United States Government/The Later Amendments

Introduction

Since the Bill of Rights, there have been seventeen Amendments to the Constitution.

Eleventh Amendment

"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 adopted in response to the Supreme Court case Chisolm v. Georgia, (1793) in which the court ruled that the Constitution granted federal courts the power to hear cases brought against states from its own citizens or citizens of different state or citizens or subject of foreign countries. This established that states lack sovereign immunity from suits brought in federal courts. The 11th amendment however, superseded and overruled the supreme court ruling and established that the states have sovereign immunity from suits brought against them from citizens of another states or citizens of foreign countries.

Twelfth Amendment

The Twelfth Amendment fine-tuned the process for electing the President. (See Part III, Chapter 2 for details.)

Thirteenth Amendment

The Thirteenth Amendment abolished and outlawed slavery everywhere in the United States and every place subject to their jurisdiction. It also abolished and outlawed involuntary servitude except to punish crime.

Fourteenth Amendment

Amended in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment served to extend much of the Bill of Rights to the states by requiring that "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." It was essentially a reaffirmation that all citizens are considered equal regardless of race.

Secondly, the Amendment provided that a State cannot deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law.

Thirdly, the amendment required that every State provide equal protection to all of its citizens- this clause intended to prevent discrimination against African-Americans, although due to several supreme court rulings the clauses effects were almost rendered invalid.

Fourthly, it removed the original Constitutional requirement that "other persons" (slaves) count as three-fifths of a person when determining the official state population and that all persons count toward a States population.

Fifthly, it stated that a State's representation in Congress would be reduced if that State prohibited males over twenty-one from voting for a reason other than commission of a crime.

Sixthly, the Amendment prohibited any person who participates in a rebellion such as the Civil War from serving in government unless the Congress formally agrees, by a two-thirds vote in each house, to exempt the person from this disqualification.

Seventhly, the Fourteenth required that any debts incurred by the Union (the North) during the Civil War were to be held valid and as such had to be paid, but that any and all debts incurred by the Confederacy were illegal and void and as such could not and would not be paid. It also stated that any person who lost slaves during the civil war could not sue the Government because of the loss thereof.

Fifteenth Amendment

The Fifteenth Amendment took another barrier away from minorities right to vote by barring the creation of laws that barred someone from voting based on their color, race, or having been former slaves.

Sixteenth Amendment

The Sixteenth Amendment made Income Taxes constitutional. It was passed to resolve disputes regarding the matter. At one time, the Supreme Court ruled that the Tax was constitutional, while ruling at another time that it was not. All doubts were removed by the Sixteenth.

Seventeenth Amendment

The Seventeenth provided that the people of a state, and not the legislature, would be the electors of Senators. However, it retained the power of legislatures to temporarily fill vacancies until an election can be held.

Eighteenth Amendment

The Eighteenth Amendment created Prohibition, banning intoxicating liquors in the United States. It allowed both the federal and the state governments to concurrently legislate on the matter.

Nineteenth Amendment

The Nineteenth granted women the right to vote on an equal basis with men.

Twentieth Amendment

The Twentieth Amendment was known as the "lame duck" amendment. According to the original constitution and the twelfth amendment, a newly elected president did not take office until March 4. In the early days of the Republic, elections were held on different days in different jurisdictions, and travel and communication were slow. By the 1930s, however, the election was uniformly held in early November, and the winner of a presidential election was usually apparent by the next morning. This meant that a newly elected president had to wait four months take take office, leavin the outgoing president a "lame duck."

This amendment moved up the date for a new president to take office from March 4 to January 20. The first day for the newly elected Congress was moved up to January 3, allowing Congress time to select the president or vice president should the need arise. The amendment also required that Congress meet each year on January 3, unless a different day was chosen.

The amendment also provided for several remote circumstances involving deaths or resignations of presidents-elect and vice presidents-elect, as well presidential and vice presidential candidates.

Twenty-First Amendment

The Twenty-First is the only Amendment that repeals, or cancels/invalidates, a previous Amendment. The Twenty-First repealed the Eighteenth Amendment and ended Prohibition at a national level, although it exclusively gave the States the power to prohibit the sale, manufacture or distribution of intoxicating liquors within their respective borders.

Twenty-Second Amendment

George Washington set a standard for all future Presidents when he declined to seek a third term. This standard was either voluntarily followed by the President, or enforced by the voters, in every case until Franklin Roosevelt, who was elected four times. In order to restore Washington's tradition, the Amendment limited all future Presidents to a maximum of two terms.

Twenty-Third Amendment

The Twenty-third Amendment gave citizens of the District of Columbia the right to vote in Presidential election.

Twenty-Fourth Amendment

The Twenty-fourth prohibited the denial of a vote based on failure to pay a tax such as the poll tax. Southern states had used the poll tax to deny poor African-Americans the right to vote.

Twenty-Fifth Amendment

The Twenty-fifth provided special provisions for an emergency such as a disabled but still living President. The Amendment allowed the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet to formally declare the President unable to carry out his duties. If this was the case, then the Vice President would become Acting President until the President declared himself fit to continue. If the Vice President still felt that the President was not capable of continuing, then he and the Cabinet could again declare the President's disability. If this was the case, then Congress had to assemble to decide the matter. The President would continue unless the Congress, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, agreed with the Vice President and Cabinet.

Twenty-Sixth Amendment

The Twenty-sixth provided that all persons eighteen years or older could not be denied the right to vote due to age.

Twenty-Seventh Amendment

The Twenty-seventh Amendment was originally proposed by Congress in 1789 at the same time as the Bill of Rights. However, it was not ratified by legislatures of the required three-fourths of the states until 1992. It provides that Congressional salary changes cannot take effect until an election (of Representatives) occurs.

Contents

Colonial America - Articles of Confederation - The Constitutional Convention - Ratification - The Three Branches - The Federal System - General Provisions - The Bill of Rights - The Later Amendments - Legislative Branch - Executive Branch - Judicial Branch