The U.S. Constitution Marathon | 5-Minute Videos

Against All Odds the Americans won their War of Independence but their success brought a new challenge no less daunting what sort of government should they choose for themselves how could they ensure that the tyranny of the English King George III would not be replaced by a home-grown tyranny one possibility was to establish an American monarchy with a better King that was tempting for some especially because they had a superb person for the job General George Washington to his Legion of admirers the fact that he did not want to be king made him an even more attractive candidate the other possibility was to establish a republic a government of and by the people and their representatives but this solution came with a big problem historically republics like those in ancient Greece and Rome had always failed and when they failed they were usually replaced by the very worst most oppressive forms of tyranny might there be a way to make republicanism work and last to structure a constitution that would protect the new American Republic from the social and political pathologies that had destroyed republics throughout history America's founding fathers men like Washington Thomas Jefferson Benjamin Franklin John Adams Alexander Hamilton and James Madison believed they had answers they had risked everything when they declared their independence from England they were willing to risk everything again to create a new different and better type of republic the key they all agreed was to establish structural limits on power the power of anyone and any institution exercising governmental Authority in the summer of 1787 in one of the most creative acts in human history these men minus Jefferson and Adams who were serving the country abroad fashioned a national government divided into three separate parts or branches the legislative Congress the executive the president and the judicial the courts Congress would make the laws the executive would execute the laws and the courts would settle disputes arising under the Constitution and laws of the United States dividing power would prevent power being concentrated in any one branch the concept of checks and balances moreover the central government would be limited to the powers specifically delegated to it having no powers Beyond those enumerated where then would most of the powers of government reside the answer was with the states this was not a some wrongly supposed done to protect slavery rather it was done out of the Common Sense belief that those public officials nearer to the people would naturally be more responsive and accountable to the people just to make sure nobody missed the point after attaching a Bill of Rights to the Constitution the founders enshrined this principle in the Tenth Amendment the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited buy it to the states or reserved to the states respectively or to the people in short whatever the Constitution does not specifically delegate to the national government belongs to the states and the people but the power of the States was also limited by constitutional prohibitions in certain areas either because power in those areas had been delegated exclusively to the national government such as the power to enter into treaties with other nations or because the framers did not want government at any level to have certain powers such as the power to confer titles of nobility something incompatible with republicanism still as much care as the framers took to constrain government power federal and state they knew their efforts would fail unless one more component was present citizens imbued with the spirit of republicanism people who understood the principles of their constitution who valued self-government and who would be willing to do the work necessary for its maintenance citizens who would not yield to demagogues who promised Prosperity security or anything else at the price of Liberty James Madison had this in mind when he said that only a well-instructed people could be permanently a free people by a well-instructed people Madison meant above all a people well educated about our constitutional Liberties and responsibilities when at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention a woman asked Benjamin Franklin what kind of government he and the others had proposed for the nation he famously responded a republic Madam if you can keep it the Wise Old Philadelphia polymath had history in mind in giving that answer he knew that he and his colleagues at the convention had supplied only the mechanics of what was needed for a republic to long endure the rest could only be supplied by We the People understanding and fulfilling our duties as Citizens that's why studying the Constitution is essential how can we fulfill our duties as Citizens if we don't understand the document on which that citizenship is based I'm Robert George professor of jurisprudence and director of the James Madison program at Princeton University for Prager University spring 1787 the American Revolution had been won but there was no peace because there was essentially no government there were States but they weren't United not even close there was no mechanism to collect taxes no way to provide for the National Defense the nation was living on the edge of Anarchy George Washington understood this so did James Madison and Alexander Hamilton so did many others something clearly had to be done in fast the word went out across the land a new constitutional convention was called for when Washington announced he would be there the meeting gained instant credibility 55 men from 12 States arrived in Philadelphia in 1787 to draft the framework of a national government there was no guarantee that they would succeed and even if they did there was no guarantee that the American people would accept their plan failure was a real possibility and everybody knew it the different interests of the states were just too pronounced over trade taxes and slavery to name just three of a dozen points of conflict yet they all knew that they had to succeed or there would be no country just a loose collection of individual territories sharing the same continent easy prey for the European powers Not only was America's future on the line so was the Glorious principle of self-government as stated in the Declaration of Independence the reason for the Revolutionary War so these 55 men locked themselves in a room for four months working six days a week through the middle of a hot Philadelphia summer to get it done they all agreed they would say nothing to the Press about their deliberations they even closed the window shutters so that no one could look in making a very hot room even hotter as the temperature Rose outside tempers Rose inside still they persevered on September 17th they finished and the country in the world learned what they had produced the Constitution of the United States four thousand five hundred words of collaborative genius how did they do it there are many answers many happy accidents perhaps even divine intervention but here are three reasons that stand out first they knew the stakes the Articles of Confederation under which the country had been operating since the Revolution were clearly inadequate this was dramatically demonstrated in 1786 when a group of New England Farmers took up arms in a tax dispute known as Shay's Rebellion the rebels came close to overturning the state government of Massachusetts no one wanted Anarchy but Anarchy was staring the country in the face second these were very capable men they were both learned and pragmatic many like James Madison Alexander Hamilton Governor Morris and James Wilson were steeped in the great works from classical Antiquity from thucydides to Aristotle from Libby to Cicero and of course they knew their Bible they were also men of the Enlightenment and saw Politics as a kind of science they studied what had worked in the past and what had failed but perhaps even more important they also had enormous practical wisdom sorts of hard lessons that could only be gained by experience the Americans for much of the 18th century had been effectively governing themselves because the British crown mostly ignored them contrast that to Bourbon France or czarist Russia where one person wielded absolute power third they were prepared to compromise perhaps the most extraordinary feature of the Constitutional Convention is that they stuck it out the delegates disagreed on almost everything they disagreed on how power should be divided they disagreed how senators and representatives should be chosen how much power the executive should have and how much the court should have and most of all they disagreed on slavery yet on every issue often after Furious debates they reached a compromise the easy thing would have been to go home and denounce the entire project a few did but most didn't they knew they had to make this work there was no good alternative and there was a final and crucial element the paternal presence of George Washington no one wanted to fail in front of the general he had come out of retirement and put his reputation on the line to preside over this convention if it did not succeed all the sacrifices he had made to win the war would have been in vain he knew it and everyone in the room knew it Washington rarely spoke but he didn't have to his mere presence was enough to remind them just how important this moment was it's not by accident that we call him the father of the country the Constitution was designed to deal with the crisis of the moment but also to guide the future of the Young Nation it has succeeded Beyond anyone's wildest dreams I'm Jay cost senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of James Madison America's first politician for Prager University we the people of the United States these are the words that open the American Constitution we take them for granted now but the time they were written they were earth-shattering if you think that sounds like an exaggeration consider this no government had ever come into existence based on a document written for the people and approved by them it makes perfect sense then that the most immediate and accountable branch of the government the legislature would be the first item on the Constitution's agenda this is article one it's divided into ten sections Section 1 creates a bicameral legislature that is a legislature made up of two separate entities a House of Representatives and a senate thus the theme of The Constitution is immediately suggested this is going to be a government in which power is both limited and shared section 2 describes how members of the House of Representatives are to be chosen to run for office you must be a citizen reside in the state you're representing and be at least 25 years of age it's easy to miss but at the time this was another startling feature of the Constitution almost anyone could be a candidate for Congress the citizen politician is an American innovation section 2 also describes who could vote and how many people takes to make up a congressional district this shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons and three-fifths of all other persons this last phrase refers of course to Slaves it should be noted that the word slave does not occur in the Constitution the framers kept it out for two reasons one they recognize it would not play well in a document that was all about freedom two they believe that slavery would fade away with time but it did exist in the framers here and now so it had to be dealt with the northern abolitionists those who were for abolishing slavery didn't think slaves should be counted at all why because if slaves were counted the population of the southern slave states would be increased and consequently the political influence of the anti-slavery North would be decreased of course the southern states wanted their slaves counted as five-fifths that is as whole persons so that the population of the slave states would be greater and give the South more power in the House of Representatives the Three-Fifths Compromise came after much Fierce debate neither side was fully satisfied but the country stayed United and got a constitution no small feat Section 3 concerns the second legislative body the Senate whereas members of the House of Representatives are elected by the people directly and serve two-year terms senators are to serve six-year terms and are chosen by each state government populous states would have more representatives and less populous ones but every state would have the same number of Senators two this gave the states an equal share of legislative power the minimum age requirement to be a senator was set at 30. sections four five and six establish the basic operating rules when Congress shall meet what constitutes a quorum what to do with disorderly members and so on section 7 sets out the process for enacting legislation A bill must receive the consent of both the house and the Senate to become a law the president is also involved in this process he can veto legislation his veto however can be overwritten by a two-thirds vote by both houses of Congress passing laws which by definition are restrictions on freedom is not meant to be easy it's meant unless there's overwhelming support to be hard Section 8 lists the legislature's many responsibilities such as establishing and equipping the Armed Forces coining money and regulating interstate commerce perhaps the most important of these responsibilities is articulated in the taxing and spending clause which allows Congress to collect taxes and to spend for the National Defense and general welfare sections 9 and 10 almost as a counterweight to Section 8 conclude with a list of government restrictions no one can be convicted of a crime without a trial laws can't be made retroactive and habeas corpus the right to see a judge if you are arrested by the police can't be suspended except in case of invasion or Rebellion or when the public safety requires it the framers understood the need for a strong central Authority but they also knew well that such Authority without clear checks and balances could and probably would become despotic a government of limited powers could not easily threaten our foundational rights of speech assembly worship and self-defense it was a grand experiment and like any experiment nobody knew if it would work but it did I'm John you professor of law at the University of California Berkeley for Prager University how much power should we give to the president this is one of the most vexing and critical questions facing the framers of the United States Constitution in the summer of 1787. to be effective the president had to be perceived both in times of War and Peace as the leader of the nation for this to happen he would have to be given significant Authority Americans learned this lesson in the Years following the Revolutionary War when the nation floundered under the Articles of Confederation which had no provision for a chief executive but this chief executive couldn't be made so strong that he could become a tyrant Americans fought a long and bloody war to get rid of one Tyrant the English King George III nobody wanted to install a new one in his place the framer's answer is found in article 2. the opening sentence reads as follows the executive power shall be vested and a president of the United States this might sound straightforward but it was anything but here's why the vesting Clause of Article 2 as it's known differs significantly from the vesting Clause of Article 1 which concerns the powers of congress the House of Representatives in the Senate article one's vesting Clause States all legislative powers here in granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States it then goes on to list those limited powers that's it Congress can't do anything else there are no such limitations specified in Article 2 the difference is subtle but important whereas Congress has given specific responsibilities the president is given broad responsibilities and wide discretion as to how he fulfills them this is part of his executive Authority and just what is that executive Authority this is spelled out in sections two and three the president is the commander-in-chief of the armed services he sets military policy he makes treaties with foreign countries he sets foreign policy he appoints his own advisors what became known as his cabinet he sets domestic policy he appoints judges to the Supreme Court that obviously gives him a big say in judicial policy and finally he shall take care that the laws be Faithfully executed this list is of once brief and vast because there's so much involved in all these duties indeed the president stands at the head of the entire administrative apparatus of the federal government with all the rights and responsibilities that entails for example if the president can appoint federal officials it stands to reason that he must be able to fire them too when you realize that enforcing the law involves layers and layers of people from department heads to federal law enforcement to government lawyers all of whom are accountable to the president you start to grasp how much power the chief executive has so how did the framers keep the president in check first and foremost they gave congress the power of the purse the power to fund the operations of the federal government Congress can restrain the president by withholding funding the president literally can't buy a light bulb for a lamp in the Oval Office without a congressional appropriation if the president proposes to add a new federal agency or to launch a war Congress can bring his plans to a halt simply by refusing to fund them the Constitution strikes a similar balance in foreign affairs the president as commander-in-chief controls the strategy tactics and deployments of the U.S armed forces and also dictates U.S foreign policy only Congress however has the power to declare war and the Senate by a two-thirds majority must consent to any treaty negotiated by the president Congress also has the power to impeach the president in cases of serious misconduct treason bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors but the bar for impeachment is set very high to protect the president's independence from Congress finally the framers made the president accountable to the people if the people are dissatisfied with his performance the people can vote him out and they don't have to wait long they get a chance every four years before the U.S Constitution no country had ever had a leader whose fate was so dependent on the will of the people at the same time the founders had no patience for Pure democracy which they considered no different than mob rule this is why presidential elections are not determined by popular vote but by the Electoral College as outlined in Article 2 Section 1 yet another guard against tyranny this time the tyranny of the majority it's often said that the president is the most powerful man in the world this is undoubtedly true but he's not more powerful than the Constitution Article 2 made sure of that I'm John you professor of law at the University of California Berkeley for Prager University of the three branches of government the legislative the House of Representatives in the Senate the executive the president and the judicial the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts which is the most powerful today most people would probably say the judicial it's the Supreme Court that has the final say over every controversial issue prayer in school abortion same-sex marriage let the Court decide is the modern refrain but that's a long way from how the framers saw the role of the Courts let's look at what the Constitution says article 3 section 1 vests the nation's judicial power in a supreme court and any lower courts that Congress May establish the judges both of the Supreme and inferior courts shall hold their offices during good behavior and shall receive for their services a compensation which shall not be diminished by good behavior the framers meant lifetime tenure as long as federal judges didn't do anything worthy of impeachment they had the job for life or until they chose to give it up the purpose of Lifetime tenure and salary was to place federal judges above politics to make them independent of the legislative and executive branches in this way they would act as another check on the power of those two branches yet for all that Alexander Hamilton thought the Judiciary was beyond comparison the weakest of the three branches boy was he wrong but not in his assessment of the judicial branch as spelled out in the Constitution as Hamilton explained the executive Bears the sword or the power to coerce Congress sets the rules and controls the purse the federal budget but what weapon did the Judiciary have Hamilton couldn't see any he couldn't see any because he and the other framers never imagined that the court would be the ultimate Arbiter of what was constitutional and what wasn't they saw the court as having a much more limited function as we shall see the Constitution doesn't even State how many justices there should be that was set by the first Congress of 1789. they set the number of justices at six which to our modern sensibility is bizarre what would happen in the case of a Thai vote again this points to the framer's modest conception of the Court as spelled out in section 2 of article 3 federal courts have just one job to settle disputes about the rights of the parties before them not to use cases as platforms to resolve policy debates for the framers setting policy was the job of the people's elected representatives what about the ability to declare laws unconstitutional didn't that belong to the courts yes but that didn't make the courts the only Authority on the Constitution as understood by the framers the legislative and executive branches have their own Duty and power to interpret the Constitution when doing their jobs for example presidents have vetoed bills they considered unconstitutional that's what Andrew Jackson did when he refused to recharter the National Bank in 1832. he didn't think the Constitution gave congress the authority to establish such an institution true the president and Congress have usually followed the Court's readings of the Constitution as a way of avoiding unnecessary conflict but there have been exceptions most famously Abraham Lincoln rejected the Supreme Court's holding in Dread Scott V Sanford that the Constitution made African descendants of slaves ineligible for U.S citizenship as President Lincoln respected the Court's decision about what should happen to Scott a party to the case but otherwise in running the executive branch Lincoln followed his own view that persons of African descent could be citizens under the Constitution for example he gave them U.S passports today by contrast many think the Judiciary is exclusive and Superior in its power to interpret the Constitution no wonder it seems like the most powerful branch the framers who had so carefully constrained the power of the courts in article 3 would have been surprised and dismayed I'm Sharif Girgis associate professor of law at the University of Notre Dame for Prager University if you ask people to describe what is in the U.S Constitution most would begin by citing freedom of speech freedom of religion and maybe the right to bear arms but in fact these are not part of the Constitution that came out of Philadelphia in September 1787. they are the first ten amendments to the Constitution they are part of what is known as the Bill of Rights and why was this Bill of Rights necessary the answer is that many Americans thought the Constitution a document dedicated to limiting Federal power didn't limit that power enough this was not a fringe opinion people like Thomas Jefferson James Monroe Patrick Henry and George Mason all shared this fear James Madison one of the principal authors of the Constitution disagreed he argued that all the assurances The doubters Wanted were already in the Constitution they just needed to look a little more closely but Madison ever the pragmatist came around especially when it became clear that without those assurances the Constitution would not be ratified so Madison took it upon himself to draft the Ten Amendments the first amendment is the most famous it clearly sets out some of our most fundamental rights the rights for which America has been universally admired Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of the people peaceably to assemble the second amendment protects the right of the people to possess firearms a well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed the third amendment is the most obscure but made perfect sense to a citizenry that had within recent memory fought off the British army no Soldier shall in time of peace be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner the Fourth Amendment prohibits the government from arresting you or searching your belongings without some reason to think that a crime has occurred the right of the people to be secure in their persons houses papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause the fifth amendment guarantees you a fair legal process before you're deprived of your freedom or property and protects you from being put on trial for the same crime twice it also protects you from having to testify against yourself in court this is the source of the phrase plead the fifth and if the government takes your property to put it to public use for example to build a highway you must be paid a fair price for it nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in Jeopardy nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself nor be deprived of life liberty or property without due process of law nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation the sixth amendment gives those charged with a crime the right to have a speedy trial with a lawyer by their side and to confront their accusers in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense the seventh amendment gives you the right to trial by jury in civil cases in suits at common law the right of trial by jury shall be preserved the eighth amendment protects you from unduly high bail and fines and Antiquated forms of punishment excessive bail shall not be required nor excessive fines imposed nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted the ninth amendment makes it clear that if a right is not mentioned in the Constitution it doesn't mean that right doesn't exist the enumeration in the constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny others retained by the people the 10th Amendment is in effect an insurance Clause it makes clear that any power is not reserved to the federal government belong to the states or the citizens the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the states are reserved to the states respectively or to the people these are the first ten amendments to the U.S Constitution the Bill of Rights they have long been and remain an elegant Testament to our understanding of Freedom the placing of strict limits on the power of government to interfere in our lives it's hard to imagine America without them I'm Sharif Girgis associate professor of law at the University of Notre Dame for Prager University the first half of the Constitution articles 1 2 and 3 discuss the powers of the three branches of the national government the second half of the Constitution articles four through seven discuss the relationship between the national government and the states these four articles don't get the attention of the first three but that doesn't mean they're any less important let's take a closer look first article 4. when America won the Revolutionary War the former English colonies became free and independent states almost as if they were separate countries but when those States later voted to ratify the Federal Constitution they became part of an indestructible Union of States under a common national government one in which all citizens were granted the same rights this seems obvious to us now but it was new then as Article 4 affirms the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States this gets complicated as everything did at the time when the issue of slavery is raised section 2 of article 4 declares that no person held to labor in one state escaping into another shall be discharged from such labor but shall be delivered up to the party to whom such labor may be due this is called the Fugitive Slave Clause though the term slave is not used in fact you can't find the word slave anywhere in the original Constitution the framers were wary about endorsing slavery even though for political purposes to keep the southern states in the union they permitted it as James Madison explained it would be wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men Article 5 explains how the Constitution can be amended changing a federal law is simple it just takes a majority vote in Congress this happens all the time changing the Constitution however is much more difficult it takes a two-thirds majority vote in both the house and the senate or a special convention called for by two-thirds of the states the proposed amendment must then be ratified by three-quarters of the states this deliberately difficult two-stage process ensures that only those amendments with widespread support get to become part of the Constitution article 6 ensures that the constitution is the supreme law of the land in other words every state must obey the Constitution and the laws of the federal government before The Constitution was ratified in 1788 the new nation was organized under what were called The Articles of Confederation but this governing document proved woefully inadequate it had no chief executive no federal court system and no ability to collect taxes to support the National Defense the new Constitution addressed all these problems but it did so in a way that preserved the power of the states to control matters of local concern and this division of power between the national government and the states is called federalism prior to the adoption of the American Constitution nothing like it had existed in the history of the world no Nation had ever attempted to place these kinds of limits on a central government for this new Federalist system to work however States had to agree to be bound by the new Constitution and federal law of course Federalism is a two-way street Federal officials also had to accept the fact that their powers were limited and that the people in the states retained all powers and rights not constitutionally delegated to the federal government that's why article 6 requires every official in the national government and in the states to take an oath to support this constitution the Constitution these officials swear to uphold is a Federal Constitution of limited and divided power the article closes with another idea we take for granted now but was ahead of its time then that no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office under the United States finally article 7 explains the process by which a document drafted in Philadelphia became the Constitution of the United States the Philadelphia framers had no authority to make the Constitution the law of the land that decision was left to the people in the several States not an elite group not a monarch but free citizens the farmer the shopkeeper the blacksmith according to article 7 the Constitution would not go into effect unless it was ratified by nine of the original 13 states on June 21st 1788 New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution that date marks the moment that the people of the several States transformed themselves into the people of the United States of America I'm Kurt lash professor of law at the University of Richmond for Prager University As Americans began the business of reconstructing their country after a bloody Civil War they also reconstructed their constitution that was the purpose of the 13th 14th and 15th amendments the 13th amendment abolished slavery the 14th Amendment enhanced the civil rights of all citizens and the 15th Amendment guaranteed the right to vote regardless of race together these three amendments known as the Reconstruction amendments declared a new birth of freedom in the United States in January 1863 at the height of the Civil War President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that Proclamation declared free any person held as a slave in the rebel States but ending slavery would require much more than a wartime executive order first the union would have to win the war that was uncertain in 1863 and second Lincoln would have to persuade the American people to amend the Constitution to ban slavery forever in January 1865 with Lincoln's encouragement Congress passed the 13th Amendment the amendment proclaimed neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction on April 9th of that year Confederate General Robert E Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S Grant the Civil War was finally over less than a week later Abraham Lincoln was dead failed by an Assassin's bullet but his ambition to free the slaves lived on December 6 1865 the American people ratified the 13th Amendment slavery could no longer find sanctuary in the Constitution although the now former slaves had attained freedom that didn't mean that they had attained equality taking advantage of the chaos following Lincoln's assassination the Southern States passed the infamous Black Codes laws and local ordinances which denied Black's basic rights such as free speech the right to bear arms and the right to peaceably assemble you might well ask weren't blacks now that they were free protected like every other free American by the Bill of Rights no not according to the Supreme Court in 1833 the court had ruled in Baron V Baltimore that the first ten amendments applied only to the federal government and not to the states to correct this Injustice a new Amendment would be required and this became the 14th Amendment ratified on July 9 1868. no state it said shall make her enforce any law which shall abridge the Privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States nor shall any state deprive any person of life liberty or property without due process of law nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws in other words the Bill of Rights now applied to state governments as well as to the federal government together these Provisions invalidated the Black Codes and guaranteed the rights of American citizenship to every person in the country white or black yet even this was not enough black Americans had fought and died alongside white Union Soldiers despite their sacrifice in Most states blacks were still denied the right to vote to black civil rights leaders like Frederick Douglass this was unacceptable according to Douglas the arm of the federal government is long but it is far too short to protect the rights of individuals in the interior of distant States they must have the power of the elective franchise to protect themselves in February 1869 Congress passed the 15th Amendment to the Constitution the amendment declared that the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race color or previous condition of servitude on February 3rd 1870 the new amendment was ratified and to now President Ulysses S Grant erasing the color bar at The Ballot Box was a measure of grander importance than any one act since the foundation of our free government constitutional reconstruction was now complete slavery was abolished the basic rights of life liberty and property protected and political power extended to every citizen in the country regardless of race the basic structure of the Constitution remained the same but the rights of American citizens were dramatically expanded these three amendments forever change the meaning of American freedom as Frederick Douglass declared upon the adoption of the 15th Amendment henceforth we live in a new world breathe a new atmosphere have a new Earth beneath and a new sky above us Douglas's enthusiasm was warranted but sadly premature there was much more work to be done before black Americans could enjoy full equality the 13th 14th and 15th amendments however made that equality inevitable I'm Kurt lash professor of law at the University of Richmond for Prager University the Constitution has been amended 27 times that may sound like a lot but that's over the course of almost 250 years and consider this almost 12 000 Amendments have been proposed the fewer than 30 have made it through the amendment process is a testament to the strength of the framer's original design the most famous amendments are of course the first 10 the Bill of Rights most of the others fall into three broad categories those that expanded the franchise voting rights those that expanded the federal government's power and those that fixed issues relating to the office of the presidency let's look at each category category one those that expanded the franchise voting rights the 17th Amendment ratified in 1913 took the selection of senators out of the hands of state legislatures and placed it into the hands of the voters the framers had believed that state officials would collectively have a better grasp of the state's needs than would ordinary citizens however as political machines grew and influenced during the 19th century so did political corruption a bribery Scandal involving the selection of an Illinois senator in 1910 tipped the scales in favor of direct election the 19th Amendment ratified in 1920 guarantees that suffrage shall not be denied on account of sex in other words women were given the right to vote there was nothing in the Constitution that prohibited women from voting it was just thought to be unnecessary this was a general belief held by men and women at the time of the Constitution's writing the two Sexes had their specific roles men worked women raised the children a man's vote represented the entire household the industrial revolution of the 19th century changed this formula as more and more women joined the workforce women began to demand the right to express themselves as individual citizens the 19th amendment ensured that right at The Ballot Box the 23rd Amendment ratified in 1961 included the District of Columbia in presidential elections since Washington DC is into state it originally didn't have any electoral votes when its population grew larger than some states it seemed to make sense to give the district representation in the national election the 24th Amendment ratified in 1964 banned poll taxes fees imposed by States on voters specifically black voters by 1964 five southern states still had poll taxes on their books a remnant of Jim Crow laws by Banning the tax the 24th amendment ended a blatant form of discrimination the 26th Amendment ratified in 1971 lowered the minimum age of voting from 21 to 18. with soldiers as young as 18 fighting in World War II and then in Vietnam many felt that if you were old enough to fight you were old enough to vote for the leaders who could send you into war Category 2 the Amendments that expanded the government's power the 16th Amendment ratified in 1913 gave congress the power to lay and collect taxes on incomes as wealth disparity increased between farmers workers and a new class of fabulously wealthy industrialists like John D Rockefeller Andrew Carnegie and JP Morgan so did the sentiment for an income tax the promise was that only the rich would pay history would quickly prove otherwise the top tax rate shot up from seven percent to 77 percent to finance World War one and then 94 to finance World War II but of course the income tax didn't stay confined to the wealthy as any young person getting his first paycheck can attest the 18th Amendment known as prohibition was ratified in 1919. it banned the manufacturer sale or transportation of intoxicating Liquors the motive behind the amendment was a good one to reduce alcoholism a destroyer of countless lives and a primary source of violent crime domestic abuse and sexual assault but the amendment was ultimately a failure leading to the unintended consequence of a massive black market and the emergence of organized crime the 21st amendment in 1933 repealed prohibition making the 18th Amendment the only one to ever be repealed Category 3 the Amendments that fixed issues related to the office of the presidency the 20th Amendment ratified in 1933 moved Inauguration Day from March to January the modern world was moving much too fast to wait five months to transfer power from one president to the next the 22nd ratified in 1951 limited the president to two terms in office as a reaction to Franklin Roosevelt's four terms and the 25th ratified in 1967 allows the vice president to become acting president in the event the commander-in-chief is physically or mentally incapacitated the Constitution has proven to be remarkably durable just as the framers envisioned they wanted a document that could be amended and adjusted as times changed but not so easily that its core principles would be compromised he'd have to say they succeeded I'm John you professor of law at the University of California Berkeley for Prager University we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness these of course are stirring words from America's Declaration of Independence they are the foundation of America's commitment to civil liberty we accept them as a given now but only because we know America's history at the time they presented a serious challenge to the founders of our nation could they create a governing structure that would match the Heim World standards they had set for themselves their first attempt did not go well the Articles of Confederation the document that governed the country through the Revolutionary War and for a few years after was such a miserable failure that many in England and America thought the new nation would soon collapse and return had in hand to the mother country the Americans wariness of central power was understandable Americans had fought and died to win freedom from an oppressive government they weren't about to give away that hard-won freedom to a new government of their own making the Articles allowed for no Central authority to speak of there was no chief executive no effective way to impose or collect taxes no provision for the National Defense all the power belonged to the individual states and since the states disagreed on so many issues almost nothing got done the Constitutional Convention of 1787 brilliantly solved this problem it installed a system of checks and balances within the federal government and divided power between the federal government and the states it did so while still preserving basic civil liberties only a few years later the founders would buttress these liberties with a Bill of Rights specifically protecting the free exercise of religion and the freedoms of speech press and assembly among other rights in the Constitution the step two was taken to bring the country closer to the vision of the Declaration but here of course the founders faced a moral challenge how could America espouse freedom and also permit slavery many of the founders including Thomas Jefferson the principal drafter of the Declaration and George Washington who presided at the Constitutional Convention were slaveholders this fact leads some people to condemn America's Origins the truth is that great men and they were great like Washington and Jefferson violated their own ideals in holding slaves while proclaiming equality and Liberty they knew that slavery wasn't evil Jefferson speaking of slavery declared that I tremble for my country when I reflected God is just that his Justice cannot sleep forever Washington upon his death free to slaves and made Financial provision for them in his will but we do not celebrate these and the other Founders for their personal moral failures we celebrate them for their unique moral achievements for the revolution they bravely fought and for the great principles they fought for the equality of all human beings and a society rooted in Liberty the principles of the Declaration and the Constitution to judge these documents as corrupt because imperfect men wrote them is to say the least foolish it takes no account of historic context namely that virtually every society in history and everywhere on Earth practice slavery it disregards the obvious truths that human beings are flawed creatures and it elevates our current moral position to a level we haven't earned do we really think we are better and wiser than Washington Franklin Jefferson Adams Hamilton Madison and the other founders the simple truth is that the Declaration the Constitution and Bill of Rights are among the most moral documents and principles ever conceived they speak the truth about human nature human rights and human dignity it was for the sake of and indeed in the name of the principles of the Declaration and the Constitution that Americans ended slavery paying an enormous price in Blood and treasure in a cataclysmic Civil War it was for the sake of and in the name of these principles that great if also personally flawed leaders like Martin Luther King struggled to end the regime of segregation and Jim Crow that was the legacy of slavery King like Frederick Douglass before him did not reject America's founding principles quite the opposite the Constitution for these men was a promise of liberty and justice for all a promise that they quite rightly insisted that our nation honor America's problem is not its principles they are just and good and true when we as a people have gone wrong our error has not been in excess of zeal for our nation's founding principles rather it has been precisely because we have at times Dishonored and failed to live up to them but never have we had and never will we have anything to regret when we hold fast to the principles in our founding documents I'm Robert George professor of jurisprudence and director of the James Madison program at Princeton University for Prager University