Unit 3 Assessment by avani y :-)

☆ CONSTITUTIONAL DYNAMISM ☆

s_avani_yatavelli — 2016-12-18 15:32:59 UTC

How the Constitution created the American government to have the
ability to make changes to fit the growing country's needs.

✓ Limited Government : Roe v. Wade

s_avani_yatavelli — 2016-12-18 15:46:51 UTC

 Roe v. Wade

"Jane Roe was an unmarried and pregnant Texas resident in 1970. Texas law made it a felony to abort a fetus unless 'on medical advice for the purpose of saving the life of the mother.”' Roe filed suit against Wade, the district attorney of Dallas County, contesting the statue on the grounds that it violated the guarantee of personal liberty and the right to privacy implicitly guaranteed in the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments. In deciding for Roe, the Supreme Court invalidated any state laws that prohibited first trimester abortions."
(http://landmarkcases.org/en/landmark/cases/roe_v_wade#Tab=Overview)

Roe v. Wade was a Supreme Court case between Jane Roe and Henry Wade. This case was about legalizing abortion for personal reasons and not only medical reasons. Roe was a unmarried woman bearing child when she decided she wanted to have an abortion, but the state she was in only had abortion legal for medical purposes. Before the court case, it was the states who decided whether abortion was legal and for what instances. The Supreme Court decided that the right to an abortion coincided with a women's right to privacy and that the government was overstepping its boundaries by affecting personal privacy and freedoms. So it overrode the state's differing laws by making a federal law legalizing abortion for non-medical reasons as well.

✓ Popular Sovereignty : 19th Amendment

s_avani_yatavelli — 2016-12-18 15:48:06 UTC

19th Amendment- Women's Suffrage

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."
(US Const. amend. XIX)

The 19th amendment gave women over the age of 18 the right to vote in elections. The amendment was ratified on August 26th of 1920, just in time for the women of the United States to exercise their right to vote for the upcoming election. Earlier in 1910, states, mostly in the west, started rolling out laws that expanded popular sovereignty to include women. But the more developed Eastern and Southern states resisted, until the 19th Constitutional Amendment was ratified. The ratification of this amendment displayed how the American government is set up to expand popular sovereignty for the better of the nation. We expanded the popular sovereignty amendments to include all genders and sexes of the American people. This way, the government is truly of the people.

✓ Federalism : Obergefell v. Hodges

s_avani_yatavelli — 2016-12-18 15:51:16 UTC

Obergefell v. Hodges

"A case in which the Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment requires states to license and recognize same-sex marriage."
(https://www.oyez.org/cases/2014/14-556)

The Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme court case involved marriage for same-sex couples in the United States. Prior to the court case, states all had different laws and rules about same sex couples and marriages. The Supreme Court ruling overturned those state laws and made same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states. The 14th amendment states that all citizens have the same rights: life, liberty and happiness. Another right included in the 14th amendment is the right to marry. In the United States, the Supreme Court ruled, that you should be allowed to marry who ever and there should be no discrimination on the citizen's orientation. This Supreme Court Ruling set a precedent and made same-sex marriage legal in the U.S. regardless of the former state laws.

★ CONSTITUTIONAL STABILITY ★

s_avani_yatavelli — 2016-12-18 15:57:12 UTC

How the Constitution created the American government to have the
ability keep the country stable by preventing changes that would
make the country move too quickly.

✓ Popular Sovereignty : North Carolina Voter ID Laws

s_avani_yatavelli — 2016-12-18 16:01:44 UTC

In September of this year, the Supreme Court declared and appealed North Carolina voter ID laws. The Supreme Court found that the laws were blatantly discriminatory and allowed the state to prevent certain minorities from voting. The laws were designed and prevented a number of black voters from voting. The law makers disguised the racist terms for words that seemed political. The Supreme Court took away those laws because a principle of the United States is Popular Sovereignty and so all citizens should be able to vote.

✓ Limited Government : 21st Amendment

s_avani_yatavelli — 2016-12-18 16:05:38 UTC

21st Amendment - Repealing Alcohol Prohibition

21st: "The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed."
(US Const. amend. XXI, sec. 1)
18th: "After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited."
(US Const. amend. XVIII, sec. 1)

The 21st amendment's purpose was to cancel out the 18th Amendment. The 18th amendment prohibited, or banned, the manufacturing, sale, transport, importation, exportation or use of alcoholic beverages in the United States. The 18th Amendment was ratified in January of 1919 and officially went into effect January 1920. The purpose of the 18th amendment was to reduce drunkenness and crime in the country. Ultimately this amendment failed because according to the Constitution Center, the crime rates went up and so did illegal alcohol consumption. The government displayed stability in limited government because of the ratification of the 21st amendment. The 21st amendment repealed the 18th and took away some of the government's control on the personal freedoms of the American people. The federal government went back and stayed within its limits to prevent too much power in the its hands.

✓ Separation of Powers/Checks + Balances : 22nd Amendment

s_avani_yatavelli — 2016-12-18 16:06:22 UTC

22nd Amendment - Presidential Terms

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term. (US Const. amend. XXII, sec. 1)

The 22nd amendment puts limits on the total amount of time a president can be in office. Once elected a president is in office for 4 years, unless he/she resigns or gets impeached. After their 4 year term is over, they can campaign for re-election and have a presidential term with a total of 8 years. They can only have one reelection. The only president t have more than 2 terms was President Franklin. When he died in 1945, they decided to propose and amendment that limited the amount of years spent in office to 8. It was ratified by all the states in 1951. This is the government exercising the principle of limited government. If the president was allowed to run for multiple turns, or even for a life time with no constraints, then the balance of power would be unfair to the other branches, and also the citizens. If the president could run for longer or more terms for office than positions in the other branches of government, then the balance of power would not be equally distributed.

✓ Federalism : Arizona v. United States

s_avani_yatavelli — 2016-12-18 16:06:51 UTC

Arizona v. United States

"United States Supreme Court case involving Arizona's S.B. 1070, a state law intended to punish unauthorized immigrants. At issue is whether the law usurps the federal government's authority to regulate immigration laws and enforcement." (https://en.wikipedia.org/)

Arizona was one of the many states that bordered Mexico and was facing a lot of criminal activity and a toll on their economy due to the amount of illegal immigrants coming in. So they passed a state law that would punish illegal immigrants who enter Arizona. This goes against Obama's executive action and was taken to court. The Supreme Court's ruling was that the first part of the law was constitutional and the other parts were not. So the sections deemed unconstitutional were put out of effect by the Federal government.

✴ 4 PRINCIPLES OF THE CONSTITUTION ✴

s_avani_yatavelli — 2016-12-18 16:14:01 UTC

∗ Popular Sovereignty - The belief that the American government was
built by and for the people of the country ;
government of the people.
∗ Limited Government - The government can only stay within it's pre-
defined rules and roles and they can not abuse
their powers ; there are limits on the
government's authority.
∗ Separation of Powers / Checks and Balances - Limits on the different
branches of government so one branch does
not dominate. Checks and balances ensures
power isn't "concentrated in the hands" of one
branches (Oxford American College
Dictionary). It allows the branches to
amend or veto each other.
∗ Federalism - Pertains to the relationship between state and
federal government: the federal law "overrides"
state laws.

s_avani_yatavelli — 2016-12-18 20:52:10 UTC