Changing The Constitution

The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States.    The Constitution is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government to the states, to citizens, and to all people within the United States.


The Constitution creates the three branches of the national government: a legislature, the bicameral Congress; an executive branch led by the President; and a judicial branch headed by the Supreme Court.    The Constitution specifies the powers and duties of each branch.    The Constitution reserves all unenumerated powers to the respective states and the people, thereby establishing the federal system of government.


The Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787, by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and ratified by conventions in each U.S. state in the name of "The People".    The Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times; the first ten amendments are known as the Bill of Rights.


The Constitution holds a central place in United States law and political culture.    The handwritten original document penned by Jacob Shallus is on display at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C.


Article V of the Constitution describes the process by which you amend the Constitution.

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress;  Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article;  and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.

Repealing an amendment to the constitution requires a whole new amendment, which requires ratification by the congress and 3/4 of states.    An amendment has been repealed only once – the 21st amendment repealed the 18th amendment, which had established the prohibition of alcohol.

When you hear politician talking about changing the constitution, rest assured that it is usually just political posturing.    

Isn’t it funny though that it is almost always Republican politicians advocating for a change in the constitution.    The party that calls themselves “strict constitutionalists” is also the party that is always calling for the constitution to be amended.


Whether its adding an amendment to ban gay marriage or repealing an amendment guaranteeing birthright citizenship, the constitution seems pretty malleable in Republican eyes.     It’s hard to ignore the hypocricy of it all when you have Senator Lindsey Graham saying that the 14th amendment should be repealed because 'times have changed and the way its being used today was surely not the intent of the original authors'.


The Fourteenth Amendment  (Amendment XIV)  to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868 as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.

Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), which held that blacks could not be citizens of the United States.


Its Due Process Clause prohibits state and local governments from depriving people (individual and corporate) of life, liberty, or property without certain steps being taken. This clause has been used to make most of the Bill of Rights applicable to the states, as well as to recognize substantive rights and procedural rights.


Its Equal Protection Clause requires each state to provide equal protection under the law to all people within its jurisdiction. This clause later became the basis for Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Supreme Court decision which precipitated the dismantling of racial segregation in the United States.


The amendment also includes a number of clauses dealing with the Confederacy and its officials.

14th amendment


Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.


Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.


Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.


Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.


Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.


Repealing an amendment to the constitution requires a whole new amendment, which requires ratification by the congress and 3/4 of states.    An amendment has been repealed only once – the 21st amendment repealed the 18th amendment, which had established the prohibition of alcohol.    Lindsey Graham is blowing smoke.