The United States Constitution and Citizens' Rights: The Interpretation and Mis-Interpretation of the American Contract for Governance

Cover
McFarland, 06.07.2017 - 174 Seiten

In a time when American politics has become a spectator sport often viewed with a cynical eye by the people, it is needful to be reminded that our freedom entails a civic responsibility to preserve the legal document that gives us that freedom, the United States Constitution.

The Constitution is a contract to which all citizens are parties and upon which they have a right to rely. The people have as well the right to protect themselves from interpretations that go unreasonably beyond the original intent of the Framers. It is clear that in the past the Constitution has been abused to justify decisions made by the legislative and judicial branches of government (as in the Dred Scott case) that have since been overturned. Decisions that extend the powers of the federal government beyond the expressly stated limits declared in the Constitution continue to occur today and remain subjects of intensely debated contention.

This book gives detailed examples of where Congress and the Supreme Court have gone outside the people's mutual contract and have, in effect, amended the Constitution. The last chapter outlines a procedure by which citizens, voting directly, can overrule or repeal amendments made by elements of their government.

Im Buch

Ausgewählte Seiten

Inhalt

Preface
1
On Sources
3
Whats the Problem?
7
I The Expansion of the Powers of Congress
21
II The Expansion of the Judicial Power
45
III Education
60
IV Housing
77
V Americans with Disabilities
84
VI Air
94
VII Water
101
VIII Endangered Species
110
IX The Arts
122
X Prisons
129
XI What Can and Should We Do?
150
Index
163
Urheberrecht

Andere Ausgaben - Alle anzeigen

Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen

Beliebte Passagen

Seite 34 - At the same time the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court the instant they are made, in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions, the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal.
Seite 52 - But in view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.
Seite 62 - State which may take and claim the benefit of this act, to the endowment, support, and maintenance of at least one college where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the...
Seite 62 - That all moneys derived from the sale of the lands aforesaid by the States to which the lands are apportioned, and from the sales of land scrip hereinbefore provided for, shall be invested in stocks of the United States, or of the States, or some other safe stocks yielding not less than five per centum upon the par value of said stocks...
Seite 54 - We hold that, as a basic constitutional standard, the Equal Protection Clause requires that the seats in both houses of a bicameral state legislature must be apportioned on a population basis.
Seite 138 - The Amendment must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.
Seite 34 - The opinion of the judges has no more authority over Congress than the opinion of Congress has over the judges, and on that point the President is independent of both. The authority of the Supreme Court must not, therefore, be permitted to control the Congress or the Executive when acting in their legislative capacities, but to have only such influence as the force of their reasoning may deserve.
Seite 64 - Industrial education that such education shall be given in schools or classes under public supervision or control ; that the controlling purpose of such education shall be to fit for useful employment...
Seite 39 - affecting commerce" means in commerce, or burdening or obstructing commerce or the free flow of commerce, or having led or tending to lead to a labor dispute burdening or obstructing commerce or the free flow of commerce.

Autoren-Profil (2017)

Roland Adickes, a retired attorney at law, has written for the California Law Review and the Southern California Law Review. He lives in Dixon, California.

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