September 2006     

Celebrate the Birthday of Your Government

The Importance of Having a Constitution

In its most general sense, a Constitution is the fundamental, underlying framework of government for a nation or state. Most countries have a Constitution. The United States has a Constitution, and is a Constitutional government, because it requires everyone, regardless of position or office, to abide by higher law. The United States Constitution establishes both the government's power, and the fundamental rights belonging to all people who reside within the borders

While most of the world's constitutions are written, they need not be. For instance, Great Britain has an unwritten Constitution. When the British refer to the term constitution, they are referring to their collective legal traditions, including: the Magna Carta of 1215, the English Bill of Rights of 1687, Acts of Parliament, and the collective decisions of the British Courts (known as the common law).

When people in the United States refer to the Constitution, they are often referring to the written document that lays out the structure and function of the federal government, and that contains the Bill of Rights. People also may refer to their own state Constitutions.

The Provisions of the U.S. Constitution

Written in 1787 and ratified in 1789, the U.S. Constitution is the oldest national Constitution still in use.

The U.S. Constitution contains seven Articles.

• Article I established the Legislative Branch of government.
• Article II established the Executive Branch of government.
• Article III established the Judicial Branch of government.
• Article IV regulated the relations of individual states with each other.
• Article V established a means for amending the Constitution.
• Article VI established the Constitution as the Supreme Law of the Land.
• Article VIII established a procedure for ratifying the Constitution.

There are 27 Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, of which only 25 are active.

The first Ten Amendments are known as the Bill of Rights. They list specific rights of the people which the government may not infringe upon. They were added immediately after the Constitution was ratified. (e.g., freedom of religion).

The Eighteenth Amendment prohibited the sale or transportation of alcohol, and the Twenty-first Amendment repealed the Eighteenth.

The remaining amendments either alter portions of the Constitution, or expand individual rights.

The Importance and Strength of the U.S. Constitution

One of the primary roles of any Constitution is to limit the powers of a government by informing all of the citizenry of those powers a government may legitimately possess.

No Constitutions: Historically, many rulers did not write Constitutions, in an attempt to keep all power to themselves. For instance, King Louis XIV of France (who did not have a Constitution) is famous for saying, "I am the State" - meaning that the law was whatever he said it was. A Constitution exists to prohibit such unchecked concentrations of power.

The British Constitution and the Revolution: Although they saw many benefits of the unwritten British Constitution, the Founders argued that, without reducing basic principles of government to writing, they were too easy for rulers to manipulate. Indeed, the Founders justified the Revolution by arguing that the British King and Parliament routinely violated the British Constitution. Thus, they established a written Constitution for America.

Empty Constitutions: Even if Constitutions are written, they are empty, if the government is free to ignore their provisions at will. For instance, the former Soviet Union had a Constitution, which it often disregarded.

The U.S. Constitution: The ultimate strength of the U.S. Constitution is that it not only establishes a government, but it establishes a government which, to use Thomas Jefferson's words, can "govern itself." In other words, the document not only lets all people know the limits of the government's power, but, the system of checks and balances that it has created ensures that these limits will be obeyed.

Constitutional Protections Against Government Abuse

The American Revolution was, in large part, fought because the colonists believed that the British King and Parliament were violating their rights - namely, their right to be free from taxation without representation. When the colonists won independence, they made sure that the new government they created would respect their rights. Today, a variety of Constitutional provisions and laws specifically prevent the government from infringing upon individual rights.

Certain provisions within the first Seven Articles of the Constitution protect individual rights. For instance, the Ex Post Facto clause of Article I, Sections 9 and 10, prohibits both the federal and state governments from punishing persons for actions that were not crimes when they were committed.

The Bill of Rights is the name given to the first Ten Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. It lists specific rights that the government may not violate.

• The First Amendment protects freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.
• The Second Amendment protects the right to keep and bear arms.
• The Third Amendment prevents soldiers from being housed in private homes by the government, except during times of war.
• The Fourth Amendment sets the requirements for issuing search warrants, and prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.
• The Fifth Amendment protects several rights, including: the right to remain silent, to not be tried twice for the same crime, to have a grand jury review a criminal case before a formal charge is brought, to not have the government seize private property without paying for it, and to not be prosecuted for a crime and/or deprived of your life, liberty, or property without being heard (known as Due Process of Law).
• The Sixth Amendment provides rights relating to a criminal trial, including: the right to an attorney, to cross examine witnesses, to make sure that relevant witnesses are compelled to attend the trial, to have an impartial jury, and to have a speedy trial.
• The Seventh Amendment provides for the right to a jury trial in most civil (non-criminal) trials.
• The Eighth Amendment prohibits excessive fines, bail, and cruel and unusual punishments.
• The Ninth Amendment reserves to the people rights not otherwise specified.
• The Tenth Amendment protects the powers of the states.

The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies most of the provisions of the Bill of Rights to the States. The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the States from using the law to treat people differently without sufficient justification.

Voting is one of a citizen's most important rights in a democracy. Several Constitutional provisions deal with this right, including: the Fifteenth Amendment (gave newly freed slaves the right to vote); the Nineteenth Amendment (gave women the right to vote); the Twenty-Third Amendment (gave residents of the District of Columbia the right to vote in Presidential elections); and the Twenty-Sixth Amendment (lowered the federal voting age to 18).

Laws Prohibiting the Infringement of Individual Rights

The Constitution only prohibits the government from infringing upon individual rights. With the exception of the Thirteenth Amendment's prohibition of slavery, it does not prohibit private individuals from doing so.

The Constitution does give the federal government the power to make laws that affect private individuals. The government has used this power to enact laws that prevent private individuals from infringing upon each other's rights, e.g., the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits private businesses from discriminating against persons because of their race, ethnicity, religion, etc.