United States Constitution
The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. It was adopted in its original form on September 17, 1787 by the Constitutional Convention of Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) and later ratified by the people in conventions in each state in the name of "We the People" (We the People). In reality, they were not popular referendums, but the State Assemblies were in charge of ratifying the Constitution. The first nine states to pass the Constitution took 10 months. The first state to ratify it was Delaware, on December 7, 1787, with a unanimous vote of 30-0. The Constitution has a central place in American law and political culture. The United States Constitution is the oldest federal constitution currently in force in the world.
An original copy of the document can be found at the National Archives in Washington D.C.
History
Writing and requirements for ratification
In September 1786, commissioners from five states met at the Annapolis Convention to discuss amendments to the Articles of Confederation that would improve trade.
They invited representatives from other states to meet in Philadelphia to discuss improvements to the federal government. As a result of the debate, the Congress of the Confederation proposed to revise the Articles of Confederation on February 21, 1787. Twelve of the thirteen states, Rhode Island being the only exception, accepted the invitation and sent delegates to the convention in May of 1787. The resolution calling the Convention specified its purpose to amend the Articles of Confederation, but the Convention decided to propose writing a new Constitution.
The Philadelphia Convention voted to keep the deliberations secret and decided to draft a fundamental new design of government that eventually provided that nine of the thirteen states would have to ratify the constitution for it to take effect for participating states.
Work of the Philadelphia Convention
The Virginia Plan was the unofficial agenda of the Convention, mostly drafted by James Madison. It was aimed at favoring the interests of the largest states, and among other proposals were:
- A powerful bicameral congress with a House of Representatives and a Senate
- Executive (president) elected by the legislature
- A judiciary, with periods of service for life, with vague powers
- Federal Congress could veto state laws
Therefore, in the Virginia Plan the sole holder of sovereignty would be the central government, so the states would be mere administrative divisions. On the contrary, in the New Jersey Plan the depositaries of the republic's sovereignty would have to be the states, under equal conditions among all of them. The first proposal was intolerable to those who, like the author of the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson (who was not present at the Convention), believed that a strong central government was both a betrayal of the Enlightenment ideals of the Revolution and a threat to the people and states. Furthermore, most Americans at the time identified their state as their pre-eminent political entity. But the New Jersey Plan, for its part, was unacceptable to those who sought to truly overcome the existing confederate model and replace it with a more centralized and federal one, as was the case with such preeminent figures of the day as Alexander Hamilton of New York, or James Madison of Virginia.
Another difference that seemed irreconcilable between these plans was that Virginia's advocated that the states should be represented in the federal Legislature based on their population. Since this clearly disadvantaged smaller or less populated states, the New Jersey Plan called for identical representation for each state. The solution adopted in the Connecticut Compromise settled the discussion Solomonically: the legislative branch of the new republic would be bicameral, applying the Virginia proposal to one of these chambers and the New Jersey proposal to the other. Thus, in the House of Representatives, its members would be elected according to Virginia's proposal, based on its population, so the more inhabitants, the more representatives. But in the other chamber, in the Senate, the New Jersey proposal would be applied and senators would be elected in equal numbers for each state, regardless of their size and population. Both principles apply to this day.
Ratification
Contrary to the modification process established in Article XVI of the Articles of Confederation, Congress submitted the proposal to the states and set the terms of representation.
On September 17, 1787, the Constitution was completed in Philadelphia. Benjamin Franklin then gave a speech in which he spoke of unanimity, even though only nine states were required to ratify the Constitution for it to take effect.
After arduous ratification battles in several states, New Hampshire became the ninth state on June 21, 1788. Once the Congress of the Confederation received word of New Hampshire's ratification, it set dates for ratification. the Constitution went into effect, and the federal government created by the Constitution began to operate on March 4, 1789 under the presidency of George Washington. Thereafter, all the presidents of the new country began their terms on March 4, until in 1933 the Twentieth Amendment advanced that date to January 20.
Historical Influences
Many of the ideas in the Constitution were new, and a large number of them were derived from the literature of Republicanism in the United States, from the experience of the thirteen states, and from the experience of the United Kingdom with its form of mixed government. The most important influence on Continental Europe came from Montesquieu, who emphasized having balanced forces that opposed each other to prevent tyranny. This reflects the influence of Polybius' treatise —2nd century century BCE. C.— about the checks and balances of the Constitution of the Roman Republic. John Locke is known to have a mixed influence, and the due process clause of the United States Constitution was partially based on common law with references to the 1215 Magna Carta.
It is also noteworthy the influence that the tradition of democratic and egalitarian government of the Iroquois Confederacy had on Benjamin Franklin when drafting the Constitution.[citation required]
Influences on the US Bill of Rights
The United States Bill of Rights was the ten amendments added to the Constitution in 1791, just as the proponents of the Constitution had promised opponents during the debates of 1788. The Declaration of English Rights of 1689 was an inspiration for the United States Bill of Rights. For example, both required jury trials, contain a right to bear arms, and prohibit excessive bail as well as "cruel and unusual punishment." Many liberties protected by state constitutions and the Virginia Declaration of Rights were incorporated into the United States Bill of Rights.
Articles of the Constitution
The Constitution has seven original articles, and twenty-seven amendments.
Preamble
The Preamble states:
We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure inner tranquility, provide common defense, promote general well-being and assure for ourselves and for our descendants the benefits of freedom, proclaim and institute this Constitution for the United States of America.
Article I: Legislative power
Article I establishes the legislative branch of the Government, the United States Congress, including the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Article establishes the form of election and qualifications of the members of the Chamber and the Senate. In addition, it provides for free debate in Congress and limits the selfish behavior of members of Congress, outlines the legislative procedure, and indicates the powers of the legislative branch.
Article II: the executive power
Article II outlines the Presidency (executive branch): procedures for the selection of the president, requirements for access to office, the oath to be sworn, and the powers and duties of the office. It also establishes the office of the vice president of the United States, and specifies that the vice president succeeds to the presidency in the event of the president's incapacity, death, or resignation, although it was not clear whether this succession is temporary or permanent. In practice, this was always treated as succession, and the 25th Amendment explicitly provides for succession. Article II also regulates impeachment and removal from office of civil officials (the president, vice president, judges, and others).
Article III: the judiciary
Article III describes the judicial system (judiciary), including the Supreme Court of the United States. The article requires that there be a court called the Supreme Court. Congress, at its discretion, may create lower courts, whose judgments and orders may be reviewed by the Supreme Court. Article III also requires the participation of a jury in all criminal cases, defines the crime of treason, and charges Congress to establish a punishment for it.
Article IV: State powers and limits
Article IV describes the relationship between the states and the federal government and between the states themselves. For example, this requires states to give "full faith and credit" to public acts, records and processes of other states. Allows Congress to regulate the manner of proving such acts, records, or acts, and their effects. The "privileges and immunities" prohibits state governments from discriminating against citizens of other states in favor of resident citizens (for example, by imposing higher sentences on Ohioans convicted of crimes committed in Michigan).
Article V: Amendment Process
Article V outlines the process needed to amend the constitution. It establishes two methods of proposing amendments: by Congress or by a national convention requested by the states. With the first method, Congress can propose an amendment with a two-thirds vote (of a quorum, not necessarily the entire house) of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Under the second method, the legislatures of two-thirds of the states can call and compel Congress to call a national convention, and Congress must call that convention in order to consider the proposed amendments. Up to 2015, only the first method—proposed by Congress—has been used.
Once proposed—either by Congress or by national conventions—amendments must be ratified by three-fourths of the states to take effect. Article V gives Congress the option of requiring ratification by state legislatures or by special conventions called in the states. The method of ratification by convention has only been used once (to pass the Twenty-first Amendment). Article Five currently places only one limitation on the power to amend: no amendment may deprive a state of its equal representation in the Senate without that state's consent.
Clarification of terms
The name "amendment" It is not, in the legal terminology of the countries of the European Continent (Civil Law countries), significant. In Europe, amendment means modification of a bill, which will then be admitted or rejected by the majority of the legislature. What North Americans understand by amendment is what in Spain is called an "additional provision", which can later be integrated into the articles of the law, if a text is approved revised. When someone in the United States says that they accept a certain constitutional amendment, they are not referring to an alternative proposal, typical of a project under discussion, but to an additional text to the Constitution, which has different numbering than the articles of the same, but it does not lose its validity. This is related to the legal system of Common Law, inherited during the colonization by the United Kingdom.
The articles of the Constitution themselves are not equivalent to the articles of the constitutions of countries such as France, Italy, Germany or Spain, but are much more extensive normative statements, equivalent in some cases to titles of the Spanish Constitution (to cite an example).
Article VI: Supremacy of the Constitution and Federal Laws
Article VI establishes the Constitution, the adopted laws and treaties of the United States concluded in accordance with it, as the supreme law throughout the national territory, and that "the judges of all the states will be bound by it, despite anything established to the contrary by the laws or constitutions of the states". It also validates the national debt created under the Articles of Confederation and requires all legislators, federal officials, and judges to swear or affirm to "support" the Constitution. This means that state constitutions and laws must not conflict with the laws of the federal Constitution; in case of conflict, state judges are legally bound to abide by federal laws and the Constitution over those of any state.
Article VI also states that "no religious test or requirement shall ever be required for access to any office or public agency dependent on the United States".
Article VII: Ratification
Article VII establishes the requirements for the ratification of the Constitution. The Constitution would not enter into force until at least nine states ratified it in state conventions specially convened for that purpose.
Original pages of the Constitution
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Signatures
Controversy over the oldest current constitution
The US Constitution is often referred to as the oldest constitution still in force in the world. However, it is necessary to point out that it is actually the oldest written federal constitution. Regarding whether it is the oldest constitution still in force, it is necessary to point out that the Statutes of the Republic of San Marino of 1600 (Leges Statutae Republicae Sancti Marini), which are part of the fundamental legal system of that republic, together with the Electoral Law of 1926 and the Declaration of Citizens' Rights of 1974, would be older and are also often referred to as the constitution oldest in force, although there are opinions (especially from the American point of view) that indicate that these Statutes cannot be spoken of as a traditional constitution or in the strict sense, that is, as a single written document, but as part of the legal system legal fundamental, not as a formal constitution and, in this sense, in some web pages of San Marino itself it is indicated that the country does not have a constitution as such. On the other hand, if the constitutions of subnational entities are also taken into account, the constitution of the American state of Massachusetts, ratified on June 15, 1780, would be seven years older even than that of the United States, which would make it a the world's oldest written constitution still in force.
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