The Constitution of the United States of America

The Constitution of the United States of America
*The US Constitution is the oldest written constitution in the world. It was written in 1787, and was ratified by all 13 original States and in effect by 1789.

-The Constitution has three main sections: the preamble, the articles, and the amendments.

*The Preamble: This is a statement of goals for the nation. The framers of the constitution hoped that the document would fulfill the goals set forth for it in the opening statement: to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure peace within our borders, be ready to defend our nation, promote the well being of all citizens, and to secure freedom for all Americans for all time.

*The Articles: There are seven articles in the constitution. The Articles basically outlines the structure of American government. Each branch of government and their powers and limitations are clearly defined, the amending process and the concept of federalism are explained.

*The Amendments: Many people believe that the best thing about our constitution is that it can be changed. Since 1789 the constitution has been changed only 27 times. The first 10 Amendments, the Bill of Rights, were all ratified by 1791, so in essence there are have only been 17 changes made over the past 215+ years. Amendments have been added for many different reasons: to insure civil rights, voting rights, and to further define the role of government is America.

-The Constitution has within it, six major principles: the concept of popular sovereignty, federalism, separation of powers, a system of checks and balances, the idea of judicial review, and the principle of limited government.
*Popular Sovereignty: The concept of popular sovereignty insures that the government is ultimately ruled by the people.

*Federalism: The constitution outlines a system in which the powers of government are divided between the national government, and the government of the states.

-Separation of Powers: The constitution insures that the powers of government are separated and distributed among the three branches. This is to insure that no one branch hold the power.

-Checks & Balances: In order to keep each branch honest, and to insure that each branch is carrying out its duties and responsibilities, each branch has certain powers, or checks over the other branches. This is to insure a balance of power within the federal government.

-Judicial Review: The most important check that any branch has belongs to the judicial branch. It is the responsibility of the judicial branch to insure that all the laws passed, and actions taken by the executive, and legislative branches are legal and within the boundaries of the Constitution.

-Limited Government: The Constitution lists the powers that the federal government has, and also describes powers that it doesn’t have, that may belong to the States, or to the individual