THE CONSTITUTION AS IT WAS ADOPTED PREAMBLE FIRST ARTICLE Provides for a Congress and defines its power to make laws. SECOND ARTICLE Provides for the election of a President and Vice President, with defined powers, and for the appointment of other officials. THIRD ARTICLE Sets up a Supreme Court, authorizes the Congress to set up other courts, and defines their powers. FOURTH ARTICLE Defines relationships between the Federal Government and the States, and between the States themselves. FIFTH ARTICLE Tells how the Constitution may be amended. SIXTH ARTICLE Accepts responsibility for all debts that the Nation owed before the adoption of the Constitution; declares that the Constitution, constitutional laws, and treaties are the supreme law of the land; and provides that all public officers must take an oath to support the Constitution. SEVENTH ARTICLE Declares that ratification by nine States will put the Constitution into effect. Figure 19 The Constitution and Its Growth by Amendments: The Constitution THE BILL OF RIGHTS-1791 FIRST AMENDMENT Forbids the Congress to interfere with religion, free speech, a free press, or with the right to assemble peaceably, or to petition the Government. SECOND AMENDMENT Guarantees to the people the right to have weapons. THIRD AMENDMENT Guarantees against lodging soldiers in private houses without the consent of the owners. FOURTH AMENDMENT Provides that there shall be no search or seizure of persons, houses, goods, or papers, without a warrant. FIFTH AMENDMENT Declares that there shall be no trial for serious offenses without a grand jury indictment, no repeated trials for the same offense, no condemnation without trial, no compulsion to be a witness against oneself, and no property taken for public use except at a fair price. SIXTH AMENDMENT Requires a speedy and public trial for criminal offenses in the district where the crime was committed, a fair jury, a plain statement of the accusation, gives the accused the right to be represented by a lawyer and to compel the attendance of his witnesses, and requires all witnesses to testify in the presence of the accused. SEVENTH AMENDMENT Provides that in lawsuits about anything valued at more than $20, a trial by jury shall be allowed. EIGHTH AMENDMENT Prohibits too large bail or fines, and cruel or unusual punishments. NINTH AMENDMENT Declares that rights not stated in the Constitution are not therefore taken away from the people. TENTH AMENDMENT States that powers not delegated to the United States nor prohibited by the Constitution to the States are reserved to the States or to the people. Figure 20 The Constitution and Its Growth by Amendments: Amendments 1 to 10 AMENDMENTS PASSED AFTER THE BILL OF RIGHTS ELEVENTH AMENDMENT (1795) Declares that the Judiciary of the United States does not have authority to hear a suit against a State if brought by a citizen of another State or a foreigner. TWELFTH AMENDMENT (1804) Provides a better way of electing the President and Vice President. THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT (1865) Puts an end to slavery. FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT (1868) Defines citizenship of the United States and of a State, prohibits States from taking away the rights of citizens unlawfully, defines the basis of representation in the House of Representatives, states certain disqualifications from holding public office, and confirms certain Civil War debts and disclaims others. FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT (1870) Declares that no citizen shall lose the right to vote because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. SIXTEENTH AMENDMENT (1913) Gives Congress power to enact income-tax laws. SEVENTEENTH AMENDMENT (1913) Provides that United States Senators shall be elected by the people. EIGHTEENTH AMENDMENT (1919) Prohibited the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcoholic beverages. (Repealed in 1933.) NINETEENTH AMENDMENT (1920) No citizen shall be refused the right to vote because of being a woman. TWENTIETH AMENDMENT (1933) Changes the date of the inauguration of the President and of the opening of the Congress, and provides for filling the Presidency and Vice Presidency under certain conditions. TWENTY-FIRST AMENDMENT (1933) Repeals the 18th Amendment and forbids the carrying of alcoholic liquors into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States in violation of its laws. TWENTY-SECOND AMENDMENT (1951) Limits the number of times anyone may be elected to the office of President. TWENTY-THIRD AMENDMENT (1961) Gives citizen residents of the District of Columbia the right to vote for the President and Vice President. TWENTY-FOURTH AMENDMENT (1964) Declares that no citizen shall be prevented from voting for the President, the Vice President, or members of the Congress because he has not paid a tax. TWENTY-FIFTH AMENDMENT (1967) Sets forth the method of determining Presidential disability, and provides a plan for filling a vacancy in the office of Vice President. Figure 21 The Constitution and Its Growth by Amendments: Amendments 11 to 25 Constitution has had to be explained and interpreted so that it could meet the needs of the times. How has this been done? 1. THE CONSTITUTION HAS BEEN DEVELOPED THROUGH GENERAL LAWS PASSED BY THE CONGRESS The Congress has passed laws to establish rules for the Federal courts and new courts as they have been needed. The Congress has passed laws creating the Executive Departments of the Federal Government, and also many bureaus and commissions. In this way, the Congress has actually changed and added to the organization of the Government. It has also passed laws determining who should become President if the President and the Vice President should die while in office. Many other details of government organization have been built up on the foundation of the Constitution by laws passed by the Congress. 2. THE MAKING OF TREATIES HELPS TO DEVELOP THE CONSTITUTION Our relations with other nations are under the joint control of the President and the Senate. The Constitution provides that the President "shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur. . . ." When the President and Senate together agree with a foreign nation upon a treaty this often helps to develop the meaning of the Constitution. The Constitution does not say whether aliens living in this country can own land, so you might think that the States would decide this matter. But the President and the Senate have made treaties with foreign governments in which the right to own land in the United States was granted to the citizens of the foreign countries. Again, the Constitution gives Congress the power to "provide and maintain" a Navy. The Congress has usually decided how large the Navy should be by controlling the amount of money spent for it. But we made treaties with foreign nations in which we agreed to limit the size of our Navy. Many more examples could be given to show how treaties help to develop the meaning of the Constitution. 3. THE FEDERAL COURTS HELP TO EXPLAIN THE MEANING OF THE CONSTITUTION One purpose of the Federal courts is to explain or interpret our Constitution, laws, and treaties. The courts are sometimes called on to decide the meaning of words of the Constitution. A few of the laws made by Congress have been held to be unconstitutional (not in agreement with the Constitution). Many others have been held to be constitutional. The Supreme Court has approved as constitutional many acts of Congress that members of the Constitutional Convention could not possibly have had in mind at the time when the Constitution was written. What statesman of 1787 could have imagined the need for laws to regulate telegraph, telephone, radio, and television between the States? Yet the Supreme Court has decided that such laws, when they are drawn up in agreement with the basic principles of government given us in the Constitution, are constitutional. Such decisions, and the laws that they have approved, have enlarged and added to the Constitution without changing it. 4. CUSTOM AND THE PRACTICES OF OUR POLITICAL PARTIES HAVE ADDED MEANING TO THE CONSTITUTION The political parties in this country have adopted different ways of nominating candidates for national offices. Neither the Constitution nor the Federal laws give us any standards to regulate such nominations. Yet the way of choosing officers to whom the people may delegate authority is part of the plan of government built on the foundation of the Constitution. Sometimes custom is stronger than written law. It is a custom that the President shall in most cases appoint |