THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION: WHAT DOES IT REALLY SAY?

Christian Law Association ^ | 2003

[Tailgunner Joe]

The most important legal document in America is the United States Constitution; and, when asked, more than 90% of the American people say the Constitution is important to them. Congress also recognized the ongoing importance of this document in 1956 when President Dwight D. Eisenhower was asked to proclaim September 17 to 23 of each year as "Constitution Week" in remembrance of the signing of the United States Constitution.

This year, two hundred and sixteen years after the Constitution was adopted, many Americans will celebrate Constitution Week with recitations of the Preamble, with events reliving the signing of the Constitution, and even with a special ceremony of public bell ringing in Philadelphia where this important document was drafted.

But just how many Americans have actually read the Constitution or know what this document actually says? After all, many law schools do not even require that law students read the Constitution as part of their program of study.

According to various surveys taken of the American people in recent years, 95% of them could not correctly answer basic questions about the Constitution:

• 84% of Americans confuse the Constitution with the Declaration of Independence and think it is the Constitution that says: "all men are created equal." That phrase is actually found in the Declaration of Independence, the document by which our Founding Fathers declared their independence from England and their dependence on God.
• 83% of Americans admit that they know only "some" or "very little" about the specifics of the Constitution. Even many American lawyers would have to admit their own ignorance of the document, if they were to be honest in their response.
• 62% of Americans cannot name all three branches of the Federal government—the executive, legislative and judicial.
• 24% of Americans cannot name a single right guaranteed by the First Amendment. Freedom of speech, press, religion and assembly are the major ones included.
• 20% of Americans do not know the Constitution prescribes that the President is also the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces.

AMERICANS NEED TO KNOW THE CONSTITUTION

Despite this lack of knowledge about the Constitution, 84% of Americans believe that in order for our American constitutional form of government to work as intended, Americans are required to function as an active and informed citizenry. Citizenship Week this September is a good time for all Americans, and especially Christians, to resolve to become both informed about the Constitution and active in ensuring its preservation.

The following is a list of the key provisions in the various articles of the United States Constitution. If you learn these few facts, you will instantly be more informed about our Constitution than the vast majority of Americans.

• Article I of the Constitution gives instructions for the organization and powers of a two-house legislature: the House of Representatives and the Senate.
• Article II establishes the Executive branch of government and vests executive power in the President of the United States.
• Article III provides for the judicial branch of government with one Supreme Court and such inferior Courts as are established by Congress.
• Article IV provides for Full Faith and Credit between the states, i.e., requiring that each state must recognize the laws of the other states.
• Article V provides a formal means for amending the Constitution. To date, only 27 amendments have been enacted by Congress and ratified by the states, while thousands of other proposed amendments have failed.
• Article VI provides that the Constitution and the laws passed by Congress shall be the supreme law of the land. In other words, these laws will control in the event that federal and state laws conflict. This provision is referred to as the Supremacy Clause.
• Article VII provides that ratification by nine of the original thirteen States was needed to establish the Constitution.
• The Bill of Rights, added immediately to the Constitution in 1791, includes the first ten amendments to the Constitution and guarantees many basic rights considered fundamental to the American way of life. The Bill of Rights includes the following:
  • Amendment I: Freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petitions to redress grievances;
  • Amendment II: Freedom to bear arms;
  • Amendment III: Freedom from quartering soldiers without consent;
  • Amendment IV: Freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures;
  • Amendment V: Freedom from self incrimination;
  • Amendment VI: Right to a speedy trial, assistance of counsel, and various safeguards at trial;
  • Amendment VII: Right to a jury trial;
  • Amendment VIII: Freedom from cruel and unusual punishment;
  • Amendment IX: Retention of non-enumerated rights by the people;
  • Amendment X: The right of the states and the people to reserve the powers not delegated in the Constitution.

Other key amendments that have become part of the Constitution include: the abolition of slavery (Amendment XIII: 1865); authority for a federal income tax (Amendment XVI: 1913); the right of women to vote (Amendment XIX: 1920); a two term limit for Presidents (Amendment XXII: 1951); lowering of the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen years (Amendment XXVI: 1971), and delaying the effective date of Congressional pay raises until after an election (Amendment XXVII: 1992).

Finally, there have been fifty bills proposing additional amendments to the Constitution of the United States introduced into the current 108th Congress. Many of these proposed amendments are attempts to check the extraordinary powers currently being exercised by the federal judiciary, which are often contrary to the will of the people as expressed through their elected representatives at the state and federal levels. The following proposed Constitutional amendments currently before the Congress specifically focus on moral and religious issues:

• To declare that it is not an establishment of religion for teachers in a public school to recite, or to lead willing students in the recitation of, the Pledge of Allegiance. About two million Americans have signed an Internet pledge in support of this Amendment. This proposed Amendment is a direct response to a recent decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals finding that the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance with the words “under God” in public schools is unconstitutional.
• To declare a basic right to pray and to recognize America’s religious heritage and traditions on public property, including public schools. This School Prayer Amendment is intended to override the U.S. Supreme Court's 1962 decision banning government-sponsored prayer in public school classrooms. It is also intended to protect the Pledge of Allegiance and the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools.
• To declare that marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman and prohibits the Constitution or any State constitution or State or Federal law from being construed to require that marital status or its legal incidents be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups. This Amendment is intended to stop the courts from legalizing gay marriage against the will of the majority of the American people. It is interesting to note that Defense of Marriage Acts (DOMAs) have been enacted in 37 states and 38 states are needed to ratify a constitutional amendment.

It is intentionally very difficult to enact and ratify a Constitutional amendment. An amendment must be approved by two-thirds of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and then be ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures or by conventions in three-fourths of the states. This difficulty was intended to make amendments rare and to preserve the stability of the government.

THE CONSTITUTION RELIED ON THE BIBLE

James Madison, who was the father of our Constitution, understood that men could not effectively govern themselves without a clear understanding of the Biblical doctrine of man’s inherent sinfulness. As a result, he drafted the Constitution so that no one branch of government was given absolute control over the others and so that a rigorous system of checks and balances would protect the people from tyranny. The following provisions demonstrate this basic theological understanding:

• The President can veto any Act passed by both houses of Congress, but Congress can override a presidential veto.
• The House of Representatives may instigate impeachment proceedings against the President, but the Senate has the sole Power to try all impeachments.
• The Supreme Court can declare a legislative Act to be unconstitutional; however, the Congress has the power to determine the number and jurisdiction of the federal courts, within the limits of Article III.
• The Electoral College, which is determined by the number of Congressional representatives for each state, elects the President. The President is not elected by the popular vote of the people, thus preventing states with larger populations from having a greater voice in Presidential elections than states that are more sparsely populated.

THE CONSTITUTION PRESUMED A MORAL CITIZENRY

When the first Congress, assembled after the Constitution was ratified by the states and took effect in September 1789, one of the first acts of the legislators was to ask the President…

[T]o recommend to the People of the United States, a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed, by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a Constitution of Government for their safety and happiness.

More than 200 years later, we should share this same spirit of thanksgiving and prayer, particularly as we consider that James Madison and other Founding Fathers described the successful drafting and ratification of the United States Constitution as a miracle which could only have been brought about by Divine intervention.

All Americans, and especially Christians, should also carefully consider the advice of our first two Presidents as we celebrate our continuing Constitutional government, which has served us so well for these past two centuries.

President George Washington said in his Inaugural Address on April 30, 1789:

[T]he propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.

President George Washington said in his Farewell Address on September 19, 1796:

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports. . . . And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. . . . reason and experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

Finally, John Adams, our second President, warned in 1798:

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

As Christians, it is our duty to maintain the moral and religious foundation on which our society was built and for which our Constitution was drafted. We must work hard to resist the efforts of those who would tear down the moral fabric of our society and undermine the true intent of America’s Founding Fathers.

A good first step to defending the Constitution is learning what it actually says. A second good step would be to pass that knowledge along to your children, grandchildren, and fellow citizens. Finally, a good third step would be to thank God for the Constitution that we have the privilege of living under in this nation. Then also pray that the spiritual and moral intent of the men who wrote the Constitution would be revived once again in our land.

[djf]

Here is the only mention of who is bound:

Art 6, Cl 3:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

[longtermmemmory]

In the revolution days lawyers used only two or three books to practice law. Definitly a Bible and a Law Dictionary. The others were most likely a copy with the few laws of the time.


Now we have 12 linear feet of new case law every year.

[NorCalRepub]

I exercise quite a bit so I thought I had a healthy constitution........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[djf]

Absolutely correct. And the government itself is aware of it, and by law, has created the annotated constitution.

http://www.eco.freedom.org/ac92/
2500+ pages of analysis and interpretation of constitutional law.

[Dog Gone]

In the revolution days lawyers used only two or three books to practice law.

America did inherit English common law principles which far exceeded the statutes in existence. I suppose you're probably right, but any lawyer with access to prior decisions would carry the day.

[djf]

The two books that were most widely owned in colonial America were:

The Bible and
Blackstones Commentaries on the Laws of England

[mrsmith]

Well, it won't get you in trouble with me.

Many Supreme Court- and even Appeals and District Court- rulings are a delight to read for their insight into the Constitution and it's history.

The rulings that bother me aren't.

[jonestown]

"The Constitution relied on the Bible" - Where?

Bump

[Dog Gone]

Wow, what a link! I spent 20 seconds there and quickly decided to bookmark it.

[longtermmemmory]

but those colonial laptops were a bear to put in a saddlebag.

[djf]

I once had access to a high speed link and downloaded the whole thing.
14.3 Mb.

[mathluv]

I keep an old government textbook handy, so I can look things up that I don't remember.

My granddaughter - 5th grade - had to learn the Preamble this year. She was very impressed that I remembered how it started. (I did not remember much else, but I could remember how it started.)

[Dog Gone]

but those colonial laptops were a bear to put in a saddlebag.

ROFL. It's because they weren't wireless.

[longtermmemmory]

that site seems to get the second amendment wrong.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"Many of the problems we face today are a consequence of people's persistent failure to do so."

You nailed it, Supercat!

(To the original poster: Nice post. Thanks much!)

[mathluv]

'Article IV provides for Full Faith and Credit between the states, i.e., requiring that each state must recognize the laws of the other states. '

I am not a lawyer, constitutional or otherwise. This is what gay marriage is using. Why are the laws of some states able to do away with laws of other states? If a state has denied gay marriage, how can another state say they have to allow it?

[Tailgunner Joe]

James Madison modeled the plan to divide the federal government into three branches on Isaiah 33:22; "For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us."

[Tailgunner Joe]

That is why so many conservatives support a Federal Marriage Amendment.

[Flyer]

In reality, there are a lot of footnotes to the Constitution which don't appear in the actual document and can only be learned by reviewing over 200 years of Supreme Court decisions.

My second option is to hang out with people like you.

[mathluv]

I will support it, but it is a shame that it is necessary.