Far too long in this great country of ours have the big corporations taken advantage of the people at the bottom. Unfortunately, because of our laissez-faire oriented feelings this leaves millions of Americans who need to rely on government programs in order to survive. With this in mind the 28th Amendment will tackle the problem of big corporations head on with as little government intervention as possible.
The 16th amendment instituted Congress's right to inflict a Federal income tax. During the Civil War, to help pay war expenses, Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1861, the first U.S. Federal income tax. This act included a tax on personal incomes. After ten years, the act was repealed, leading Congress to eventually enact a Flat Rate Federal Income Tax in 1894. This new tax stated that anyone who made more than $800 would be charged with a 3% tax and then finally a 3-5% on income that exceeds $600. The following year, this tax was deemed unconstitutional due to the fact that the tax was direct, not at all connected to the population of each state. The 16th amendment was the result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to declare the flat rate Federal income tax unconstitutional.
The Fourteenth amendment is a significant addition to the constitution and although the amendment has five sections, section 1 has had the moral lasting significance through its creation of three important provisions concerning citizenship, due process and equal protection. The Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof. The fourteenth Amendment also forbid the states to deny their citizens due process of law or equal protection of the law, that is, it made certain provision of the Bill of Rights applicable to the states. Lastly, the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the government at any level from unfairly or arbitrarily denying a citizen their fundamental
We have all heard of the 27 amendments at one time or another, but could you tell the meaning of each one? Each individual amendment has a its reasons for becoming an amendment, going through the process of being ratified and then eventually becoming an amendment. The 19th amendment took time and many people, especially women fighting for their rights that they deserved.
Some people may think that the 14th amendment does a poor job of protecting people’s rights. In document five it explains how on September 11, 2001,with the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, it has caused video surveillance in the United States to increase. For example the U.S has programs that use facial recognition that help match photographs of criminals faces to the criminal. Another program that we use helps prevent suicide bombers from attacking. Some people may think that prevention of terrible events reoccuring or occurring is a good thing, but using security systems everywhere may be a violation of their rights and privacy. Such as the government tracking your every move, having the threat of people spying and blackmail,
The 19th amendment was important because it granted women the right to vote, which was known as woman suffrage. It wasn’t until 1848 that the women’s movement for rights launched in Seneca Falls, NY. In order to get this, it took 70 years. On May 21,1919 U.S. representative James R. Mann, representative of Illinois and chairman of suffrage suggested a solution. It passed then 2 weeks later June 4 it was passed by the senate. It was sent to the states to ratify and it did in Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Kansas, New York, and Ohio ratified it on June 16,1919. By March 35 states had ratified it, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Virginia opposed it. On August 18, 1920, 23 year old Harry T. Burn, representative
The 14th Amendment was one of the most significant changes to the Constitution. The amendment contains the equal protection of the laws clause. It was added to the Constitution after the Civil War. The rules that the amendment states have been the result of several Supreme Court cases. The amendment has deeply influenced American History and the perception of equality. The Citizenship clause states that anyone born or naturalized in the United States are citizens of the U.S. and their state. The Due Process law states that no state may deprive any person of life liberty or death. Perhaps the most important clause is the equal protection of the law. The equal protection of the law clause guarantees that every citizen receives the same rights,
The disenfranchisement of Black Americans is as old as their presence in The United States. This disenfranchisement manifests itself in many different ways and is perpetuated on an institutional and individual levels. The oppression that blacks face have been consistently resisted by Black people and our allies. One of the more favorable ways of resistance towards institutional racism in the past and in the present has been to create legal reform. Laws such as the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment, also referred to as Reconstruction Amendments, are some laws that alleviated the oppression black people faced. Even though those amendments were put into place the individual and institutional injustices that blacks faced were still prevalent. The
The 15th Amendment (Amendment XV), which gave African-American men the right to vote, was inserted into the U.S. Constitution on March 30, 1870. Passed by Congress the year before, the amendment says, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Although the amendment was passed in the late 1870s, many racist practices were used to oppose African-Americans from voting, especially in the Southern States like Georgia and Alabama. After many years of racism, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 aimed to overthrow legal barricades at the state and local levels that deny African-Americans their right to vote. In the
A huge part of our nation’s rights and power are mostly expressed in the constitution created by our Founding Fathers. The constitution is a core aspect of the government because it has built foundations for our citizens and nation’s leaders to follow. The constitutions consist of amendments such as the bill of rights which includes the first ten amendments. Since the constitution is such an important factor of our government today, it is important to have a secure and difficult amendment process to be sure that each amendment has a purpose and help establish a stable government. The amendment process involves having both the houses of Congress and the states vote. The houses of Congress requires a ⅔ vote and the states require a ¾ vote. As of today, Congress have only ratified 17 amendments and each amendment has impacted the American society economically, socially, and politically.
The Civil Rights Movement started in 1954 and continued until 1968. The Civil Rights Movement was a strive for the rights and the freedoms that African Americans had been given, but taken away from by things such as the Jim Crow Laws and segregation. The Civil Rights Movement had goals of gaining equal rights but also making the fundamental documents that America had been constructed upon to be true for everyone in America. These fundamental documents include the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. With the want of these goals comes about change, an impact, and a response, and the Civil Rights Movement impacted America by gaining the civil rights for African Americans, starting the integration of schools, and also bringing
Martha Griffiths a lawyer once said, “This amendment [the Equal Rights Amendment], if passed, would be like a beacon which should awaken nine sleeping Rip Van Winkle 's to the fact that the twentieth century is passing into history.” A summary of the twenty-fourth amendment is banning poll taxes. That means that in the 1800’s to 1900’s they used to make you pay to vote for a President or a Vice President. This amendment was important to our country. Therefore, the 24th Amendment is an important amendment, there are pros and cons to this amendment, and is positive and negative.
During the Reconstruction Era in 1865, many U.S Americans died during the Civil War fighting against the Confederate States of America. The number of deaths is estimated about 600,000, which left a legacy ruin for the South (Lecture notes). The Civil War might have killed over 600,000 Americans, but it also helped build many new things. The War fused the nation into a more economic and social nation by building more systems such as banks, railroads and most importantly a new society committed to industrialization (Lecture notes). It also changed slaves lives because the war destroyed slavery! This major change impacted the South negatively because ending slavery meant that the labor system and economic support structure would decrease drastically
The amendments were put into place to protect the rights and civil liberties of all American citizens from the federal government. However, prior to the fourteenth amendment, there was no certainty with the constitution. The constitution did not state in a clear enough way who was protected under it and exactly what rights you had as an American Citizen. The 14th amendment was in response to the just passed thirteenth amendment, which ended slavery in all of the southern states. This document drastically changed the perception of the citizens, showing that it protected the civil rights of whites and blacks. While the fourteenth amendment was instated to expand citizenship, it has caused controversy
Reconstruction is during which the United States began to rebuild the Southern society after they lost to the civil war. It lasted from 1865 to 1877, and it was initiated by President Lincoln until his assassination in 1865. President Johnson continued Lincoln’s agenda to continue the Reconstruction. Throughout the process of Reconstruction, one of its main purpose was to guarantees for equal rights for all people, especially for the African Americans. Even though slavery was abolished after the civil war, many Southerners were still against the idea of equal rights for all black people, such as the Republicans. However, many northerners, like Abraham Lincoln, tried to look for ways to help increase the guarantees of equal rights of the African Americans, like passing down laws and acts that is beneficial to the African Americans.