The Twenty-Fifth Amendment

On July 4, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed and The United States of America declared itself a separate and independent nation. On June 21, 1788 the United States Constitution was made official, replacing the Articles of Confederation. Since its ratification, the Constitution has been amended several times in order to better apply to current times and situations the Founding Fathers could not have predicted. Despite all the changes the Constitution has gone through, its core principles remain.

The following is the list of the ten amendments and their meaning simplified through a website source that I found to understand better,

The Eighteenth Amendment, also known as the Prohibition Act, took effect as of January 16, 1920, outlawing the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcoholic beverages in the United States from January 1920 till December 6, 1933. Prohibition was established to reduce the effects that alcohol had on families and on society. When primarily men consumed too much alcohol, their actions often resulted in domestic violence,often interfering with men's work performance, and money wasted that the family needed to support families. The prohibition period was very unsuccessful due to people wanting and doing whatever it took to get alcohol now that it was illegal, no matter how enforced prohibition was, leading to many Americans smuggling illegal alcohol

There have been many controversies over the Tenth Amendment for quite some time. The amendment was designed to divide and limit the powers of the national and states’ government. It protects the states and its’ people from the national government becoming too powerful. However, the question that has been asked repeatedly and holds the most concern is, has the national government overstepped its power? The Tenth Amendment should be modified in favor of the states.

After the Civil War in 1865, Republicans in Congress introduced a series of Constitutional Amendments to secure civil and political rights for African Americans. The right that gave black men the privilege to vote provoked the greatest controversy, especially in the North. In 1867, Congress passed the law and African American men began voting in the South, but in the North, they kept denying them this basic right (“African Americans,” 2016). Republicans feared that they would eventually lose control of Congress on the Democrats and thought that their only solution was to include the black men votes. Republicans assumed that all African American votes would go to all the Republicans in the North, as they did in the South and by increasing the

The first 10 amendments to the Constitution make up the Bill of Rights which was written by James Madison. He wrote The Bill Of Rights in response of calls from several states for greater constitutional protection of individual liberties. The people who signed the declaration made a promise to protect the people from the government. The colonist wanted to keep their rights because they had a fear of a tyrannical government. People believed and were taught that The Bill Of Rights came from the desire to protect the liberties won in the American Revolution. Evidence shows that that’s not really the case, there was some desire to protect the rights but mainly it was because of the American fear of a new government.

The Eighth Amendment prohibits inflicting cruel and unusual punishment on citizens. The judicial branch must ensure that the rights and privileges granted to American people by the Constitution are provided equally regardless of their race, sex, or sexual identification (Edmondson, 2017).

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

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.

The Fourth Amendment protects persons against unreasonable searches and seizures. Police deal with search and seizure incidents on a daily basis; unfortunately, numerous mistakes are made and lawsuits result from this type of citizen interaction. One way to prevent an unnecessary lawsuit is to get a search warrant. What if that is not applicable to your situation? There are several search warrant exceptions that may be applied to most investigative incidents.

The US Constitution was created in 1787. It was all about putting confidence in the citizens that they would be taken care of no matter what. It was very important to the people who wrote the Constitution that everything that was written would come to firmition. In certain situations the Constitution was held to its principles and in some instances it fell flat.

Since its inception in 1787, the U.S. Constitution has been considered as the oldest and most influential document. It laid down the principles and foundation which helped shape U.S. as a nation, and the more than one hundred countries that used it as a model for creating their own Constitution (Constitutionfacts.com, n.a.). But the circumstances during its creation were critical. The American War of Independence (1775-1783) against Great Britain had ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris that gave sovereignty to the U.S. in 1783. However, four years later, the United States was still not yet quite united. It was under a confederation-where the states remained sovereign and independent, and the powers of the central government rests on the approval of member-states. A transformation of its political system to federalism -where central government is essential in uniting and leading all member states was believed to be imperative by some head of states. Therefore, the existing Articles of Confederation at that time had to be changed (History.com Staff, 2009).

The Fourth Amendment affirms that "people are secure against unreasonable searches and seizures, no Warrants shall issue, describe the place to search, and the persons or things to be seized." There should be a warrant for everything if what a person is being charged for is risking their rights as a U.S citizen. For example the privacy of a citizen is safe under the Fourth Amendment. Second, the property belonging to U.S citizens is secure from search and seizure without a warrant. Third, due to the Fourth Amendment, any citizen is safe from unfair arrests. Even though warrants help citizens they also make it more difficult for detectives and they make it difficult for government to collect evidence to use it against someone who actually commits

Our group’s job was to propose a 28th Amendment to the constitution by making changes to article I section 8 and article II section 2 of the constitution. Article I section 8 of the constitution states that the congress has the power to declare war and raise and support armies. Article II Section 2 states that the president shall be the commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States. We proposed that the Congress should have the option to elect a new commander in chief in case of an emergency or if the Congress feels that the president is not doing a decent job with the situation. We also proposed that the president should have the option to withdraw from the commander in chief position if there is an emergency in the country

As illegal drug use have become a nationwide problem, public employers, like fire departments, are testing employees for illegal drug use. Fire departments want to keep a drug free environment but they must be aware of the legal aspects that limit their power to test for illegal drugs. In The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the privacy of individuals against random and unreasonable intrusions by the government. As such, fire departments must only test employees for drug use in compliance with the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause. Not only must fire