Annotated version of the United States Constitution

The best and first way to learn about what the Constitution is would be to actually read it. It isn't a very long document, and even with all 27 amendments, would probably take only about an hour to read in full. It’s clearly written, and rather easily understood, and will be much more rewarding than any television program you could dedicate your time to.

The United States Constitution is, ostensibly, the supreme law of United States of America. It provides the framework for the organization of the United States Government, outlining the three branches of the government: the Legislative, Executive and Judicial. Additionally, the Constitution is made up of over two dozen amendments that change how the Constitution works, the first ten of which are known as the Bill of Rights, as they set down which rights are guaranteed protection from the government.

The legislative branch is embodied in the House of Representatives (whose number for each State is proportional to population) and the Senate (where each State has an equal number of representatives), collective known as Congress, and has the responsibility for creating law. The executive branch is headed by the President, and is intended to be responsible for enforcing the law. The judicial branch is headed by the Supreme Court, although other, inferior, courts, are also included, and is responsible for interpretation of the law. However, no single responsibility is held by any of the branches. By the system of checks and balances, each branch is intended to reign in the others from becoming too powerful. 

For example, for a bill to become a law, it must not only pass the House of Representatives and the Senate, but must also gain the signature of the President, who has the power to veto any law proposed. However, with a large majority (two-thirds), the Congress can override a President's veto. Should Congress and the President enact a law that is contrary to the Constitution, the Supreme Court has the ability to render it null. Should Congress and the States believe that it should be law anyway, there is a mechanism for altering the Constitution through the amendment process. This is a prime example of the checks and balances that exist throughout the Constitution.

History

The Constitution is not the first document written to operate the United States. Originally, the United States worked under the Articles of Confederation, which was the document that legally created the United States of America and provided much more limited power to the federal government than the Constitution. Congress could only request money from the States, but could not actually require that it be given, which made it very difficult for the United States to pay it Revolutionary War debts. The President simply presided over Congress, and did not hold executive power. There was no judicial branch. According to George Washington, the Articles of Confederation created only a “half-starved, limping government.”

Because of these weaknesses, Alexander Hamilton, who was the chairman at a convention of states held in Annapolis in 1786, called for a Constitutional Convention, to be held in Philadelphia. James Madison came prepared with a first draft on the first day, which was presented as the Virginia Plan. Although several of the ideas expressed in the Constitution were new, many have their origins in English law, the philosophers Montesquieu and John Locke, and the governments of democratic classical Greece. After numerous compromises (how many members would be in Congress, how to handle the slave population in the South for taxing and representation purposes, etc.), the final form was completed on September 17, 1787. To become law, the Constitution needed to be ratified by nine States, although eventually all thirteen States ratified it.

Importance

The Constitution was the first time in history that a people were building a form government from scratch, rather than altering an existing form, as was the case with the history of England. The authors of the Constitution were well read and educated in the classics and philosophy, and incorporated many ideas from these sources in establishing their government. With the experience of a tyrannical monarch, they were cautious to limit the power of any single branch of the government.

The Constitution established a republican form of government. Contrary to common opinion, the United States is not a democracy! Rather, it is a republic, meaning that, while all the power of the government is derived from the people in democratic processes, the power of the people is curtailed by the limitations in the Constitution, especially within the limits outlined in the Bill of Rights. The founders of the United States feared unfettered democracy, believing that it would lead to the rule of the mob and, eventually, tyranny. They had good reason for believing this, as historically, no democracy ended in anything other than tyranny. This was a major reason that many of the States withheld their ratification of the Constitution until they believed that a Bill of Rights would soon follow.

The Constitution makes the United States a country bound by law rather than individuals. By having a written law that anyone can reference, all of the citizens have the ability to know how the government is to function and what powers it has. It isn't secret. Individuals can know, by familiarizing themselves with the Constitution and the laws passed by Congress, what is legal and what is not, and can decide for themselves how well government actions correspond to constitutional limits. 

The Constitution explicitly enumerates the powers of government, and government may not perform any function or action that is not enumerated. However, some clauses of the Constitution have been interpreted in ways that are at odds with the ideals of liberty. For example, the Commerce Clause says that Congress has the authority to regulate commerce between the states. This has been used as a justification for laws that encroach into areas not covered by the Constitution.

The separation of powers is another important idea in the Constitution. By relegating the responsibility of government to three branches, each of the branches is intended to be a watchdog on the others. A perfect example of this is that, while the President (in the Executive branch) is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, the funding of the armed forces and the power to declare war is reserved to Congress (the Legislative branch). This will hopefully prevent either branch from engaging in military action without the approval of the other.

The most important feature of the United States Constitution, however, is that it is ours. If the Constitution is ignored by the public, if government repeatedly exceeds the boundaries placed by the Constitution without repercussions, it is, as may people derisively say, just a piece of paper. If, however, the rights protected in the Constitution are actively protected by the public, if the public holds its representatives accountable, the Constitution provides a framework for the encouragement of liberty and freedom. We are only as free as we choose to be.

Erosion

As mentioned, the Constitution only protects individual rights if individuals insist on it. Over the last two centuries, there have been numerous erosions of constitutional rights, far too numerous to list them all. These erosions began almost immediately, during the administration of our second president, John Adams, with the passing of the Aliens and Sedition Acts. It does seem, however, that this erosion has accelerated in the last hundred years. Here, for the sake of the point, however, is a sampling:

• Eminent Domain — The expansion of the definition of “public use” in the Fifth Amendment has resulted in the confiscation of private property by government for the use of other private individuals.
• Victimless Crimes — Enacting laws which create crimes where no one involved would complain or press charges leads to a police force that must actively search out crime rather than respond to crimes of injury. These laws have been expansions of government power beyond that enumerated in the Constitution and have resulted in the erosion of rights outlined in the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments.
• The Income Tax — Dubious in its inclusion in the Constitutional Amendments in the first place, the income tax laws have eroded the protections of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments.
• Thought Crimes — Any law which addresses the thoughts and opinions of individuals erodes the rights guaranteed in the First Amendment.
• Terrorism Protection — In our search for security, we have allowed the government to erode the First, Second, Fourth and Fifth Amendments.
• Copyright Law — The Constitution has given Congress the power to protect intellectual works for a limited time to encourage their creation, but this “limited time” has effectively been increased to the point that creative works are protected indefinitely, and in a digital age, this has resulted in not only a departure from the original intent of copyright law, but also the erosion of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments.