Why is it important for states to have the ability to modify/amend or totally change their state's constitutions? The Founding Fathers instituted a mechanism in the Constitution that allowed it to be amended, based upon the shifting needs of the nation. A constitution that could not bend would surely 'break,' in the Founders' view. However, to ensure that the Constitution was not amended frequently, with the whims of the moment, the amendment process was rendered extremely difficult. "The constitution is the 'organic' law of the state because it organizes the government and establishes the great principles upon which a state or nation is founded. A constitution, like the foundation of a house, determines the basic shape, but not the details, of that which stands upon it" (Miller 2008). For the states of the union that make up the larger whole of America, there is a similar need to ensure that constitutions are responsive to constituent's needs. States, given their small size and desire to provide local services to citizens, have perhaps even more of a need to bestow individualized attention, as the needs of residents shift and change. But state constitutions are far more limited in their scope: "The U.S. Constitution represents the states granting limited powers to the federal government, while state constitutions represent the limit of powers that the people have granted to their state governments.... States may amend their constitutions to suit their needs, but the
First, the Constitution guards us from tyranny by dividing powers between the central and state governments otherwise known as federalism. The Constitution expressly granted broad powers to the federal government, but not to the states. For instance, the Constitution includes the Necessary and Proper Clause, which allows Congress to make any law they deem appropriate to fulfill its duties. Instead of showing how much power that states have, the Constitution stressed what the states couldn 't do. The addition of the Bill of Rights, including the Tenth Amendment, helped to correct some of this imbalance. The Tenth Amendment reserved to the states or the people all powers either not specifically delegated to the national government or specifically denied to the states. This meant that the central and state
The United States Constitution begins with the simple phrase “We the People”. Yet, with three simple words, the ideology it stands for has shaped the entire country (O’Connor et al., 2011). The short phrase signifies that the document, and thus, the government, is based upon the people themselves. The Constitution reflects the culture and ideologies of its citizens. Similarly, state constitutions reflect the people, albeit in a more specific locality. The key differences between the United States Constitution and that of local states are due to the distinctions between the scope and characteristics of the people they govern.
One reason I believe the states should have the power to do what they think is best for their states right now was because these official are in this state and know what the people want and what they need in the state. See these political offical hear what the people want unlike right now the government tries to do what is best for all the people but some of it affects other states. If the states had the power to decide then all the states would be better and more prosperous. There have been case where the federal government has bullied the states into changing their mind to what they want. Such as in Louisiana they officials wanted to change the legal; drinking age to 18 years old because it
The Framers of the United States Constitution ultimately decided to give more power to the Federal government rather than the state governments for many reasons. There were many problems with the articles that caused instability in the government, and even a rebellion. Then there’s the Federal government who lacked powers to do anything much because the people were too scared to make the Federal government strong. Lastly, there was the State government who had either too much power or they had power that the Federal government should have. There were a lot of problems with the Articles that needed to be addressed , most of which were addressed.
small states which means that the size of a state should have a input on whether it has more say in the government than one less of it size. One way that the documents show that this is in the constitution is when it says that the representatives should be put in service according to the amount of people in the state. It also shows another point when it says the senate should have two senators that are chosen to serve for a term of six years. Big states vs. little states protects against tyranny because it makes sure that the small states are not discriminated against because their size that they shouldn’t have the same amount of say as the larger states in what happens in the government around that serves
The ability of The Constitution to be amended is what still allows it to be relevant today. The updates that are made reflect the attitude of the nation. An example of this being the
The Constitution was written in order to replace the Articles of Confederation and create a centralized government. Times continue to change, and therefore laws must be altered such to keep up with those changes. This was the sole purpose of the amending process of the Constitution. The purpose of the very first amendment was to allow Congress the authority to get involved with state powers that was not allowed at first. This article, Article 1, has been very controversial and confusing at times. It has been a part of our judicial system in judgment of laws and their necessity and still affects us today.
The Constitution of the United States was made through compromises that not everyone agreed on but they came to an agreement on what they thought it should be. Before all of the fifty states were founded there was not a Bill of Rights, it was not until the new government was up and running before the Bill of Rights was added. The reason for this was that the framers of the constitution did not realize that the Bill of Rights was necessary to have at the time. A certainly important choice that was made was how our government was to be
The Constitution is a living, breathing document. It was recognized that each future generation would be facing new challenges that would have never occurred to the older ones, so it had the flexibility available by both interpretation and revisement to allow the newer generation to use the document as it was intended. As society and government grows, additions must be made to the Constitution to keep with the times. The Constitution is also governed by the thoughts of society at that time, seen in the implementation of the 18th amendment because of the urgings of religious and Women’s Suffrage movements. As it is also seen when the government grows weary of one president in office too long, seen in the creation of the 22nd amendment.
James Madison penned Federalist Paper No. 45: The Alleged Danger From the Powers of the Union to the State Governments. Madison’s reason for writing this particular paper is to convince the states that ratifying the Constitution will not take away all of their power. Throughout his paper Madison constantly reiterates how the Constitution makes it a point that the state legislatures will be directly involved in the process of electing those who would run the federal government. “Without the intervention of the State legislatures, the President of the United States cannot be elected at all” (Madison 45). He clearly states the point
I found this unit to very interesting because although I knew that each state had its own constitution I did not realize some of the similarities and differences that they shared. It is important to understand your states constitution because we have more contact with state and local governments on a daily basis than we do with the federal government. Above I made this table that visually shows us the United States and Georgia Constitution so we can compare and contrast them. As we can see the United States Constitution has seven articles and was only ratified once in 1787, while the Georgia Constitution has eleven articles and had been ratified 10 times with the more recent in 1983. Looking at my table I bolded the similarities between the
In any given constitution a nation, the recording of bills of rights has been a gradual process. All the aspects of life in society were done with respect to the law. The society requires being guided by certain principles and guidelines that would define and evaluate each and every aspect of their lives. To ensure that the entire society remained focused and concentrated in the given policies and guidelines, they recorded in the constitution and made available to each and every member of the society for the purpose of doing reviews. The action of the people would be judged in accordance with the constitution. With society running several errands towards the realization of development, many fields had to be covered. Criteria for the operation of the people would require significant efforts to accomplish the set objectives. Violations in the society occur either due to misunderstanding or lack of awareness of the rights present in the constitution. Any form of violation is evaluated by the appropriate form of punishment offered. (Hand, 1965)
“Humbly invoking the blessing of Almighty God, the people of the State of Texas do ordain and establish this Constitution”—those are the opening words of the great Texas Constitution with which Texans authorize the state government to govern them. In history, whenever it becomes necessary and proper for a central power, either at the local or national level, to be ordained to govern a mass population a constitution is regarded as an emphatic “pre-requisite to statehood” (Tushnet, 1) . For centuries constitutions have been drafted by nations all over the world functioning as a social contract between the government and the governed and as a supreme law by which everyone within the nation’s borders would have to answer to. Constitutions not only
The founding fathers made it so difficult to amend the constitution for numerous reasons. The most obvious being that it was considered a safe guard for the Americans. It was meant to protect the people from tyranny. They wanted to insure no one can just come in and amend it without thinking of the common good of the people. The document was so very well written and thought out, they knew that they wouldn’t need many add-ins. To make the process complicated means that if what the future government wanted to change was that necessary, it would find its way to be decided, voted on, and added in.
Federalism was an inevitable and paramount mechanism to creation the of the Union. Therefore, it is acceptable that its governing principles would define and refine a majority of the nation’s history. Shaping the government, laws, and politics of the current and future generations during the creation of the Constitution, federalism permanently altered the life of every American. Federalism and the Constitution were derived from a similar ideal: endurance of free society had to be preserved by a sense of unity that acted as a safeguard against prevalent dangers, advanced the common good while still maintaining responsiveness to the diversity of the nation (Wechsler, 1954). The Constitution established a central government that possessed the capacity to interpret its