Has America followed the Constitution well?
92924
Not lately.  Illegal war in Iraq, illegal spying without warrants, illegally detainment in Guantanemo without due process, lack of separation of church and state, denying rights to gay people.
755059
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_States
891396
Actually, they don't make us either stronger or weaker. \n\nThe rights they represent exist, with or without the amendments themselves.   The fact that the Constitution, which creates the federal government, recognizes their existence, merely defines us and our relationship with our government.\n\nThey don't make us anything at all that we aren't already. \n\nThe fact that some find them negotiable, now that might make us weaker, or at least something else.
797688
A. of course.\n\nNot to mention the fact that state constitutions cannot override the federal constitution and they are binding only to the state they're written in.  The best they can do is expand the rights of its citizens and protect their interests.
209857
No. The constitution was written to replace the "Articles of Confederation" the United States first failed constitution.\n\nThe Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are actually companion documents.  The Declaration lays out the principles upon which our nation is based, while the Constitution is an outline of the purpose and role of the government based upon those principles.
579119
The Bill of Rights is a part of the Constitution.
14728
The authority of the Constitution was established after it was ratified by the (I believe it had to be 7 of the 13)Thirteen States. What isn't expressly given to the Federal Government is implied to go to the states.  The 3 branches had their own powers that check and balance each other out
716014
Yes. But this has become a gray area, because it used to be that the Federal law was limited by the Constitution to certain areas, and denied the rest. However, this has changed, and the Federal government is now, and has been for decades, legislating on things they have absolutely no constitutional authority to be meddling with.\n\nAnd the majority of Americans think this is a good thing, which it isn't, and they fail to connect this usurpation of powers with the  fact that they feel their freedoms and rights are being taken away. Un-believable.
1012898
YES, the US Constitution is made up of the Articles (5 practical, 2 procedural) and the Amendments (27 total although there are only 26 active since prohibition (18) was overturned by the 21st.).  The first 10 Amendments are called the Bill of Rights.
1001450
The constitution is the basis for all law in the United States
855559
That is an excellent question. I think that it DOES have merit, either as an individual or as a class action. Our elected officials did take an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States, and they are failing miserably!
157511
We have the greatest document ever written as our constitution and the greatest form of goverment on earth.  We might do better with a cross section of the population as our elected Federal Officials, rather than nothing but the rich running everyhing for us.  But our constitution stands the sands of time pretty well.
759199
About the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of  Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior:\n\n "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.  A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.  From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."\n\n "The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years.  During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:\n\n 1.  From bondage to spiritual faith;\n 2.  From spiritual faith to great courage;\n 3.  From courage to liberty;\n 4.  From liberty to abundance;\n 5.  From abundance to complacency;\n 6.  From complacency to apathy;\n 7.  From apathy to dependence;\n 8.  From dependence back into bondage "\n\n Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election:\n\n Population of counties won by:  Gore: 127 million; Bush: 143 million;\n\n Square miles of land won by:  Gore: 580,000; Bush: 2,427,000\n\n States won by:  Gore: 19; Bush: 29\n\n Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:  Gore: 13.2;  Bush: 2.1\n\n&nbs p;Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the tax-paying citizens of this great country.  Gore's territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off government welfare..."\n\n Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some 40 percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase. If the Senate grants Amnesty and citizenship to 20 million invaders called illegals and they vote, then goodbye USA in less than 5 years.\n\nJust something to think about........... And no, I don't have any suggestions. I don't see how we can just stop and change what is happening, as most people won't comply with the kind of radical changes it would take. Start making sure you have your own retirement savings now, before it is too late.
56012
Of course not. You should be the first one to obey the constitution because you swore to abide by it
508195
yes, GOD BLESS AMERICA! for we are that great & important that we can cause civil unrest in nations we're not even at war with!\nwe do this because we can, we are THE BEST NATION ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH! there for, we can make trouble for everyone else, because we can, because our great constitution gives us the right to express ourselves as we please!
303185
It is already getting an upgrade.  By the time the Bush appointees on SCOTUS get done with it, we won't even recognize it.\n\nIn any case, there is nothing wrong with the Constitution, it designs a very workable and very democratic government.  And it protects the rights of the people by explicitly forbidding the goverment from abridging them.\n\nFunny you should mention language.  Politicians and judges go into contortions twisting the English language in order to bend the plain meaning of the plain language of the Constitution in order to get around the Constitution.\n\nFor example, Bush says that warrantless searches and seizures, which are explicitly forbidden in the Constitution, are his perogative because of Article III.  This article says nothing about that at all.  It does say that the President is the Commander in Chief of the army.\nSo he is saying that because he is commander in chief he can ignore the Constitution any time he wants.\n\nI don't care if you are a Bush supporter and a conservative - you are not doing conservatives any favors by letting them get away with brushing aside the Constitution with language hocus pocus and the sayso of some dude in the White House.\n\nThe oath of office of every official and of every member of every branch of the military is a pledge to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.  Because it is the Constitution that makes America, that makes America work, and that makes America the best governed nation in the world.\n\nLet's just leave it alone, ok?
65986
Of course our rights stem from the Bill of Rights which amended the Constitution.  However, and more importantly, our rights are preserved by the "Rule of Law" and that depends on our Court system being independent of Congress or the Whitehouse.  Many countries had constitutions, lawyers and elections but lost their freedom when they lost the rule of law.  Nazi Germany is a good example.  I know of investors who shy away from investments in Russia today because they doubt that the rule of law there will protect their rights.  perhaps things will change for the better.