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History Many years have passed since the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States were adopted. The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. It was completed on September 17, 1787 adopted by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Later it was ratified by special conventions in each state.
It is evident that the Constitution should be changed from time to time taking into account new demands of life and society. The author of it understood that those changes would not be easy; thats why there was a necessity to protect the supreme law from ill-conceived and hastily passed amendments. For this purpose a dual process by which the Constitution could be added with new amendments was affirmed. First of all, an amendment should be initiated by a two-thirds vote (of a quorum) in Congress, in each house.
There is another alternative way when the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states have a right to ask Congress to call a national convention to discuss amendments. Before being adopted to the Constitution, each amendment must have the approval of the legislatures or of smaller ratifying conventions within three-fourths of the state. The Constitution of the United States has 27 amendments. The first ten form the Bill of Rights.
It was ratified simultaneously. The other seventeen were ratified separately. The Bill of Rights was proposed in 1789. It consisted of ten of the twelve amendments proposed... The second of those twelve amendments have been unratified until 1992. So, the process took more then 200 years after the amendment was first proposed.
It is evident that the period between an amendment has been proposed and ratified can last years and even centuries. The main problem is that the balance of state and federal power has remained a battle in the Supreme Court. At different times there were different Supreme Courts treatments. They were closely connected with the history of the state and the Constitution. The Supreme Courts treatment appeared at that time when people began to understand their equal rights in the world.
The most wildly discussed cases were about racial and sex discrimination... In 1964 - 1965, President Johnson came to the thought that it was not enough to remove legal barriers confronting minorities. It was needed to take affirmative action to help them overcome decades of prior discrimination. So, on September 24, 1965, he issued an executive order to take affirmative action to recruit, higher and promote more racial minorities.
Two years later Johnson added women to the groups covered by previous anti discrimination. Under the Constitution discrimination is an action or behavior that limits an individuals or groups right to their opportunities in housing, jobs, education or participation in an organization. So, all discriminations, whether it is discrimination on race or on gender, are an action addressed to elimination of an individuals or groups right. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was proposed to the United States Constitution to guarantee equal rights under the law for Americans regardless of sex.
The amendment must be ratified by March 22, 1979 but the deadline was delayed till 1982. Though the ERA's failure at ratification some of its goals have been achieved through judicial interpretations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Most of all it was pointed that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14 th Amendment guarantees the equal rights to different sex groups. But even nowadays there are a lot of opponents and proponents to the amendment. Opponents prove that the ERA could remove laws that specially protect women in heavy industry. The others are sure that the ERA would mandate the recognition of same-sex marriage and that the ERA would require the integration of single-sex schools, sports teams or even restrooms.
Supporters of the amendment think that such approaches are not fair and do not coincide with the constitutional guarantee of equal rights for men and women. Nowadays, there are only a few proposals for amendments. They have entered mainstream political debate. They are Federal Marriage Amendment, the Balanced Budget Amendment, and the Flag-Burning Amendment.
Bibliography: Jane J. , Mansbridge. Why We Lost the ERA. University Of Chicago Press, 1986. Marshall, Thurgood. The Constitution: A Living Document.
Howard Law Journal, 1987. "Sex Discrimination. " West's Encyclopedia of American Law. The Gale Group, Inc, 1998. Answers. com 27 Mar. 2006. web
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Research essay sample on United States Constitution Constitution Of The United States
