U.s. Constitution

It provides the framework for the organization of the United States Government and enumerates the powers of the Congress as well as those reserved to the states and to the people, those reserved to the President of the United States with the advice and consent of the Senate and to the Judiciary which are tasked to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and to enforce the laws passed by the Congress.
The United States Constitution describes three main branches of government: The bicameral legislative branch is composed of a House of Representatives and a Senate known collectively as the Congress. Article 1 Section 8 of the United States Constitution places the power of the government in the Congress which makes all the laws.

Articles II and III address the powers delegated to the President and to the Judiciary so that they may execute the laws passed by the Congress.
An executive branch led by the President, preserves, protects and defends the Constitution and executes the instructions of the Congress with the advice and consent of the Senate. The president also has certain unique powers reserved to him alone such as the power to pardon, and shared powers such as appointments and treaties made with the advice and consent of the Senate.
A Judicial branch headed by the Supreme Court reviews the laws the Congress has made for their constitutionality.

Very early on two principles unstated in the United States Constitution, separation of powers and judicial review were inferred, diluting the powers of the Congress and changing what was initially intended to be a Democracy into a Federalist Republic.
Besides providing for the organization of these branches, the Constitution at first carefully outlined the delegation of powers from the Congress to the other two branches. In practice over the years many powers initially intended to be reserved to the Congress such as a Declaration of War and the making of rules for the military have been ursurped by the Executive branch.

Where such ursurpations are not resisted or actively encouraged by the Congress they may achieve the status of precedent
The United States Constitution provides that when called into actual service by the Congress making a Declaration of War and mobilizing the militia the president shall replace the governors of the States as Commander in Chief of this Federalized Military. They invited state representatives to convene in Philadelphia to discuss improvements to the federal government.

They also decided to draft a new fundamental government design, which eventually stipulated that only nine of the thirteen states would have to ratify for the new government to go into effect (for the participating states). Current knowledge of the drafting and construction of the United States Constitution comes primarily from the diaries left by James Madison, who kept a complete record of the proceedings at the Constitutional Convention.
Work of the Philadelphia Convention
The Virginia Plan was the unofficial agenda for the Convention, and was drafted chiefly by James Madison, considered to be "The Father of the Constitution" for his major contributions. It was weighted toward the interests of the larger states, and proposed among other points:
A powerful bicameral legislature with a House and a Senate
An executive chosen by the legislature
A judiciary, with life-terms of service and vague powers
The national legislature would be able to veto state laws


The Philadelphia Convention

An alternative proposal, William Paterson's New Jersey Plan, gave states equal weights and was supported by the smaller states. Roger Sherman of Connecticut brokered The Great Compromise whereby the House would represent population, the Senate would represent states, and a president would be elected by electors.
As a result, the original Constitution contained four provisions tacitly allowing slavery to continue for the next 20 years. Section 9 of Article I allowed the continued "importation" of such persons, Section 2 of Article IV prohibited the provision of assistance to escaping persons and required their return if successful and Section 2 of Article I defined other persons as "three-fifths" of a person for calculations of each state's official population. Article V prohibited any amendments or legislation changing the provision regarding slave importation until 1808, thereby giving the States then existing 20 years to resolve this issue.

The most important influence from the European continent was from Montesquieu, who emphasized the need to have balanced forces pushing against each other to prevent tyranny. (This in itself reflects the influence of Polybius' 2nd century BC treatise on the checks and balances of the constitution of the Roman Republic.) John Locke is known to have been a major influence, and the due process clause of the United States Constitution was partly based on common law stretching back to the Magna Carta of 1215.
Influences on the Bill of Rights
The United States Bill of Rights consists of the ten amendments added to the Constitution in 1791, as supporters of the constitution had promised critics during the debates of 1788. The English Bill of Rights (1689) was an inspiration for the American Bill of Rights.

It establishes the fact that the federal government has no authority outside of what follows the preamble, as amended. "We the people", is one of the most-quoted sections of the Constitution.Representatives must be at least 25 years old, have been a citizen of the United States for 7 years, and live in the state they represent. Senators must be at least 30 years old, have been a citizen for 9 years, and live in the state they represent.
In Article I Section I The Constitution says
Section 1.

All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
That gives to Congress much more than just the responsibility to establish the rules governing its proceedings and for the punishment of its members; it places the power of the government in We the People as represented by our elected Congress. The powers listed and all other powers are made the exclusive responsibility of the legislative branch.
The Congress shall have power...(enumerated list of powers) To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.
Article I Section IX provides a list of 8 specific limits on Congressional power.
Article I Section X limits the rights of the states.
The United States Supreme Court has interpreted the commerce clause and the necessary-and-proper clause in Article One to allow Congress to enact legislation that is neither expressly listed in the enumerated power nor expressly denied in the limitations on Congress.
To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof
In 1819 the ruling in McCulloch v.

Maryland the Supreme Court fell back on the strict construction of the necessary and proper clause to read that Congress had ...the foregoing powers and all other powers... The President must be a natural born citizen of the United States, be at least 35 years old, and a resident of the United States for 14 years.

It also provides for the office of Vice President of the United States, and specifies that the Vice President succeeds to the presidency if the President is removed, unable to discharge the powers and duties of office, dies, or resigns. After the death of William Henry Harrison, John Tyler set the precedent that the succession was permanent, and this was followed in practice; the 25th Amendment explicitly states that the Vice President becomes President in those cases.

For instance, it requires states to give "full faith and credit" to the public acts, records and court proceedings of the other states. Congress is permitted to regulate the manner in which proof of such acts, records or proceedings may be admitted.

The "privileges and immunities" clause prohibits state governments from discriminating against citizens of other states in favor of resident citizens (e.g., having tougher penalties for residents of Ohio convicted of crimes within Michigan). It also establishes extradition between the states, as well as laying down a legal basis for freedom of movement and travel amongst the states.

Article Four also provides for the creation and admission of new states. The Territorial Clause gives Congress the power to make rules for disposing of Federal property and governing non-state territories of the United States.It establishes two methods of proposing amendments: by Congress or by a national convention requested by the states. Under the first method, Congress can propose an amendment by a two-thirds vote (of a quorum, not necessarily of the entire body) of the Senate and of the House of Representatives.

To date, only the first method (proposal by Congress) has been used.
Once proposed—whether submitted by Congress or by a national convention—amendments must then be ratified by three-fourths (3/4) of the states to take effect. Article Five gives Congress the option of requiring ratification by state legislatures or by special conventions assembled in the states.

The Constitution would not take effect until at least nine states had ratified the Constitution in state conventions specially convened for that purpose, and it would only apply to those states which ratified it. (See above Drafting and ratification requirements.)
Provisions for changing the Constitution
The Constitution provides for direct modification through the amendment process. Madison] provides the Supreme Court to interpret the law and the Constitution through the process of judicial review.
Amendments
The authors of the Constitution were clearly aware that changes would be necessary from time to time if the Constitution was to endure and cope with the effects of the anticipated growth of the nation.

However, they were also conscious that such change should not be easy, lest it permit ill-conceived and hastily passed amendments. Balancing this, they also wanted to ensure that an overly rigid requirement of unanimity would not block action desired by the vast majority of the population.

Their solution was to devise a dual process by which the Constitution could be altered.
Amending the Constitution is a two-part process: amendments must be proposed and then they must be ratified. Depending on the amendment, this requires either the state legislatures or special state conventions to approve the amendment by simple majority vote.

Amendments generally go to state legislatures to be ratified, only the Twenty-first Amendment called for special state conventions.
Unlike many other constitutions, amendments to the U.S. constitution are appended to the existing body of the text without altering or removing what already exists.

The ability of the courts to interpret the Constitution was decided early in the history of the United States, in the 1803 case of Marbury v. In that case, the Supreme Court established the doctrine of judicial review, which is the power of the Court to examine legislation and other acts of Congress and to decide their constitutionality.The first ten, collectively known as the Bill of Rights, were ratified simultaneously. Nevertheless, a general interpretation of inapplicability to the states remained until 1868, when the Fourteenth Amendment was passed, which stated, in part, that:
The Supreme Court has interpreted this clause to extend most, but not all, parts of the Bill of Rights to the states.

Nevertheless, the balance of state and federal power has remained a battle in the Supreme Court.
The amendments that became the Bill of Rights were actually the last ten of the twelve amendments proposed in 1789. The second of the twelve proposed amendments, regarding the compensation of members of Congress, remained unratified until 1992, when the legislatures of enough states finally approved it and, as a result, it became the Twenty-seventh Amendment despite more than two centuries of pendency.

The first of the twelve—still technically pending before the state legislatures for ratification—pertains to the apportionment of the United States House of Representatives after each decennial census. The most recent state whose lawmakers are known to have ratified this proposal is Kentucky in 1792, during that commonwealth's first month of statehood.
First Amendment: addresses the rights of freedom of religion (prohibiting Congressional establishment of a religion over another religion through Law and protecting the right to free exercise of religion), freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of petition.

Second Amendment: defines the right of States in keeping and maintaining militias and the right of individuals to possess firearms.

Third Amendment: prohibits the government from using private homes as quarters for soldiers during peacetime without the consent of the owners.

The only existing case law regarding this amendment is a lower court decision in the case of Engblom v. Carey.

Fourth Amendment: guards against searches, arrests, and seizures of property without a specific warrant or a "probable cause" to believe a crime has been committed.

Some rights to privacy have been inferred from this amendment and others by the Supreme Court.

Fifth Amendment: forbids trial for a major crime except after indictment by a grand jury; prohibits double jeopardy (repeated trials), except in certain very limited circumstances; forbids punishment without due process of law; and provides that an accused person may not be compelled to testify against himself (this is also known as "Taking the Fifth" or "Pleading the Fifth"). It also prohibits government from taking private property without "just compensation," the basis of eminent domain in the United States.

Sixth Amendment: guarantees a speedy public trial for criminal offenses.

It requires trial by a jury, guarantees the right to legal counsel for the accused, and guarantees that the accused may require witnesses to attend the trial and testify in the presence of the accused. The Sixth Amendment has several court cases associated with it, including Powell v.

The majority of the seventeen later amendments stem from continued efforts to expand individual civil or political liberties, while a few are concerned with modifying the basic governmental structure drafted in Philadelphia in 1787. Although the United States Constitution has been amended a total of 27 times, only 26 of the amendments are currently used because the twenty-first amendment supersedes the eighteenth.
Eleventh Amendment (1795): Clarifies judicial power over foreign nationals, and limits ability of citizens to sue states in federal courts and under federal law.(Full text)
Fourteenth Amendment (1868): Defines a set of guarantees for United States citizenship; prohibits states from abridging citizens' privileges or immunities and rights to due process and the equal protection of the law; repeals the Three-fifths compromise; prohibits repudiation of the federal debt caused by the Civil War. (Full text)
Fifteenth Amendment (1870): Forbids the federal government and the states from using a citizen's race, color, or previous status as a slave as a qualification for voting.

(Full text)
Nineteenth Amendment (1920): Prohibits the federal government and the states from forbidding any citizen to vote due to their sex. (Full text)
Twenty-fourth Amendment (1964): Prohibits the federal government and the states from requiring the payment of a tax as a qualification for voting for federal officials.

Backers of some amendments have attempted the alternative, and thus-far never-utilized, method mentioned in Article Five. In two instances—reapportionment in the 1960s and a balanced federal budget during the 1970s and 1980s—these attempts have come within just two state legislative "applications" of triggering that alternative method.
Of the thirty-three amendments that have been proposed by Congress, six have failed ratification by the required three-quarters of the state legislatures—and four of those six are still technically pending before state lawmakers (see Coleman v.

Starting with the 18th Amendment, each proposed amendment (except the 19th Amendment and the still-pending Child Labor Amendment of 1924) has specified a deadline for passage. Some maintain that the amendment was actually ratified by the legislatures of enough states, and that a conspiracy has suppressed it, but this has been thoroughly debunked.

It was ratified by only Ohio and Maryland lawmakers before the outbreak of the Civil War. Illinois lawmakers—sitting as a state constitutional convention at the time—likewise approved it, but that action is of questionable validity.

The proposed amendment contains no expiration date for ratification and may yet be ratified. However, adoption of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments after the Civil War likely means that the amendment would be ineffective if adopted.
A child labor amendment proposed by the 68th Congress on June 2, 1924, which stipulates: "The Congress shall have power to limit, regulate, and prohibit the labor of persons under eighteen years of age." This amendment is highly unlikely to be ratified, since subsequent federal child labor laws have uniformly been upheld as a valid exercise of Congress' powers under the commerce clause.
Properly placed in a separate category from the other four constitutional amendments that Congress proposed to the states, but which not enough states have approved, are the following two offerings which—because of deadlines—are no longer subject to ratification.
The Equal Rights Amendment, or ERA, which reads in pertinent part "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." Proposed by the 92nd Congress on March 22, 1972, it was ratified by the legislatures of 35 states, and expired on either March 22, 1979 or on June 30, 1982, depending upon one's point of view of a controversial three-year extension of the ratification deadline, which was passed by the 95th Congress in 1978.

But a precedent against the validity of rescission was first established during the ratification process of the 14th Amendment when Ohio and New Jersey rescinded their earlier approvals, but yet were counted as ratifying states when the 14th Amendment was ultimately proclaimed part of the Constitution in 1868.
The District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment was proposed by the 95th Congress on August 22, 1978.