(Ripley 6).
Due to the fact that programs, whose numbers have grown
significantly in recent years, need bureaucrats in order to be
implemented, Americas bureaucracy has increased in the same manner as
its programs have. Two main factors have contributed to the growth of
bureaucracy in government. First, specific external trends and events
such as violence and economic difficulties cause complex growth
because of the programs that are necessary to halt such problems.
Second, a bureaucrat working for a specific agency has a natural
tendency to improve the importance of his agencys work; thus, his
efforts result in expanded bureaucracy (Ripley 4). Although some
political scientists argue that a growing government will limit
freedom of the people, many believe that governments increased role
in the lives of Americans serves to protect civil liberties and civil
rights.
Throughout United States history the Supreme Court has been
called upon to interpret the Constitution in one or two possible ways.
First, a strict constitution of national law, which upholds the
belief that the states are vested with ultimate governmental
authority, while the federal government should only have secondary
authority. Second, a less strict, more federalist position, which
maintains that the Constitution, due to a broad interpretation, hints
toward implied powers in the central government. The second view was
especially prominent from 1801 to 185, under chief justice John
Marshall (Armstrong and Woodward 10).
Under Marshall, the case of Marbury vs. Madison (180)
involved a contested appointment by the predecessor of then Secretary
of State James Madison. The Court held that an act of Congress in
conflict with the Constitution was void and that the Supreme Court
possessed the power to declare if such a conflict existed. This
decision set the precedent for what is known today as judicial review,
and provides the Court with a means of checking the legislature
(Armstrong and Woodward 14).
It is a common belief that no body of doctrine, such as the
Constitution, is ever fully developed at the time of its completion.
With an ever changing society, it is apparent that the Constitution
must transform along with society through interpretations of
provisions to the original text. This distinction is put in the hands
of the Supreme Court justices who are forced to confront
circumeztial changes and new situations of modern times quite
frequently. They are expected to reshape the doctrine in compliance
with the original ideas of the Constitution, or the intentions of the
Framers, to ensure that new provisions do not deprive man of the
right to govern himself (Bork 51).
Since the birth of the United States, Americans have formed an
unbreakable habit of evolving economic, political, philosophical, and
social questions into lawsuits. It is because of this habit that the
Supreme Court is often the eventual resting place for a societal issue
(Brennan 517). Such situations are prime examples of how the
Constitution displays qualities of a living document. Despite the
fact that the original text is over two hundred years old, the
document, through the interpretation of the Supreme Court, is still
able to consistently shape public policy at will.
Although people argue that the Constitution is irrelevant
today because it doesnt properly define the goals of American
government, the Constitution has not become irrelevant, and it is
still the driving force behind our government. Americans idea of
rights are shaped daily by the Bill of Rights and the acts that
Congress is prohibited to amend. Through the use of Lockean
philosophy concerning the nature of man, the Constitutional rights
will always pertain to the needs of society, despite the fact that
such thought is nearly three hundred years old. The Constitution also
regulates the powers of each governmental structure by allowing a
system of checks and balances to emerge. The continuing growth of
government in recent years causes more legislation, but ultimately
preserves civil right and liberties through such growth. The Supreme
Court is able to mold public policy with every decision it hands down
on every case it oversees. The relevancy of the Constitution is quite
clear in the everyday lives of each American, and it establishes
itself as the supreme law of the land on a regular basis.
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