the constitution

A detailed Summary of the constitution

The Constitution Right from the beginning of it's creation the constitution of the United States has been a shaky document. The very basis for it being there was in fact illegal. The story of American politics starts with the Declaration of Independence. This document was brilliantly written by Thomas Jefferson and compacted all of the great ideas of enlightenment into one short easy to read paper. The declaration stated all of the ideals the new American nation would strive for. A constitution was needed as a way in which to fulfill those goals. The articles of confederacy were created as that constitution. However, they were weak, because no state wanted to give away any of their powers, and so the articles eventually failed. That is when the modern day constitution was starting to form. The Articles of Confederacy stated that in order to change any part of the document all thirteen states must agree to the change. Therefor a meeting was called so that they could amend the failing articles. However, representatives from two of the states did not show up. Even though not all states were represented the meeting started and the first vote was to totally throw away the Articles of Confederacy. The constituti

Bibliography Hall, Kermit L. The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. New York Oxford University Press, 1992. Witt, Elder. The Supreme Court A to Z. Congressional Quarterly Inc. Washington DC, 1993. Bacon, Donald C. The Encyclopedia of the United States Congress. Simon & Schusks. New York, 1995. Gilbert, Steve. Landmark Decisions of the United States Supreme Court IV. Excellent Books. California, 1994. Danzer, Gerald A. The Americans. McDougal Littell. Evanston IL, 1998.

on wasn't formed yet and it was already a flawed document. Because not all states were represented when the articles required it, the constitution was an illegal document. The delegates working on the constitution new that they needed a stronger document, because the articles proved too weak, but it still needed to please all of the states. This was impossible. So what ended up happening was the new ducocument became more and more vague. The only way to create a document that would pass was to make a document which didn't really solve any problems but make each state believe that there problems would be fixed. This was accomplished by making it so that it was too vague to offend anybody but you could read into it. This made for a document that would be seriously flawed because people would be able to read into it too much. It could not work. The Constitution of the United States of America was too vague to work. The way the constitution was written it gave power to four parts: the congress, the executive branch, the judicial branch, and the states. Because it was so vague it did not really define which powers went where (with a few exceptions). It left too much room to read into and take power away from other branches and into your branch to give yourself more power. The constitution leaves all unmentioned powers to the states, representing the people. This seems like that would be allot of power, and it would be, except that the other three branches would read into there powers and eventually take almost all powers so that the remaining powers were little and unconsiquencial. Throughout the history of the constitution the three branches of the government would time and time again expand their powers. Each time taking more powers away from the states and unbalance the system so that the original ideals set would be destroyed. Congress was split into two houses: the senate and the house of representatives. This was one of the ways which the constitution gave an unreal power to the people. The house is the only part of the government which is directly elected by the people. This made the people think they were getting a direct say in the government, but that wasn't true because everything done in the house would have to go through the senate which was run by the elite. throughout the years congress has constantly expanded their powers through a broad interpretation of the constitution and with every example they have abused the system by unbalancing powers and taking rights away from the people. The biggest thing they used to expand their powers was a small section of the constitution which they expanded to give them any power the saw proper of themselves to have. Article 1 section 8 clause 18 is called the elastic clause. This clause states that congress can make any laws necessary and proper to carry out their powers. This is one of the big reasons the constitution can not work. this clause is just too vague to allow any understa

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Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)

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