By Edwin Cooney
Amendment XIII simply and directly ended all involuntary slavery or servitude except for those under conviction and punishment for crime in the United States of America as well as in territories subject to its jurisdiction. The amendment added a section empowering Congress' right to enforce this directive by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XIV was ratified on Wednesday, July 9th, 1868. All persons born or naturalized in the United States or in the territories subject to its jurisdiction are citizens of the United States as well as in the states in which they reside. No state may pass or enforce a law abridging the privileges or immunities of citizens. No person, without due process of law, may be deprived of life, liberty or property.
Section two of Amendment XIV in slightly complicated language certifies the right of males (twenty-one years and older) to vote in federal or state elections and that these rights can't be either abridged or denied except for crimes or participation in rebellion. Section 3 of the14th Amendment denies the right of any military, judiciary, legislative member or executive who participated in the recent rebellion to hold public office. However, it authorized Congress with a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate to remove "this disability."
Section four of the 14th Amendment invalidated any debts of the former confederacy. Finally, section five authorized the congress's right to enforce that amendment by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XV "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 race, color or by previous condition of servitude.” Congress also empowered itself to enforce via legislation this amendment as it had both amendments thirteen and fourteen.
Amendment XVI was ratified on Monday, February 3rd, 1913. "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without any regard to any census or enumeration. (Note: you can decide if it is significant that Congress did not insist on empowering its right to enforce this amendment by appropriate legislation.)
Amendment XVII was ratified on Sunday, April 8th, 1913. It provided that members of the United States Senate be elected by the citizens of each state. In the event of vacancies it left it up to state legislatures whether or not to allow their governors to fill such vacancies throughout the time remaining in the individual vacancies.
Amendment XVIII was ratified on Thursday, January 16th, 1919 and would be repealed 14 years later by the 21st Amendment. Section one states: "One year after 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.” (Note: Of course Congress had to and did empower itself to enforce this amendment through the Volstead Act! Interestingly, President Woodrow Wilson, no friend or imbiber of intoxicating liquor, vetoed the Volstead Act, but Congress promptly overrode Wilson's veto.)
Amendment XIX declares that "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.” This amendment was ratified by the Tennessee legislature (thus becoming the 34th state to ratify) on Wednesday, August 18th, 1920 - just in time for that Fall's election of the handsome Warren Harding to the presidency.
Amendment XX, which was passed on Monday, January 23rd, 1933, rather reflects the turmoil of the time. This was the time during which President Elect Franklin Roosevelt was ineligible to take office until March 4th despite the ever growing emergency of the national depression. This amendment adjusted the terms of office of the President and Congress. From here on Congress's term would begin on the 3rd of January every two years and the presidential term of office would move from March 4th to January 20th every four years. The amendment goes on to state what the House can do in the event of the death or qualification disability of the president-elect and what the Senate can do if the office of vice-president elect is vacant due to death or qualification disability. (Note: It doesn't identify what a non-qualification disability may be. It merely states the manner in which such a vacancy may be remedied.) Finally, the amendment states that sections one and two will take effect on the October 15th following the ratification of this article.
Amendment XXI ratified on Tuesday, December 5th, 1933 repealed the eighteenth “article of amendment" prohibiting the manufacture, sale, transport, import and export of intoxicating liquors. Section two, however, prohibits the manufacture sale, transportation, or exportation of intoxicating liquors within any state that prohibits their use.
Amendment XXII passed by Congress on Tuesday, February 27th, 1951 limits the term of a president to two full terms. (Note: for many Americans this was an anti-Franklin D. Roosevelt amendment, although the incumbent, President Harry S. Truman, was exempted from its limits. The article would become inoperative if it was not passed within seven years of its submission to the states.)
Amendment XXIII, ratified on Wednesday, March 29th, 1961, allows citizens of the District of Columbia to appoint presidential and vice-presidential electors to the Electoral College as though it were a state, but not more than the least populous state. (Note: The District of Columbia still has no voting members in either the House or the Senate.)
Amendment XXIV was ratified on Thursday, January 23rd, 1964 freeing all citizens from poll and other taxes which had been preventing them from voting for federal offices in some states.
Amendment XXV was ratified on Friday, February 10th, 1967. "In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death, or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.” Until then, it was unclear whether the Vice President became the President or merely the Acting President.
Section two says “Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.” Until the adoption of this amendment, there was no provision for filling the office of Vice President when it became vacant.
Section three. “Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.”
Section four states the procedures to be followed when there is a conflict between the President and Vice President regarding the continuing disability or subsequent ability of the President to once again assume the powers and duties of his office.
Amendment XXVI ratified on Thursday, July 1st, 1971 gives all citizens of age eighteen and older the right to vote and gives Congress the power to enforce by appropriate legislation this amendment. Prior to the adoption of this amendment, it was disputed whether Congress or only the states could set the voting age and if Congress, whether it could set the voting age only for federal elections or for all elections.
Amendment XXVII was ratified on Thursday, May 7th 1992. This very amendment was originally offered as part of the Bill of Rights, but was turned down. It's a very straight forward amendment. There's only the amendment itself, no sections: "No law, varying the compensation for services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.”
Thus ends your sub numbers course outlining the Constitution of the United States. One of my favorite readers rather derisively wanted to know what I hoped to accomplish by offering these two essays. My only substantial response is that no one can really begin to appreciate anything, no matter what it may be, until he or she has some idea of its form and of its purpose. There are a lot of items in there that probably ought not to be there, such as the Electoral College, and there are other items that ought to be in there that have been both accidentally and purposely left out!
Some interpreters of the Constitution are "Strict Constructionists." They may be regarded as fundamentalists or as evangelistic types. I believe the Constitution is a living framework of government that both reflects and implies changing conditions and circumstances. The Constitution may be seen as the framework of American law and a child of the intellect with all of the intellect’s assets and liabilities.
As I see it, only the spirit outranks the majesty of the law because the law depends on the spirits of each of us to insure steady and continuous equitable justice.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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