The United States Constitution when first introduced was focused only on what powers the Federal Government would have. For many states who had just gained, their freedom from England there needed to be a guarantee that the newly formed government would not impose on people’s rights. The Bill of Rights was written for that purpose it was to apply to the federal government only. When different states started to pass laws that contradicted what the states had requested from the federal government when they added the Bill of Rights, which unfortunately prevented the federal Supreme Court from intervening in the states business. The Fourteenth Amendment contains three clauses, “the privilege and immunities clause, the due process clause, and the
When our founding fathers were writing the constitution for our new nation, they looked at many different sources to gain thoughts on what they should include in the document. Some of the documents that the men looked at included the Magna Carta, Mayflower Compact, and the English Bill of Rights. When the people in America decided that they needed to be able to have freedoms that the king wouldn’t let them have, they decided to break free of Great Britain. The Americans realized that in their new nation they wanted to make an establishment causing the government to have limited power over them because they wanted to be free.
According to the Tenth Amendment of the constitution, “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”. There have been moments in history where Congress has implemented laws that states felt were unconstitutional. The Constitution gave states the ability to counter the federal government’s power through the Judiciary branch of government, when they feel a law is unconstitutional. The Founders of our nation gave Congress enumerated powers to pass legislation that needs to be abided by all states and citizens. At times Congress will overstep its powers by enacting laws that are unconstitutional and the states have the right to challenge those powers.
Why did the framers of the United States Constitution, ultimately deciding to give more power to the federal government rather than the state's government? Why did the framers of the Constitution decide to give more power to the federal government then the state government? The framers who created the United States Constitution chose the idea of Federalism because they wanted a government that was able to unify a belief within the states without diminishing each state's' ability to control itself. And in doing that they made it so the in state powers had of course a lesser impact than the federal powers. I think they did this because they were very distrusting of the government operations and the way that governments worked to take away
It took the convincing of the Anti-Federalists to explain how the Constitution gave too much power to the central government and did not state the rights and freedoms of the people, therefore lacking a Bill of Rights. The Federalists agreed to a Bill of Rights, and later the Constitution was ratified with nine out of thirteen votes on June 21 of 1788. Soon after the Constitution was ratified, the separation of powers was understood in the United States government. The separation of powers separated each branch of government.
After the Declaration of Independence in 1787, the Federal Government turned to the creation of the Constitution in which delegates from 13 states convened to make compromises on their beliefs for the betterment of a nation. Although the Bill of Rights was initially not a part of the Constitution, the Federalists thought that it was crucial to ensure ratification of the Constitution. This ratification was one of the main reasons why the Bill of Rights needed to be added. Federalists feared a strong, central government, and created a Bill of Rights in order to prevent government abuse. Others believed that a dominating Government could prohibit rights in the future, which would not necessarily be expressed in the Bill of Rights.
Hence Federalists came up with the Bill of Rights as a way to get the Constitution ratified and for people to really see a needed change. The Bill Of Rights which lists specific prohibitions on governmental power, lead the Anti-Federalists to be less fearful of the new Constitution . This guaranteed that the people would still remain to have rights, but the strong central government that the country needed would have to be approved. The 1804 Map of the nation shows that even after the ratification of the United States Constitution there still continued to be “commotion” and dispute in the country.(Document 8) George Washington stated that the people should have a say in the nation and government and everything should not be left to the government to decide.(Document 3) Although George Washington was a Federalist many believed he showed a point of view that seemed to be Anti-Federalists. Many believed that The Bill of Rights needed to be changed and modified and a new document’s time to come into place.
The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects any person within their jurisdiction of their due process and equal protection. The Equal Protection Clause under the 14th Amendment requires the states to apply their laws equally to any person within their jurisdiction. The equal protection clause aims to provide equal application of the law. It is also crucial to the protection of civil rights. There should be no discrimination in its application.
Their votes were enough to put the Constitution into effect. Two states, however, refused to sign it– North Carolina and Rhode Island. Critics in these states objected that a Bill of Rights hadn’t been included. They worried that without a Bill of Rights the government might eventually become too strong. It might be unjust and put people in jail without a reason.
There are three very important parts or clauses of the 14th amendment. The first clause of the amendment is called the Citizenship clause. The citizen clause was much more important back when it was created because it was based mainly to give freed slaves equal rights. Back in the 1860s when the amendment was first created, slaves or mainly African Americans had little to no rights.
While the Constitution put more power in the hands of a national government, a Bill of Rights consisting of a series of amendments was promised to give rights to individuals and the states. The agreement to add the Bill of Rights in the final Constitution persuaded Antifederalists to accept the ratification of the American Constitution as it gave power to the people and the states, albeit it was limited power, but it was power nonetheless. Amendment 10 in the Bill of Rights states that “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,” meaning any power not given to the federal government in the Constitution nor prohibited by it, is given to the people or states. Additionally, the concept of the separation of powers emerged from the Constitutional Convention in 1787. Separation of powers introduced the idea that the national government would have limited authority.
The first amendment establishes the people the right to freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and to petition. The second amendment establishes the peoples’ right to have weapons and the third amendment protects them from being forced to house the military. Due to the Fifth Amendment, Citizens’ protection from unreasonable search and seizure was put in place, as for the sixth amendment Americans has a right to an attorney and a fair trial in the court of law by an impartial jury of his or her peers. The Seventh amendment gives citizens the right to a trial by jury if there are claims exceeding twenty dollars made, and the eighth amendment makes it illegal for bail to exceed an price the contrast to the crime committed, and prevents cruel and unusual punishment by a court of law. The ninth amendment protects what may be later seen as a right, and finally, the tenth amendment gives states the right to establish laws that has yet been established by the federal
Some people say Thaddeus Stevens’ quote “The greatest measure of the 19th century was passed by corruption, aided and abetted by the purest man in the world” is over exaggerated. However, this quote is the truth behind the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment. In simpler terms, the Thirteenth Amendment was passed due to corruption, bargaining, and the help of Abraham Lincoln. Throughout the course of the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment, Lincoln requested a re-voting of the Amendment, bargained with the House members, and never told a lie.
State constitutions grant powers that are no limited where the U.S. constitution’s main purpose was to limit powers. State constitutions often have longer documents, as said above; the U.S. constitution is a basic outline, where the state constitution has a more specific outline that acquires more documentation. The U.S. constitution has changed only 27 times over the past two centuries, where the state constitution has room for improvement and is always changing. The U.S. has a representative democracy system that rejects direct democracy as a form of government. The states however believed that those types of constitutional arrangements were simply obsolete and wanted to give the chance for citizens to have a chance to participate in the creating of laws.
This was the first error the delegates at the Constitutional Convention hoped to fix with the Constitution. In JAmes MAdison’s Federalist Paper #51, he explains that the power the people of the nation grants its government be divided into two separate government's, meaning state and federal, to ensure a “double security” on the people’s rights. This idea was referred to as federalism (Doc A). This division of power was set up in a way that both governments had specific powers that the other had no control over, which prevented either one form gaining all power. Tyranny was further prevented by both state and central governments sharing some powers, keeping each other in
The states follow the U.S Constitution because it has the guidelines and gives an idea on how the state should set up their laws. The only difference between the state and the federal government is that the state’s laws go more in depth with how to lay the law. It is common for state constitutions to have more amendments that the federal