Up@dawn 2.0

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

2nd Final Installment (#8)

Whitney Ingle
(#8 TR)
2nd final installment

This I Believe (cont.)

           Using some of my U.S. government teacher’s words, the constitution then and now is thought of the highest law of the land. It was the precedent that would pioneer how our government was set up and run for the many years to come. It is what we, as U.S. citizens, go by in order to make hard decisions for our country like Brown v. Board of Education, gay marriage rights, and Roe v. Wade. When it came time for us to learn the constitution, our teacher went section by section and clause by clause explaining exactly what they meant in today’s terms.


            There are many rights that are clearly stated in many parts of the constitution such as the Bill of Rights. These are examples of certain liberties the government cannot take away from us, but there are some clauses that are vaguer. In the portion that assigns duties to the Legislative Branch, the enumerated rights are listed for a guide for future problems. However, the writers of the constitution, also, wrote in a safety net. This is called the elastic clause.

“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.”


This was not the only loophole that was put into the Constitution. In the fourth amendment, citizens are given the right against search and seizure without a probable cause and warrant in their person, house, papers, and effects. This entitles citizens with a certain amount of privacy from the government without probable cause. More importantly, the amendment that stands out is the ninth amendment. It states that just because certain rights were not listed in the Constitution does not mean that the people do not have them. My teacher was clear to point out that citizens’ right to privacy was an example of this type of unwritten right. The ninth and fourteenth amendments were used for concurring opinions in the U.S. Supreme Court case, Roe v. Wade, stating that no state could prohibit abortions during the first trimester.


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