why is the u.s constitution important?
550138
It was supposed to be what defined our freedoms but with liberal judges interpreting it their way, it is meaningless.
688133
The Constitution is intended as a framework upon which the nation can build a legal system.  It's a wonderful thing.  Read it.  (You can get a free copy from the Cato Institute)\n\nThe only thing better is the Bill of Rights.\n\nMy least favorite Amendment is the 18th, but it's okay 'cos the 21st set that right!
264555
I agree about our Constitution.  This nation was the first nation in the modern world where it was openly acknowledged that no one possesses perfect foresight, so our body of laws had to be flexible enough to accommodate future Americans and their future issues, but solid enough and based upon firm enough principles that they would not be changed on a whim.  The principles upon which our system was founded were (and are) so cutting edge that they have become a model for many countries where liberty and equality are at issue.  Under the ideals upon which this country was founded, it is easy to see why we are held up as the model against which other countries measure themselves.  However, the ideal and the reality sometimes are just far enough apart to reflect duplicity to those looking for c hinks in our collective armor.  Suffice it to say that ours is the most effective system operating for most intents and purposes, inconsistencies notwithstanding.
322571
Fascinating Facts about the U.S. Constitution\nThe U.S. Constitution has 4,440 words. It is the oldest and the shortest written constitution of any government in the world. \n\n\n\nOf the typographical errors in the Constitution, the misspelling of the word “Pensylvania” above the signers’ names is probably the most glaring. \n\n\n\nThomas Jefferson did not sign the Constitution. He was in France during the Convention, where he served as the U.S. minister. John Adams was serving as the U.S. minister to Great Britain during the Constitutional Convention and did not attend either.\n\n\n\nThe Constitution was “penned” by Jacob Shallus, a Pennsylvania General Assembly clerk, for a fee of $30 ($280.72 today). It was stored in various cities until 1952, when it was placed in the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. During the daytime, pages one and four of the document are displayed in a bullet-proof case. The case contains helium and water vapor to preserve the paper’s quality. At night, the pages are lowered into a vault, behind five-ton doors that are designed to withstand a nuclear explosion. The entire Constitution is displayed only one day a year—September 17, the anniversary of the day the framers signed the document. \n\n\n\nThe Constitution does not set forth requirements for the right to vote. As a result, at the outset of the Union, only male property-owners could vote. African Americans were not considered citizens, and women were excluded from the electoral process. Native Americans were not given the right to vote until 1924.\n\n\n\nJames Madison, “the father of the Constitution,” was the first to arrive in Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention. He arrived in February, three months before the convention began, bearing the blueprint for the new Constitution.\n\n\n\nOf the forty-two delegates who attended most of the meetings, thirty-nine actually signed the Constitution. Edmund Randolph and George Mason of Virginia and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts refused to sign due in part to the lack of a bill of rights.\n\n\n\nWhen it came time for the states to ratify the Constitution, the lack of any bill of rights was the primary sticking point.\n\n\n\nThe Great Compromise saved the Constitutional Convention, and, probably, the Union. Authored by Connecticut delegate Roger Sherman, it called for proportional representation in the House, and one representative per state in the Senate (this was later changed to two.) The compromise passed 5-to-4, with one state, Massachusetts, “divided.”\n\n\n\nPatrick Henry was elected as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, but declined, because he “smelt a rat.”\n\n\n\nBecause of his poor health, Benjamin Franklin needed help to sign the Constitution. As he did so, tears streamed down his face.\n\n\n\nGouverneur Morris was largely responsible for the “wording” of the Constitution, although there was a Committee of Style formed in September 1787.\n\n\n\nThe oldest person to sign the Constitution was Benjamin Franklin (81). The youngest was Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey (26).\n\n\n\nWhen the Constitution was signed, the United States’ population was 4 million. It is now more than 300 million. Philadelphia was the nation’s largest city, with 40,000 inhabitants.\n\n\n\nA proclamation by President George Washington and a congressional resolution established the first national Thanksgiving Day on November 26, 1789. The reason for the holiday was to give “thanks” for the new Constitution.\n\n\n\nThe first time the formal term “The United States of America” was used was in the Declaration of Independence.\n\n\n\nIt took one hundred days to actually “frame” the Constitution.\n\n\n\nThere was initially a question as to how to address the President. The Senate proposed that he be addressed as “His Highness the President of the United States of America and Protector of their Liberties.” Both the House of Representatives and the
1018842
sent to your home?\n\nI'm not sure, but there are lots of websites you could download and print it.  Most encyclopedias include a copy (our old World Book's have it).\n\nYou can get the full text at this site, along with other information.\nhttp://origin.www.gpoaccess.gov/constitution/\n\nThe US constitution is not a complex legal document (even though it is being turned into one by complex legal people).  It is not too long.  It is pretty clear. \n\nEveryone in the US should be famaliar with this document.\n\nThe preamble is poetic.  The bill of rights (the attachement) is the key to our way of life.\n\nGood luck and good reading.
1006531
Whether you believe we need it or not, the Preamble and the Bill of Rights, which the Founding Fathers found so important they called them the Rights Which We Hold True. The Bill of Rights (first 10 Amendments) are not to be changed, and can not be changed, by law. If we were to give in, change them because we no longer think it is valid, how soon until the right to free speech, the press, freedom from quartering, search and seizure, the right vote, all become obsolete in someone's opinion, and removed.\n\nNo, need it or not, it must stand, because it is part of what we stand for, as a nation, from day one.
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.
191456
The Amendments to the US Constitution; most State constitutions; state and federal laws.
771022
The primary purpose of the Constitution is to limit, or slow, the power of government to intrude upon the citizens as a whole. It is to protect the minority from the majority and visa versa as far as who is in office. The will of the majority of the people will always occur if it is consistent and holds true for a long time. The political representation will have to conform to the will of the people if they want to keep their jobs. \n\nThe process of proposing a bill, reviewing, debating, revising, going through two houses, and then the executive branch and then passing into law is suppose to be long.... but unfortunately politicians trample all over this by doing shot gun bills with more slips to it than line of dancing girls... but that's another story...
345036
Declaration of Independence and The US Constitution, respectively.
807350
Most US states have their own constitutions, just like the American Constitution.  The Constitution defines the state or country as an entity and is the foundation of the laws of the country or state.  They usually define the basic rights of the citizens and the workings of the government.
477599
are you sure he wasn't quoting the preamble to the US Constitution?\n\n(We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,) establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
955295
This amendment was added as a specific response to the Anti-Federalists (Madison, Jay and Hamilton) who were arguing that they were afraid if a specific right wasn't written into the Constitution the government could infringe on it. It was designed as a catchall to ensure that just because a specific right wasn't spelled out in black and white the government would not be allowed to simply trample it. This, by far and away, was the most important aspect of ensuring that the document that framed the fledgling US government was one that decided what the GOVERNMENT could and could not do rather than a basis for what the PEOPLE could and could not do.
473500
the 9th amendment protects ALL other rights that aren't mentioned in the Bill of Rights. the people of the US aren't limited to JUST those rights, and all their other rights must be upheld in the court of law\n\nthat article explains it very well!
492312
The Founders knew that an educated people was key to maintaining a viable government supported by people who understood the countries roots.  Clearly that is Something which has diminished during the last 50 or so years.  \n\nUnderstanding the Constitution is not difficult, in truth it is a rather short document written in easy to understand English.  Its historical roots are in about 3,000 years of Common Law evolution.  While the Constitution does not bar recognizing the importance of religion in the lives of the people, it does bar the government from supporting “a” religion.  Religion is of the people and law is the government.\n\nTo the Founders, the soul of America is not in the government and not in religion rather it is in the individual freedoms and sovereignty of the people and is exemplified in the Constitution of the United States inclusive of the Constitutionally ratified Amendments.  This is meaningful to the degree that the people are educated to understand them.  In every school, every child should be taught the Constitution of the United States and those acts and documents which preceded and supported them.  This includes a number of documents such as the Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation, The Federalist Papers, the Anti-Federalist Papers, the first thirteen Constitutions (of the original States) preceding the Constitution.  \n\nWith this minimal education of what our country is, people will come to understand what that foundation is and on their own will redevelop the “soul of the country.”
866146
Here are some facts: \n\nThe Constitution is the document that creates the federal government.  \n\nThe people that wrote it did so in their capacity as representatives of the states, not as representatives of the people. \n\nThe Constitution as written places no obligations or limits on individuals other than minimum age to serve in elected federal offices. \n\nThe two houses of the Congress were created to give the people control of one, the House of Representatives, and the other was for the states, the Senators. \n\nInference: \n\nThe 17th Amendment took away the representation of the states in the federal government they created. \n\nObservation: \n\nThis is why the federal government has gotten totally out of control. \n\nConclusion:\n\nIt needs to be repealed.
116614
Your rights are not dependant on the Constitution but predate it in Common Law.  The Constitution is specifically about creating a general government for the States.  \n\nThe Bill of rights is not a list of personal rights (refer to Article IX of the Amendments).  The first eight articles are statements excluding the federal (general) government from doing specific things.  The last two are declaratory statements of basic truths in part underscoring the fact that individual rights are to numerous too list.\n\nRead Thomas Jefferson’s Kentucky Resolution, preferably his first draft. \n\nBy the way the Constitution of the United States is not long, it is only seven Articles of which the longest only has 10 Sections.  It is written in clear, easy to understand English.