Most Basic of Rights, The: Fourteenth Amendment Extends First Amendment Guarantees to States
How do you protect individuals and minorities against the danger of state-based legislation that will violate their rights? The equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment allow the Supreme Court to maintain freedom of expre...
Most Basic of Rights, The: Struggle for Rights
Freedom of speech, the most basic component of the first amendment, is more extensive in the U.S. than other countries of the world. But this freedom did not come without a struggle. In fact, ratification of the Constitution by several states was co...
Living Constitution, The: Dividing Sovereign Powers Between State and Federal Governments
Power was divided not only among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government, but between federal and state governments. Federalism is a kind of political competition where the national government and the states vie to attract th...
Living Constitution, The: Concept of Judicial Review, The
Another factor that keeps government officials and institutions within the boundaries of the Constitution is the concept of judicial review. It is the principle mechanism for resolving disputes over federalism. Jack Rakove calls the idea that judici...
American Experiment, The: Representation in the House and Senate
Madison and other large state delegates believed that representation in both houses of Congress should be apportioned on the basis of population or population and wealth. Small-state delegates argued for equal representation. How the compromise was ...
American Experiment, The: Three-fifths Compromise, The
The separate economic interests of the northern and southern states became the basis for a second major debate. Would slaves who could not vote be counted as part of the population in determining the size of a state's representation in Congress or w...
Living Constitution, The: Tripartite Distribution of Powers
The Framers had no illusions that written words alone would restrain power. As a consequence they sought to check power with power by distributing the authority of government among three branches: executive, judicial, and legislative. The powers of ...
American Experiment, The: Framers of the Constitution, The
The people invited to participate in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 were not a representative sample of the American population. Some of the 55 delegates were only in attendance for a few days or weeks. In fact, only 12 to 15 speakers represe...
American Experiment, The: Ratification Strategies
In order to avoid the pitfalls that made the Articles of Confederation unworkable, and yet have a chance to gain approval for the newly completed Constitution, the framers devised an ingenious scheme. They said states could approve the Constitution ...
American Experiment, The: Impact of the Convention Compromises
Jack Rakove, Stanford professor and Pulitzer prize-winning author, analyzes the long-term impact of the compromise decisions made at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. Which has had a greater impact on the United States, the compromise over slav...