Constitutional Cornerstone- The Amendments

Constitutional Cornerstone- The Amendments

Realistic View of Human Nature

*The Constitution is not a Christian document. Our founding Fathers did think through human nature as they wrote it however.

*The French constitution of 1792 demonstrates what happens when governments are planned around a false view of humans. The Second French Republic lasted for just three years.

Constitutional Interpretation

• The founders understood that they were not prophets who could predict America’s future problems and write a document to solve those problems.

• Rather they wrote a brief and general charter.

Constitutional Interpretation

• Those who believe that the text of the Constitution is important and that any interpretation should be kept to a minimum have traditionally been known as strict constructionists, while others prefer the term originalists.

• Those who take a broader and sometimes more creative approach to constitutional interpretation have traditionally been known as broad constructionists, or living constitutionalists.

The Amendment Process

• In addition to interpreting and applying the Constitution through the various branches of government, there is a more formal means of adapting the Constitution to meet changing needs—the amendment process.

• The Constitution provides for its own amending in Article V.

• There are two major phases of the amendment process: proposal and ratification.

• Proposal (the formal introduction of an amendment) may be made in two ways: either by a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress or by a special national convention called at the request of two-thirds of the states.

The Amendment Process

• Once an amendment is proposed, it must go through the formal approval process called ratification—a state-level responsibility.

• Like the proposal process, ratification may also be effected by two means: either by the approval of three-fourths of the states’ legislatures or by the approval of three-fourths of special state ratification conventions.

• Only the Twenty-First Amendment (which repealed Prohibition) has been ratified by state conventions.

• Of the twenty-seven amendments that have passed ratification, the first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were added in 1791 and were closely tied to the original ratification effort.