The twentieth Amendment is a long one, and it changes quite a few things. It all relates to the timings and elections of Presidents, Vice Presidents, and congress as well as what to do in situations where the President/Vice President can not take office.
Tag: constitution
The Amendments: Nineteen
The Nineteenth Amendment rectifies a wrong in earlier voting qualifications. It has one mission, and that is to give women the right to vote:
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
(source)
There’s not alot of commentary to make on this amendment, given that its pretty straightforward and only has one clause in it (Well, two but the second is pretty standard in Amendments as it gives Congress the power to enforce the amendment).
This amendment was first introduced in 1878, but only passed by congress in 1919. It was ratified in only 13 months. There were lawsuits claiming that the amendment usurped states rights during the early years, but since enough states ratified the amendment, they were shot down. (Leser Vs. Garnett WIKI).
Interestingly enough, there were some states, particularly newer states to the union, that already had some sort of voting laws in place to allow women to vote prior to this amendment. New Jersey actually allowed it from the start, but revoked in 1807. Many of the original states did not offer any voting rights to women till after this amendment.
The Amendments: Eighteen
This amendment is a special amendment. This is the only amendment that has been fully repealed and not not just edited to include more coverage. The Eighteenth Amendment has gone down in history known as Prohibition.
It was passed by congress in 1917 and ratified two years later in 1919. It was repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933. So it only lasted 15 years of actual enforcement.
The Amendments: Seventeen
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.
When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.
This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.
(source)
Previous to this amendment, Senators were chosen by the legislatures of their respective state. After its ratification in 1913 (big year for amendments), Senators were to be elected by popular election instead of by the state governing bodies.
Although, given what I think of my state’s governing body which apparently took eight months to agree on a stupid budget this might have been a good idea.
In a sense, the government had actually moved closer to a true Democracy with this amendment. It’s still a representative Republic, but the population has more a say (when they take it) in what goes on.
The Amendments: Sixteen
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
(Source)
The Sixteenth Amendment takes a different turn from the previous couple as it has nothing to do with voting rights, or adding to or editing other amendments. Its simply about taxes. Its also the first Amendment passed in the 1900s. It was passed by Congress in 1909 (almost 40 years after the 15th), but took till 1913 to be ratified by the States. That’s not surprising considering even today we aren’t too fond of taxes.
The Amendments: Fifteen
SECTION 1
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
SECTION 2
The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
(Source)
This amendment is pretty straightforward. It was passed by Congress in 1869, and ratified a year later.
Though the 14th amendment protected the right to vote, this adds to the law prohibiting restriction of voting. It still does not include the right to vote to women, but it does give the right to vote to African-Americans as it was no longer legal to discriminate against race.
There are several amendments tied to prohibited discrimination against voters. the 14th, 15th, 19th, 24th and 26th amendments all relate to voting rights.
I found it interesting to learn that previous different states had different voting restrictions. Some would allow all citizens (including women and free blacks) the right to vote, others would require you to own a certain amount of property. The 14th & 15th amendments nationalized voting rights, outlawing most restrictions.
There is an argument now about Voter ID laws, and how they may or may not be constitutionally sound. Some believe that this violates the 14th amendment, and possibly the 15th as it seems to unfairly target some groups within the community and in some places possible racial issues exist.
I’m personally neutral on that subject because on one hand I can see how those who don’t have easy access to the DMV would find it hard to get a state ID that could allow them to vote. On the other hand, so much today requires an ID from writing checks to purchasing age-required items like Decongestant. Its hard to imagine why someone wouldn’t have an ID. But unless the state can guarantee easy access to get the ID, I don’t believe it should be a requirement to vote. Especially considering that the so called fraud its meant to prevent is usually very rare and often enough is simply the result of typographical errors or someone having the same name as a deceased person and their SS# being wrong.
Related Reading:
Myth of Voter Fraud – Brennan Center for Justice
Voter Fraud: A Massive Anti-Democratic Deception – Forbes
Our Documents: The 15th Amendment – you can get to see the actual amendment document
Passing of the 15th Amendment – PBS (For a special on U.S. Grant)
The Amendments: Fourteen
The Fourteenth Amendment is a debatable amendment as some believe it is not clear enough. It has several elements to it, so its not as simple as the last amendment was. I’ve put it behind a read more due to length.
This amendment was passed by Congress in 1866, but it wasn’t ratified till 1868. Continue reading “The Amendments: Fourteen”
The Amendments: Twelve
This amendment is a bit long, so I’m going to put a read-more cut before it. This amendment affects the Electoral college, so if you are interested in that, considering upcoming events, this is a good one to look into.
It was passed by Congress in December 1803, and ratified in June of 1804. It relates to Article 1, Section II on the elections of Presidents and Vice Presidents as well as Amendments 20 & 22 , which actually edits part of this amendment.
The Amendments: Eleven
The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State. (source)
The eleventh amendment was the first amendment done after the Bill of Rights and the ratification of the Constitution. It was proposed on March 4, 1794 and ratified on February 7, 1795. So it took nearly a year to pass through Congress and get ratified by the states.
This amendment is often debated because of the range of different takes on how to follow this amendment. Does this mean that the state governments can not be sued by their own citizens, or does it just bar out of state citizens and foreign parties? Does it restrict what cases the federal government can view if there is an appeal.
At the very least it protects States from being sued by citizens not their own, and of being named in suits from foreign groups. Debate on how broad or narrow this amendment is continues to this day. It is connected to aspects of the fourteenth amendment, so that tailers what this amendment is read as.
The Amendments: Nine & Ten
The 9th and 10th amendments, the last of the 1791 Bill of Rights, deal with similar concepts. Mainly relations to rights not expressly listed by the Bill of Rights
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. (source)
This basically says they realise that the rights in the bill of Rights was not complete, that there are rights held by the people not listed and that the government can’t say “Well, its not mentioned, so you don’t have it.”
I’m sure this gets argued often enough. It also allows for amendments to be added as times change and new problems come to the surface about various rights that should be self-evident but apparently need it bolded for some people to get.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. (Source)
This amendment gives powers to the States. During the foundation of this nation, there was a big argument over whether the Federal or the states governments should have the most power. It became clear fairly early after the articles of confederation that the Federal Government had to have some power. Yet even during the construction of the Constitution, debate waged on just how much power the Federal government has. Its still a debate today, and actually was what caused us to have our first political parties (The Federalists who wanted a strong central government and the Democratic-Republicans who wanted a weak Federal government with most power going to the States).
Basically this amendment says if a right is not listed here, and is not prohibited by the states, its up to the individual states or local municipalities to make a judgement call. Which of course causes all kinds of arguments when the Federal government makes decisions that a state doesn’t like.
This is also why some laws differ from state to state even though you might think its common sense. Most states have seatbelt laws, but not all, and each state has different idea of what they want to regulate. One such law in my own state was that we used to have a law that motorcyclists had to wear helmets. This always made sense to me. I figured it was one of those common sense laws put in because some people don’t use theirs. However, the state next door had no helmet law and when I would travel through it I would be amazed to see motorcyclists with bandanas or leather caps as their only protection.
The helmet law was repealed in my state in 2003 because it was argued that was over regulation of the people. Now if you are 21 and older and have a full license, you don’t have to wear a helmet.
Sokorra Lewis 