United States Bill of Rights
The United States Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed following the bitter 1787–88 debate over ratification of Constitution, written to address the objections raised by Anti-Federalists, the Bill of Rights amendments add to the Constitution specific guarantees of personal freedoms and rights, clear limitations on the government's power in judicial and other proceedings, explicit declarations that all powers not granted to the U. S. Congress by the Constitution are reserved for the people; the concepts codified in these amendments are built upon those found in earlier documents the Virginia Declaration of Rights, as well as the English Bill of Rights and the Magna Carta. Due to the efforts of Representative James Madison, who studied the deficiencies of the constitution pointed out by anti-federalists and crafted a series of corrective proposals, Congress approved twelve articles of amendment on September 25, 1789, submitted them to the states for ratification.
Contrary to Madison's proposal that the proposed amendments be incorporated into the main body of the Constitution, they were proposed as supplemental additions to it. Articles Three through Twelve were ratified as additions to the Constitution on December 15, 1791, became Amendments One through Ten of the Constitution. Article Two became part of the Constitution on May 1992, as the Twenty-seventh Amendment. Article One is still pending before the states. Although Madison's proposed amendments included a provision to extend the protection of some of the Bill of Rights to the states, the amendments that were submitted for ratification applied only to the federal government; the door for their application upon state governments was opened in the 1860s, following ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. Since the early 20th century both federal and state courts have used the Fourteenth Amendment to apply portions of the Bill of Rights to state and local governments; the process is known as incorporation.
There are several original engrossed copies of the Bill of Rights still in existence. One of these is on permanent public display at the National Archives in Washington, D. C. Prior to the ratification and implementation of the United States Constitution, the thirteen sovereign states followed the Articles of Confederation, created by the Second Continental Congress and ratified in 1781. However, the national government that operated under the Articles of Confederation was too weak to adequately regulate the various conflicts that arose between the states; the Philadelphia Convention set out to correct weaknesses of the Articles, apparent before the American Revolutionary War had been concluded. The convention took place from May 14 to September 1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Although the Convention was purportedly intended only to revise the Articles, the intention of many of its proponents, chief among them James Madison of Virginia and Alexander Hamilton of New York, was to create a new government rather than fix the existing one.
The convention convened in the Pennsylvania State House, George Washington of Virginia was unanimously elected as president of the convention. The 55 delegates who drafted the Constitution are among the men known as the Founding Fathers of the new nation. Thomas Jefferson, Minister to France during the convention, characterized the delegates as an assembly of "demi-gods." Rhode Island refused to send delegates to the convention. On September 12, George Mason of Virginia suggested the addition of a Bill of Rights to the Constitution modeled on previous state declarations, Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts made it a formal motion. However, after only a brief discussion where Roger Sherman pointed out that State Bills of Rights were not repealed by the new Constitution, the motion was defeated by a unanimous vote of the state delegations. Madison an opponent of a Bill of Rights explained the vote by calling the state bills of rights "parchment barriers" that offered only an illusion of protection against tyranny.
Another delegate, James Wilson of Pennsylvania argued that the act of enumerating the rights of the people would have been dangerous, because it would imply that rights not explicitly mentioned did not exist. 84. Because Mason and Gerry had emerged as opponents of the proposed new Constitution, their motion—introduced five days before the end of the convention—may have been seen by other delegates as a delaying tactic; the quick rejection of this motion, however endangered the entire ratification process. Author David O. Stewart characterizes the omission of a Bill of Rights in the original Constitution as "a political blunder of the first magnitude" while historian Jack N. Rakove calls it "the one serious miscalculation the framers made as they looked ahead to the struggle over ratification". Thirty-nine delegates signed the finalized Constitution. Thirteen delegates left before it was completed, three who remained at the convention until the end refused to sign it: Mason and Edmund Randolph of Virginia.
Afterward, the Constitution was presented to the Articles of Confederation Congress with the request that it afterwards be submitted to a convention of delegates, chosen in each State by the people, for their assent and ratification. Following the Philadelphia Convention, some leading revolutionary figures such as Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, Richard Henry Lee publicly opposed the new frame of government, a position known as "Anti-Federalism". Elbridge Gerry wrote the most popular Anti-Federalist tract, "Hon. Mr. Gerry's Objections"
Article One of the United States Constitution
Article One of the United States Constitution establishes the legislative branch of the federal government, the United States Congress. Under Article One, Congress is a bicameral legislature consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Article One grants Congress various enumerated powers and the ability to pass laws "necessary and proper" to carry out those powers. Article One establishes the procedures for passing a bill and places various limits on the powers of Congress and the states. Article One's Vesting Clause grants all federal legislative power to Congress and establishes that Congress consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. In combination with the Vesting Clauses of the Article Two and Article Three, the Vesting Clause of Article One establishes the separation of powers among the three branches of the federal government. Section 2 of Article One addresses the House of Representatives, establishing that members of the House are elected every two years, with congressional seats apportioned to the states on the basis of population.
Section 2 includes various rules for the House of Representatives, including a provision stating that individuals qualified to vote in elections for the largest chamber of their state's legislature have the right to vote in elections for the House of Representatives. Section 3 addresses the Senate, establishing that the Senate consists of two senators from each state, with each senator serving a six-year term. Section 3 required that the state legislatures elect the members of the Senate, but the Seventeenth Amendment, ratified in 1913, provides for the direct election of senators. Section 3 lays out various other rules for the Senate, including a provision that establishes the Vice President of the United States as the president of the Senate. Section 4 of Article One grants the states the power to regulate the congressional election process, but establishes that Congress can alter those regulations or make its own regulations. Section 4 requires Congress to assemble at least once per year.
Section 5 lays out various rules for both houses of Congress, grants the House of Representatives and the Senate the power to judge their own elections, determine the qualifications of their own members, punish or expel their own members. Section 6 establishes the compensation and restrictions of those holding congressional office. Section 7 lays out the procedures for passing a bill, requiring both houses of Congress to pass a bill for it to become law, subject to the veto power of the President of the United States. Under Section 7, the president can veto a bill, but Congress can override the president's veto with a two-thirds vote of both chambers. Section 8 lays out the powers of Congress, it includes several enumerated powers, including the power to lay and collect taxes and tariffs for the "general welfare" of the United States, the power to borrow money, the power to regulate interstate and international commerce, the power to set naturalization laws, the power to coin and regulate money, the power to establish federal courts inferior to the Supreme Court, the power to raise and support military forces, the power to declare war.
Section 8 provides Congress the power to establish a federal district to serve as the national capital, gives Congress the exclusive power to administer that district. In addition to various enumerated powers, Section 8 grants Congress the power to make laws necessary and proper to carry out its enumerated powers and other powers vested in it. Section 9 places various limits on the power of Congress, banning bills of attainder and other practices. Section 10 places limits on the states, prohibiting them from entering into alliances with foreign powers, impairing contracts, taxing imports or exports above the minimum level necessary for inspection, keeping armies, or engaging in war without the consent of Congress. All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. Section 1 is a vesting clause that bestows federal legislative power to Congress. Similar clauses are found in Articles II and III.
The former confers executive power upon the President alone, the latter grants judicial power to the federal judiciary. These three articles create a separation of powers among the three branches of the federal government; this separation of powers, by which each department may exercise only its own constitutional powers and no others, is fundamental to the idea of a limited government accountable to the people. The separation of powers principle is noteworthy in regard to the Congress; the Constitution declares that the Congress may exercise only those legislative powers "herein granted" within Article I. It by implied extension, prohibits Congress from delegating its legislative authority to either of the other branches of government, a rule known as the nondelegation doctrine. However, the Supreme Court has ruled that Congress does have latitude to delegate regulatory powers to executive agencies as long as it provides an "intelligible principle" which governs the agency's exercise of the delegated regulatory authority.
That the power assigned to each branch must remain with that branch, may be expressed only by that branch, is central to the theory. The nondelegation doctrine is used now as a way of interpreting a congressional delegation of authority narrowly, in that the courts presume Congress intended only to delegate that which it could have, unless it demonstrates it intended to "test the waters" of what the courts would allow it to do. Although not mentioned in the Constitution, Congress has long asserted the power to i
Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which had mandated nationwide Prohibition on alcohol. The Twenty-first Amendment was proposed by Congress on February 20, 1933, was ratified by the requisite number of states on December 5, 1933, it is unique among the 27 amendments of the U. S. Constitution for being the only one to repeal a prior amendment, as well as being the only amendment to have been ratified by state ratifying conventions; the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified on January 16, 1919, the result of years of advocacy by the temperance movement. The subsequent passage of the Volstead Act established federal enforcement of the nationwide prohibition on alcohol; as many Americans continued to drink despite the amendment, Prohibition gave rise to a profitable black market for alcohol, fueling the rise of organized crime. Throughout the 1920's, Americans came to see Prohibition as unenforceable, a movement to repeal the Eighteenth Amendment grew until the Twenty-first Amendment was ratified in 1933.
Section 1 of the Twenty-first Amendment expressly repeals the Eighteenth Amendment. Section 2 bans the importation of alcohol into states and territories that have laws prohibiting the importation or consumption of alcohol. Several states continued to be "dry states" in the years after the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, but in 1966 the last dry state legalized the consumption of alcohol. Nonetheless, several states continue to regulate the distribution of alcohol. Many states delegate their power to ban the importation of alcohol to counties and municipalities, there are numerous dry communities throughout the United States. Section 2 has arisen as in issue in Supreme Court cases that touch on the Commerce Clause. Section 1; the eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed. Section 2; the transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.
Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress; the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution had ushered in a period known as Prohibition, during which the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages was illegal. Passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919 was the crowning achievement of the temperance movement, but it soon proved unpopular. Crime rates soared under Prohibition as gangsters, such as Chicago's Al Capone, became rich from a profitable violent black market for alcohol; the federal government was incapable of stemming the tide: enforcement of the Volstead Act proved to be a nearly impossible task and corruption was rife among law enforcement agencies. In 1932, wealthy industrialist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. stated in a letter:When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognized.
I have and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has increased; as more and more Americans opposed the Eighteenth Amendment, a political movement grew for its repeal. However, repeal was complicated by grassroots politics. Although the U. S. Constitution provides two methods for ratifying constitutional amendments, only one method had been used up until that time. However, the wisdom of the day was that the lawmakers of many states were either beholden to or fearful of the temperance lobby; the Congress adopted the Blaine Act and proposed the Twenty-first Amendment on February 20, 1933. The proposed amendment was adopted on December 5, 1933, it is the only amendment to have been ratified by state ratifying conventions, specially selected for the purpose. All other amendments have been ratified by state legislatures, it is the only amendment, approved for the explicit purpose of repealing a existing amendment to the Constitution. The Twenty-first Amendment ending national prohibition became effective on December 15, though people started drinking before that date.
The various responses of the 48 states is as follows:The following states ratified the amendment: Ratification was completed on December 5, 1933. The amendment was subsequently ratified by conventions in the following states: The amendment was rejected by the following state: South Carolina Voters in the following state rejected holding a convention to consider the amendment: North Carolina The following states took no action to consider the amendment: Georgia Kansas Louisiana Mississippi Nebraska North Dakota Oklahoma South Dakota The second section bans the importation of alcohol in violation of state or territorial law; this has been interpreted to give states absolute control over alcoholic beverages, many U. S. states still remained "dry" long after its ratification. Mississippi was the last, remaining dry until 1966. Many states now delegate the authority over alcohol granted to them by this Amendment to their municipaliti
United States Constitution
The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States. The Constitution comprising seven articles, delineates the national frame of government, its first three articles embody the doctrine of the separation of powers, whereby the federal government is divided into three branches: the legislative, consisting of the bicameral Congress. Articles Four and Six embody concepts of federalism, describing the rights and responsibilities of state governments, the states in relationship to the federal government, the shared process of constitutional amendment. Article Seven establishes the procedure subsequently used by the thirteen States to ratify it, it is regarded as the oldest codified national constitution in force. Since the Constitution came into force in 1789, it has been amended 27 times, including an amendment to repeal a previous one, in order to meet the needs of a nation that has profoundly changed since the eighteenth century. In general, the first ten amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, offer specific protections of individual liberty and justice and place restrictions on the powers of government.
The majority of the seventeen amendments expand individual civil rights protections. Others modify government processes and procedures. Amendments to the United States Constitution, unlike ones made to many constitutions worldwide, are appended to the document. All four pages of the original U. S. Constitution are written on parchment. According to the United States Senate: "The Constitution's first three words—We the People—affirm that the government of the United States exists to serve its citizens. For over two centuries the Constitution has remained in force because its framers wisely separated and balanced governmental powers to safeguard the interests of majority rule and minority rights, of liberty and equality, of the federal and state governments."The first permanent constitution of its kind, adopted by the people's representatives for an expansive nation, it is interpreted and implemented by a large body of constitutional law, has influenced the constitutions of other nations. From September 5, 1774, to March 1, 1781, the Continental Congress functioned as the provisional government of the United States.
Delegates to the First and the Second Continental Congress were chosen through the action of committees of correspondence in various colonies rather than through the colonial or state legislatures. In no formal sense was it a gathering representative of existing colonial governments; the process of selecting the delegates for the First and Second Continental Congresses underscores the revolutionary role of the people of the colonies in establishing a central governing body. Endowed by the people collectively, the Continental Congress alone possessed those attributes of external sovereignty which entitled it to be called a state in the international sense, while the separate states, exercising a limited or internal sovereignty, may rightly be considered a creation of the Continental Congress, which preceded them and brought them into being; the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was the first constitution of the United States. It was drafted by the Second Continental Congress from mid-1776 through late 1777, ratification by all 13 states was completed by early 1781.
The Articles of Confederation gave little power to the central government. The Confederation Congress lacked enforcement powers. Implementation of most decisions, including modifications to the Articles, required unanimous approval of all thirteen state legislatures. Although, in a way, the Congressional powers in Article 9 made the "league of states as cohesive and strong as any similar sort of republican confederation in history", the chief problem was, in the words of George Washington, "no money"; the Continental Congress could print money but it was worthless. Congress couldn't pay it back. No state paid all their U. S. taxes. Some few paid an amount equal to interest on the national debt no more. No interest was paid on debt owed foreign governments. By 1786, the United States would default on outstanding debts. Internationally, the United States had little ability to defend its sovereignty. Most of the troops in the 625-man United States Army were deployed facing – but not threatening – British forts on American soil.
They had not been paid. Spain closed New Orleans to American commerce. S. officials protested, but to no effect. Barbary pirates began seizing American ships of commerce. If any military crisis required action, the Congress had no credit or taxing power to finance a response. Domestically, the Articles of Confederation was failing to bring unity to the diverse sentiments and interests of the various states. Although the Treaty of Paris was signed between Great Britain and the U. S. and named each of the American states, various states proceeded blithely to violate it. New York and South Carolina prosecuted Loyalists for wartime activity and redistributed their lands. Individual state legislatures independently laid embargoes, negotiated directly with foreign authorities, raised armies, and
Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. In Congress, it was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, by the House on January 31, 1865; the amendment was ratified by the required number of states on December 6, 1865. On December 18, 1865, Secretary of State William H. Seward proclaimed its adoption, it was the first of the three Reconstruction Amendments adopted following the American Civil War. Since the American Revolution, states had divided into states that allowed or states that prohibited slavery. Slavery was implicitly permitted in the original Constitution through provisions such as Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 known as the Three-Fifths Compromise, which detailed how each slave state's enslaved population would be factored into its total population count for the purposes of apportioning seats in the United States House of Representatives and direct taxes among the states. Though many slaves had been declared free by President Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, their post-war status was uncertain.
On April 8, 1864, the Senate passed an amendment to abolish slavery. After one unsuccessful vote and extensive legislative maneuvering by the Lincoln administration, the House followed suit on January 31, 1865; the measure was swiftly ratified by nearly all Northern states, along with a sufficient number of border states up to the death of Lincoln, but approval came with President Andrew Johnson, who encouraged the "reconstructed" Southern states of Alabama, North Carolina and Georgia to agree, which brought the count to 27 states, caused it to be adopted before the end of 1865. Though the amendment formally abolished slavery throughout the United States, factors such as Black Codes, white supremacist violence, selective enforcement of statutes continued to subject some black Americans to involuntary labor in the South. In contrast to the other Reconstruction Amendments, the Thirteenth Amendment was cited in case law, but has been used to strike down peonage and some race-based discrimination as "badges and incidents of slavery."
The Thirteenth Amendment applies to the actions of private citizens, while the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments apply only to state actors. The Thirteenth Amendment enables Congress to pass laws against sex trafficking and other modern forms of slavery. Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Slavery existed in all of the original thirteen British North American colonies. Prior to the Thirteenth Amendment, the United States Constitution did not expressly use the words slave or slavery but included several provisions about unfree persons; the Three-Fifths Compromise, Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution, allocated Congressional representation based "on the whole Number of free Persons" and "three fifths of all other Persons".
This clause was a compromise between Southerners who wished slaves to be counted as'persons' for congressional representation and northerners rejecting these out of concern of too much power for the South, because representation in the new Congress would be based on population in contrast to the one-vote-for-one-state principle in the earlier Continental Congress. Under the Fugitive Slave Clause, Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3, "No person held to Service or Labour in one State" would be freed by escaping to another. Article I, Section 9, Clause 1 allowed Congress to pass legislation outlawing the "Importation of Persons", but not until 1808. However, for purposes of the Fifth Amendment—which states that, "No person shall... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law"—slaves were understood as property. Although abolitionists used the Fifth Amendment to argue against slavery, it became part of the legal basis in Dred Scott v. Sandford for treating slaves as property.
Stimulated by the philosophy of the Declaration of Independence, between 1777 and 1804 every Northern state provided for the immediate or gradual abolition of slavery. Most of the slaves involved were household servants. No Southern state did so, the slave population of the South continued to grow, peaking at 4 million people in 1861. An abolitionist movement headed by such figures as William Lloyd Garrison grew in strength in the North, calling for the end of slavery nationwide and exacerbating tensions between North and South; the American Colonization Society, an alliance between abolitionists who felt the races should be kept separated and slaveholders who feared the presence of freed blacks would encourage slave rebellions, called for the emigration and colonization of both free blacks and slaves to Africa. Its views were endorsed by politicians such as Henry Clay, who feared that the main abolitionist movement would provoke a civil war. Proposals to eliminate slavery by constitutional amendment were introduced by Representative Arthur Livermore in 1818 and by John Quincy Adams in 1839, but failed to gain significant traction.
As the country continued to expand, the issue of slavery in its new territories became the dominant national issue. The Southern position was that slaves were property and therefore could be moved to the territories like all other forms of property; the 1820 Missouri Compromise provided for the admission of Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, preserving the Senate's equality between the regions. In 1846, the Wilmot Proviso was introduced to a war appropriations bill to ban slavery in all territories acquired in the Mexican–Ameri
Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed by Congress on March 4, 1794, ratified by the states on February 7, 1795. The Eleventh Amendment restricts the ability of individuals to bring suit against states in federal court; the Eleventh Amendment was adopted to overrule the U. S. Supreme Court's decision in Georgia. In that case, the Supreme Court had held that states did not enjoy sovereign immunity from suits made by citizens of other states in federal court. Thus, the Eleventh Amendment established that federal courts do not have the authority to hear cases brought by private citizens against states. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court has held that Congress can abrogate state sovereign immunity when using its authority under the Bankruptcy Clause or Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment; the Supreme Court has held that federal courts can enjoin state officials from violating federal law. The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.
The Eleventh Amendment was the first Constitutional amendment adopted after the Bill of Rights. The amendment was adopted following the Supreme Court's ruling in Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 U. S. 419. In Chisholm, the Court ruled that federal courts had the authority to hear cases in law and equity brought by private citizens against states and that states did not enjoy sovereign immunity from suits made by citizens of other states in federal court. Thus, the amendment clarified Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution, which gives diversity jurisdiction to the judiciary to hear cases "between a state and citizens of another state"; the Eleventh Amendment was proposed by the 3rd Congress on March 4, 1794, when it was approved by the House of Representatives by vote of 81–9, having been passed by the Senate, 23–2, on January 14, 1794. The amendment was ratified by the state legislatures of the following states: New York – March 27, 1794 Rhode Island – March 31, 1794 Connecticut – May 8, 1794 New Hampshire – June 16, 1794 Massachusetts – June 26, 1794 Vermont – November 9, 1794 Virginia – November 18, 1794 Georgia – November 29, 1794 Kentucky – December 7, 1794 Maryland – December 26, 1794 Delaware – January 23, 1795 North Carolina – February 7, 1795As there were 15 States at the time, the ratification by twelve States added the Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution.
It was subsequently ratified by: South Carolina – December 4, 1797On January 8, 1798 three years after the Eleventh Amendment's adoption, President John Adams stated in a message to Congress that the Eleventh Amendment had been ratified by the necessary number of States and that it was now a part of the Constitution of the United States. New Jersey and Pennsylvania did not take action on the amendment during that era. However, on June 25, 2018, the New Jersey Senate adopted Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 75 to symbolically post-ratify the Eleventh Amendment. In Hollingsworth v. Virginia, 3 U. S. 378, the Supreme Court held that every pending action brought under Chisholm had to be dismissed because of the amendment's adoption. The amendment's text does not mention suits brought against a state by its own citizens. However, in Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U. S. 1, the Supreme Court ruled. As Justice Anthony Kennedy stated in Alden v. Maine, 527 U. S. 706: overeign immunity derives not from the Eleventh Amendment but from the structure of the original Constitution itself....
Nor can we conclude that the specific Article I powers delegated to Congress include, by virtue of the Necessary and Proper Clause or otherwise, the incidental authority to subject the States to private suits as a means of achieving objectives otherwise within the scope of the enumerated powers. However, Justice David Souter, writing for a four-Justice dissent in Alden, said the states surrendered their sovereign immunity when they ratified the Constitution, he read the amendment's text as reflecting a narrow form of sovereign immunity that limited only the diversity jurisdiction of the federal courts. He concluded that neither the Eleventh Amendment in particular nor the Constitution in general insulates the states from suits by individuals. Eleventh Amendment immunity protects states from lawsuits by foreign states in federal courts. Although the Eleventh Amendment grants immunity to states from suit for money damages or equitable relief without their consent, in Ex parte Young, 209 U. S. 123, the Supreme Court ruled that federal courts may enjoin state officials from violating federal law.
In Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer, 427 U. S. 445, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress may abrogate state immunity from suit under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. In Central Virginia Community College v. Katz, 546 U. S. 356, the Court ruled the Congress could do the same regarding bankruptcy cases by way of Article I, Section 8, Clause 4 of the Constitution. In Lapides v. Board of Regents of Univ. System of Ga. 535 U. S. 613, the Supreme Court ruled that when a state invokes a federal court's removal jurisdiction, it waives the Eleventh Amendment in the removed case. The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has ruled that Puerto Rico enjoys Eleventh Amendment immunity; the territories of American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands and the Virgin Islands do not enjoy Eleventh Amendment immunity. Atascadero State Hospital v. Scanlon Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board v. College Savings Bank
Signing of the United States Constitution
The Signing of the United States Constitution occurred on September 17, 1787, at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, when 39 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, representing 12 states, endorsed the Constitution created during the four-month-long convention. In addition to signatures, this endorsement, the Constitution's eschatocol, included a brief declaration that the delegates' work has been completed and that those whose signatures appear on it subscribe to the final document. Included are, a statement pronouncing the document's adoption by the states present, a formulaic dating of its adoption, along with the signatures of those endorsing it. Additionally, the convention's secretary, William Jackson, signed the document to authenticate the validity of the delegate signatures, he made a few secretarial notes. The language of the concluding endorsement, conceived by Gouverneur Morris and presented to the convention by Benjamin Franklin, was made intentionally ambiguous in hopes of winning over the votes of dissenting delegates.
Advocates for the new frame of government, realizing the impending difficulty of obtaining the consent of the states needed for it to become operational, were anxious to obtain the unanimous support of the delegations from each state. It was feared that many of the delegates would refuse to give their individual assent to the Constitution. Therefore, in order that the action of the Convention would appear to be unanimous, the formula, Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the states present... was devised. The U. S. Constitution lays out the frame of the nation's federal government and delineates how its 3 branches are to function. Of those who signed it every one had taken part in the American Revolution. In general, they represented a cross-section of 18th-century American leadership, with individuals having experience in local or colonial and state government. Jonathan Dayton, age 26, was the youngest to sign the Constitution, while Benjamin Franklin, age 81, was the oldest. On July 24, 1787 convention delegates selected a Committee of Detail to write-up a draft constitution reflective of the resolutions passed by the convention up to that point.
The final report of this committee, a twenty-three article document, became the first draft of the constitution. Overall, the draft produced by the committee conformed to the resolutions adopted by the Convention, though some portions were rephrased during the process. After it issued this report, the committee continued to meet off and on until early September; the draft constitution section by section and clause by clause. Details were attended to, further compromises were effected. On September 8, 1787, a Committee of Style, with different members, was impaneled to distill a final draft constitution from the twenty-three approved articles; the final draft, presented to the convention on September 12, contained seven articles, a preamble, a closing statement, cleverly written by Gouverneur Morris so as to make the constitution seem unanimous. The committee presented a proposed letter to accompany the constitution when delivered to the Congress of the Confederation; the final document, engrossed by Jacob Shallus, was taken up on Monday, September 17, at the Convention's final session.
Several delegates were disappointed by the numerous compromises contained in the final document, believing that they had impaired its quality. Alexander Hamilton called the Constitution a "worthless fabric", certain to be superseded. Luther Martin regarded it as a stab in the back of the goddess of liberty; the most that Madison and the majority of delegates hoped, was that this practical, workable constitution, planned to meet the immediate needs of thirteen states with four million people, would last a generation. In all, twelve of the thirteen states sent delegates to the Constitutional Convention. Several attendees left before the signing ceremony, three that did not refused to sign. Benjamin Franklin summed up the sentiments of those who did sign, stating: "There are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them." He would accept the Constitution, "because I expect no better and because I am not sure that it is not the best".
The closing endorsement of the U. S. Constitution serves an authentication function only, it neither assigns powers to the federal government nor does it provide specific limitations on government action. It does however, provide essential documentation of the Constitution's validity, a statement of "This is what was agreed to." It records who signed the Constitution, plus where they signed. It describes the role played by the signers in developing the document. Due to this limited function, it is overlooked and no court has cited it when reaching a judicial decision. On the final day of the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin delivered an address endorsing the Constitution despite any perceived imperfections. Hoping to gain the support of critics and create a sense of common accord, Franklin proposed, the convention agreed, that the Constitution be endorsed by the delegates as individual witnesses of the unanimous consent of the states present, thus the signers subscribed their names as witnesses to.
The signers' names are, with the exception of Convention Pres
