Constitutional Amendments

The Bill of Rights

Amendment DProvisions Origins Legacy 1No establishment of Freedom of Religion Establishment of Religion religion In the 1600s and 1700s, States gradually disestablished tax-supported st religious groups such as churches beginning in the late 1700s. 1 the Pilgrims, Quakers and Free exercise of Catholics came to the Public schools today must avoid unnecessary religion English colonies to “entanglement” with religion, and may not conduct escape religious official prayers (Engel v. Vitale, 1962) or daily Freedom of speech persecution. Pilgrims Bible verse readings (Abington v. Schempp, 1963). and Puritans in New Freedom of the press England feared discrimination by the Free Exercise of Religion Right to peaceful established Anglican The U.S. is a land of religious diversity, although assembly Church, though they faiths have sometimes faced limitations placed on created a relatively their religious practices. Mormons migrated west Right to petition intolerant colonial society in the mid-1800s to escape religious persecution, of their own. Quakers and Utah’s statehood was delayed over concerns migrated to Pennsylvania about the Mormon practice of polygamy. because of their views on Acronym: pacifism and the role of In the late 1800s and early 1900s, many European women in society. And Catholics and Jews migrated to the U.S. seeking R-Religion Catholics, a minority in economic opportunity, though immigration quotas A-Assembly most western European based on national origins restricted their numbers. P-Press countries, carved out a P-Petition haven in Maryland, where Many Muslims have complained of religious and S-Speech the Toleration Act of ethnic profiling following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 1649 protected the freedoms of all Christian denominations.

Freedom of Speech Freedom of Speech & To stifle dissent, the government has sometimes Press restricted freedom of speech, especially during The John Peter Zenger wartime. trial of 1735 established a tradition of free presses John Adams signed the Sedition Act in 1798, and the right to criticize which targeted his Jeffersonian opponents. government officials. Zenger was charged with Abraham Lincoln jailed thousands ofConfederate seditious libel for sympathizerswithout trial to prevent further publishing an article dissension during the Civil War. attacking New York’s colonial governor. The During World War I, Woodrow Wilson signed the jury in Zenger’s case Espionage & Sedition Acts which prohibited returned a verdict of not criticism of the government and interference with guilty because they found the military draft. The laws were upheld in the case that Zenger’s criticisms of Schenck v. U.S. (1919), which ruled that speech the governor had been that poses a “clear and present danger” is not true. protected under the 1st Amendment.

Non-disruptive student protests are protected under freedom of speech. In the case of Tinker v. Des Moines(1969), the Supreme Court ruled that wearing a black armband to school in protest of the Vietnam War is protected behavior under the 1st Amendment.

In the 1989 case of Texas v. Johnson, the Supreme Court ruled that burning the American flag was also protected as an act of symbolic speech.

The Supreme Court has long held that “money is speech, ” meaning that donations to candidates and political causes are protected under the 1st Amendment. In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), the court overturned a law that placed restrictions on campaign donations by corporations, labor unions and political action committees.

Freedom of the Press The press played a key role in the intensifyingsectional debatesof the mid- 1800s.Abolitionist publications like William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin angered southern defenders of slavery, while the murder of abolitionist editor Elijah P. Lovejoy by a pro- slavery mob enraged many in the north.

During the Progressive Era, muckrakers exposed political corruption and unfair business practices. Books like Upton Sinclair’sThe Jungle and Jacob Riis’How the Other Half Lives drew attention to the problems created by industrialization and led to legal reforms.

As the Vietnam War raged in the 1960s and 1970s, television and newspaper coverage played a key role in turning public opinion against the war. The publication of the top-secret Pentagon Papers was a milestone in press freedom, with the Supreme Court establishing the principle that government may not censor newspapers through “prior restraint”in New York Times v. U.S., 1973.

Freedom of the press, however, canbe limited in public schools. School administrators may censor student publications that discuss controversial subjects (Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, 1988). In the current War on Terror, the Bush and Obama administrations have aggressively pursued so- called “whistleblowers” such as Bradley Manningand WikiLeakswho have released sensitive material to the media.

Freedom of Assembly Assembly and Petition During the Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s, the The right to assemble and Communist Party was classified as a criminal petition (for example, the conspiracy seeking to overthrow the United States. Boston Tea Party) was In the 1951 case Dennis v. U.S., the Supreme seen as essential to Court ruled that even without speaking specific democratic participation. threats against the government, citizens could be The British government jailed as subversives simply through their had deprived colonists of membership in the Communist Party. many of the rights commonly granted to British subjects, so Freedom of Petition explicit constitutional The right to petition was strengthened during the protection of these rights Progressive Era when many states authorized was important to many initiatives. Initiatives allow citizens to propose Antifederalists. laws by collecting a large number of voter signatures on a petition. 1Right to keep and The right to bear arms After the American Revolution, George nd bear arms (weapons) dates back to the English Washington consolidated control over state militias 2 Bill of Rights of 1689. in 1794 to quickly suppress the Whisky Rebellion. Many colonists relied on During the War of 1812, however, American firearms as hunters. militias performed poorly on the battlefield. Federalists called for the formation of a State and local militias professional standing army. Since the mid-1800s, played an important role the U.S. has generally depended on a professional in the French & Indian military (army, navy, marines, etc.) rather than War. militias for national defense.

The “Minutemen” Laws in the 1800s often forbade African helped defend the Americans and Native Americansfrom owning colonies in the famous guns, for fear of uprisings. battles of Lexington and Concord that sparked the In District of Columbia v. Heller(2008), the Revolutionary War in Supreme Court ruled that citizens have an 1775. individual right to gun ownership independent of membership in a militia or the armed forces.

Today, the United States has the highest rate of personal gun ownership in the world, as well as one of the highest rates of per capita firearms deaths.

The National Rifle Association has sought to protect gun ownership, while gun control advocates have tried to restrict the sale of certain types of weapons. 1No quartering of After the Boston Tea Since the end of the Civil War, the U.S. has soldiers Party, Parliament sought experienced very little combat on its home soil, rd to increase its authority and the amendment’s relevance has slowly faded. 3 over the rebellious colony of Massachusetts by passing a series of Coercive (or “Intolerable”) Acts, including the Quartering Act of 1774

The Quartering Act authorized the seizure of barns, stables and other unoccupied buildings to be used as housingfor British troops. 1No unreasonable Colonial smugglers The Supreme Court has ruled that any evidence searches and seizures ignored British trade seized in an illegal search may not be used as th mercantile policies. As a evidence in court. This“exclusionary rule” has a 4 result, Parliament long legal history but was not fully implemented Search warrants must be based on authorized writs of until the case of Mapp v. Ohioin 1961. probable cause assistance in order to enforce the Navigation In New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1985), the Supreme Court Acts. The writs of ruled that students’ 4th Amendment rights are very assistance allowed limited on school grounds. School administrators customs agents broad do not need a warrant or probable cause to search a powers to search colonial student’s belongings or locker, only a “reasonable merchants without a suspicion.” warrant. The Nixon administration engaged in illegalsearches and wiretapping of its political enemies, culminating in the arrest of the Watergate burglars in 1972. The investigation into the burglary dragged on for two years, ending with Nixon’s resignation in 1974.

After the 9/11 attacks, the 2001 PATRIOT Actand other laws have broadened the federal government’s authority to monitor communications, financial, library and medical records of both foreigners and American citizens.Recently disclosed massive data storage programs have also raised 4th Amendment concerns. 1Rights of the accused Many of the rights During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln suspended th protected under the 5th habeas corpusand ordered the prosecution of  Grand jury amendment date back to Confederate sympathizers in special military 5 the Magna Carta of tribunals. Unlike civilian courts, military  No double 1215. tribunals were held in secret, carried no jeopardy presumption of “innocent until proven guilty,” and In the 1700s, Parliament had no civilians on the jury. In Ex Parte Milligan  No self- established the admiralty (1866), the Supreme Court ruled these military incrimination courtto enforce the tribunals unconstitutional. Navigation Acts against  Due process the actions of colonial In the 1960s, under the leadership of Chief Justice smugglers.In these trials, Earl Warren, the Supreme Court greatly expanded  Just colonists would be the rights of those accused of crimes.One of the compensation transported to Britain to most famous cases of this era, Miranda v. Arizona & eminent face trial without a jury in (1966), fully established the right against self- domain front of a British judge, incrimination. Subsequent to this ruling, police are and the burden of proof nowrequired to inform suspects of their right to was placed on the remain silent and their right to an attorney. If defendant. Colonists felt police fail to “mirandize” suspects, any statement that these admiralty the suspect makes cannot be used against them in courts violated their court. rights as British subjects.

The 5th Amendment – along with the 6th – protects the rights of the accused. 1Rights of the accused Many of the rights In the 1960s, under the leadership of Chief Justice th protected under the 5th Earl Warren, the Supreme Court greatly expanded  Speedy public amendment date back to the rights of those accused of crimes. 6 trial by a jury the Magna Carta of of peers 1215. One of the most famous cases of this era, Gideon v. Wainwright (1960), established the right of all  Compulsory In the 1700s, Parliament defendants to have an attorney. If defendants are attendance of established the admiralty determined to be indigent, the state must appoint a witnesses & courtto enforce the lawyer to defend them. Court-appointed attorneys right to Navigation Acts against who defend poor clients are often called public confront them the actions of colonial defenders. smugglers.In these trials,  Assistance of colonists would be counsel transported to Britain to face trial without a jury, they would be tried in front of a British judge, and the burden of proof was placed on the defendant. Colonists felt that these admiralty courts violated their rights as British subjects.

Like the 5th Amendment, the 6th Amendment protects the rights of the accused. 1Right to a jury trial British subjects and … in certain civil cases American colonists were th suspicious of trials 7 decided without juries, since judges often had close ties to the king.

As Revolutionary unrest grew in the 1760s and 1770s, King George III abolished the right of trial by jury in the colonies. 1No cruel and unusual The protection against In the 1970s, the Supreme Court briefly suspended punishment cruel and unusual use of the death penalty. In the case of Furman th punishment dates back to v. Georgia (1972), the court ruled that capital 8 the English Bill of punishment was “cruel and unusual” because death Rights of 1689. sentences handed out to defendants in an arbitrary and inconsistent manner.

Four years later, with new sentencing guidelines in place, the court reauthorized the use of the death penalty in Gregg v. Georgia. th 1Non-enumerated The Antifederalists The 9 Amendment has been used to protect rights worried that the absence certain fundamental rights not enumerated in the th of a specifically listed Bill of Rights. 9 right would be interpreted as a denial of that right. Although the word “privacy” is not mentioned in the Bill of Rights, most Americans agree that it is a basic right that deserves legal protection under the 9th Amendment. Privacy has played a particularly important role in Supreme Court decisions on reproductive rights.

In the case of Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), the Supreme Court ruled that a law banning married couples from using contraceptiveswas a violation of marital privacy.

In Roe v. Wade (1973), the Supreme Court legalized abortion as a matter of women’s right to privacy and quality medical care. 1States’ rights Antifederalistsfeared the The question of how much authority should be (reserved rights) creation of a strong granted to the national government has been one of th central government that the most contentious questions in American 10 might violate the rights history. of statesand individual citizens. An especially fierce struggle between the state and federal governments raged from the time of They demanded the national independence in the late 1700s until the passage of the 10th end of the Civil War in 1865. Amendment to explicitly protect states rights. This conflict centered on two main questions concerning states’ rightsand the 10th Amendment: The amendment says that all rights not specifically 1) Nullification – Do states have the right to delegated to the federal disregard or cancel federal laws? government are reserved 2) Secession – Do states have the right to for the states and the sever ties with the U.S. government and people. declare their independence?

Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican party claimed that under the 10th Amendment, states had the right to interpret and cancel federal laws that they felt were unconstitutional. When President John Adams signed the Alien & Sedition Acts, Democratic-Republicans argued that these laws should be nullified by the states. The argument for nullification was laid out in the Virginia & Kentucky Resolutions, authored in secret by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

The argument for nullification was weakened somewhat with the Supreme Court’s decision in Marbury v. Madison(1803). In this decision, Chief Justice John Marshall wrote that the courts – not the states – had the power to interpret and strike down federal laws, a power known as judicial review.Marshall was a staunch Federalist who authored numerous other decisions strengthening the power of the national government over the states.

Ironically, it was a group of Federalists who next questioned the authority of the national government. During the War of 1812, New England Federalists called together a meeting known as the Hartford Convention. The delegates at this meeting argued threatened nullification and secession if New England interests were not given greater consideration in the national government. But the war soon ended, and the Federalist cause faded.

In 1828, Congress passed a “Tariff of Abominations” which protected northern industries from foreign competition, but harmed southern consumers. Vice President John C. Calhoun wrote the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, arguing for the nullification of the tariff. President Andrew Jackson did not tolerate what he viewed as insubordination, and threatened to send troops into South Carolina to collect tariff duties.

In the mid-1800s, southern states feared that the federal government would outlaw slavery. Southern advocates of nullification and secession began to grow louder again. Upon the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, the southseceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. America’s bloodiest war ensued, the Civil War. When the war ended, the south was defeated and it appeared that the idea of national supremacy had defeated the concept of states’ rights.

However, the African American civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s provoked a brief revival of the idea of states’ rights. Southern governors such as Alabama’s George Wallacetried to obstruct the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education by refusing to integrate schools in their states. Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson authorized the use of the U.S. military and federal marshals to force southern governors to comply with civil rights protections.

Current debates over same-sex marriage and the decriminalization of marijuanahave drawn renewed attention to the 10th Amendment. Some states have laws that contradict federal laws on these issues. It remains to be seen how these issues will be resolved. The New Republic Amendments

Amendmen Date Provisions Origins Legacy t 1795 Sovereign In the case of Chisholm v. This was the first amendment to be ratified after the immunity Georgia (1793), the Bill of Rights. th Supreme Court allowed a 11 citizen of South Carolina to The 11th Amendment was also the first amendment that sue the state of Georgia. was intended to negate a Supreme Court decision. Fearing a rash of reckless lawsuits, states demanded the passage of the 11th Amendment which says that a state may not be sued by a citizen of different state. This is the legal principle known as sovereign immunity. th 1804 Electoral In 1796, John Adams The 12 Amendment solved the most glaring problems College reform received the most electoral with the Electoral College, but criticisms of the t votes, and was thus elected presidential election process have continued. 12 president. However, under the rules of the Electoral It is not uncommon for a president to be elected with College at that time, the less than half of the popular vote, especially when a h second-highest vote-getter third party candidate enjoys strong voter support. was chosen as vice president. In fact, there have been four elections when a candidate won more popular votes than his opponent, but lost the This resulted in two Electoral College: political enemies – Federalist John Adams and  In 1824, Andrew Jackson won a plurality of the Democratic-Republican popular vote butJohn Quincy Adams won the Thomas Jefferson – serving electoral vote and became president. together in the White  In 1876, Samuel Tilden won a majority of the House as president and popular vote butRutherford Hayes won the vice president. Jefferson electoral vote and became president. and Adams were constantly  In 1888, Grover Cleveland won a plurality of at odds. the popular vote butBenjamin Harrison won the electoral vote and became president. A similar problem in the  In 2000, Al Gore won a plurality of the popular election of 1800 led to the vote butGeorge W. Bush won the electoral vote th passage of the 12 and became president. Amendment, which essentially provides for the joint election of president and vice presidenton the same ballot. The Reconstruction Amendments

Amendmen Date Provisions Origins Legacy t th 1865 Abolition of When Abraham Lincoln Although the 13 Amendment put an end to slavery issued the Emancipation chattelslavery, African Americans still faced unjust t Proclamation in 1862, it labor arrangements like sharecropping and tenant 13 only applied to slaves in farming. Under these systems, freedmen found rebel-held territories. themselves mired in debt. They were oftenforced to Slaves in the Union’s continue to work for the same landowner until they had h “border states” (Delaware, paid off their debt. Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri) The 13th Amendment does not protect prisoners against were unaffected by forced labor. In the late 1800s, some states passed Lincoln’s proclamation. vagrancy laws which required workers to sign extended work contracts and have proof of employment The 13th Amendment or face arrest. These laws disproportionately targeted abolished slavery in all African Americans, and ultimately created U.S. states and territories. predominantly black “chain gang” prison labor. It was swiftly ratified by northern states and some “reconstructed” southern states in 1865. 1868 Citizenship by In the 1857 case of Dred Southern states undermined the 14th Amendment by birth Scott v. Sanford, the institutingblack codes and Jim Crow laws that t Supreme Court declared relegated African Americans to second-class 14 Privileges and that African Americans citizenship. These laws limited African Americans’ immunities were not citizens and had rights to testify and bring suits in court, restricted black “no rights that a white man employment to certain occupations, and set up a system h Due process was bound to respect.” of racial segregation.

Repudiation of After emancipation, African Americans filed suits to overturn Confederate Radical Republicans in discriminatory laws, but the Supreme Court offered debts Congress sought to ensure very narrow interpretations of the 14th Amendment in that African Americans the late 1800s. In the Slaughterhouse Cases (1873), achieved full citizenship the court ruled that the 14th Amendment protects only by birth on American soil the rights granted by U.S. citizenship, not the rights and equal protection granted by state citizenship. And in Plessy v. Ferguson under the law through the (1896), the court legalized racial segregation under the passage of the 14th logic of “separate but equal” facilities. These rulingsset Amendment. a precedent for more than a half century of racial discrimination under state laws. Most constitutional amendments protect The World War II era saw gradual progress toward citizens from actions of the racial equality and integration. Franklin Roosevelt federal government. But issued an executive order in 1941 banning racial the Radical Republicans discrimination in federal government employment. knew that southern states After World War II, Harry Truman issued an executive would obstruct civil rights order shortly after the war thatintegrated the armed protections, so the text of forces. the 14th Amendment declares that “no state In the 1950s, under the leadership of attorney Thurgood shall” violate the rights of Marshall, the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund launched citizens. a new series of lawsuits to challenge segregation in public education. The landmark ruling in Brown v. At first, most southern Board of Education (1954) ordered an end to racial states refused to approve segregation in public schools and overturned the the 14th Amendment. So in “separate but equal” rule established by the Plessycase. 1867, U.S. Congress passed a series of laws In 1971, the court ruled in Swann v. Charlotte- known as the Mecklenburg Board of Education that school districts Reconstruction Acts may require cross-district busing in order to integrate which divided the south schools. into five military districts. Under military rule, Another effect of the 14th Amendment is its role in southern states were forced expandingother constitutional rights. The Supreme to ratify the 14th Court has developed a doctrine known as Amendment before they incorporation, which holds that the 14th Amendment’s could be readmitted to the “due process” clause protects citizens not only from Union. actions of the federal government but also from the actions of state governments. The Supreme Court has The 14th Amendment also issued dozens of decisions that incorporated the repudiated the protections of the Bill of Rights against the states in a Confederate war debt. case-by-case basis. This meant that the U.S. government would not repay loans to foreign nations that had aided southern states during the Civil War. 1870 Universal male Prior to 1820, most states For a brief period in the 1860s and 1870s, newly- suffrage restricted voting eligibility enfranchised African Americans vigorously exercised t to white males who could their right to vote. Black voters joined with white 15 meet property ownership “scalawags” (southern Republicans) to form a requirements. powerful voting bloc that supported President Ulysses S. Grant. h During the Jacksonian Age of the 1820s-1840s, states They also elected a number of Republicans – black reduced or eliminated the and white - to the Congressional delegations of property requirement, southern states. In 1870, Hiram Revels of Mississippi beginning the era of became the first black man elected to the U.S. Senate. universal white male Later that year, Joseph Rainey of South Carolina suffrage. Voter turnout became the first African American in the House of soared and political Representatives. campaigns began to appeal to the masses rather than But Southern Democrats slowly eroded the voting simply the elite. power of African Americans by erecting barriers to suffragelike literacy tests and poll taxes. The Ku After the Civil War, Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups Radical Republicans terrorized black political leaders and intimidated voters. sought to ensure that As Reconstruction came to an end with the African Americans were Compromise of 1877, President Rutherford Hayes guaranteed full voting removed the last federal troops from the south. With rights with the ratification the absence of federal authority, Democrats seized of the 15th Amendment. control of what they called the “Solid South” – solidly The 15th Amendment white supremacist and solidly Democratic. The black created universal male vote waslargely suppressed for the next 70 years. suffrage without regard to race. Native Americans lived ina legal limbo when it came to suffrage. Depending on tribal affiliation and location, some Native Americans could vote and some could not. In 1924, Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act, which recognized the full citizenship and suffrage rights of all Native Americans.

African American voters – when and where they could actually cast ballots – tended to vote for Republicans until the 1930s. In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s promise of sweeping reforms to bring the U.S. out of the throes of the Great Depression appealed to African Americans. Black voters began an exodus from the Republican Party to join the Democrats. The Democratic Party’s powerful New Deal Coalition – consisting of black voters, organized labor, white southerners, social liberals, and urban political machines – claimed victory in all but two presidential elections from 1932-1968.

The issue of race threatened to split the New Deal coalition. After President Truman issued an executive order integrating the armed forces, southern Democrats split from the party and formed the States Rights Democratic Party, or “Dixiecrats.” The Dixiecrats carried the deep South in the 1948, but failed to spoil the election for Truman.

The 1963 March on Washington focused attention on the obstacles standing in the way of black voters. In response, Congress passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the 24th Amendment. These laws did away with the poll taxes and literacy tests and allowed the federal government to register voters in states that practiced voter discrimination.

The Democrats’ heavy emphasis on civil rights alienated some white voters, some of whom migrated toward the Republican Party. The Republican “southern strategy” of wooing working class whites played a role in the failed presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater in 1964 and the successful campaign of Richard Nixon in 1968.

Today, most black voters remain loyal to the Democratic Party and voted overwhelmingly in favor of Barack Obama in the 2008 election. Obama became the nation’s first black president and won a close reelection campaign in 2012 with strong black voter turnout.

The Progressive Amendments

Amendment DProvisions Origins Legacy 1 Income tax In the 1800s, the main Progressives supported the income tax because they sources of federal revenues viewed it as a way to redistribute wealth and narrow the th were the sale of growing gap between rich and poor. President 16 government bonds, the Woodrow Wilson signed the Underwood Tariff in liquor tax, high tariffs, 1913, which lowered tariff rates and replaced the lost and the sale of public revenue with a progressive (graduated) income lands in the west. tax.Under a progressiveincome tax, high earners pay a larger percentage of their income than low income But by the early 1900s, workers. In other words, “the more you make, the more these revenues began to they take.” fade. The best public lands in the west had already In the first years of the income tax, rates on the wealthy been sold, given away in rose steadily from 7% to a peak of 77% during World land grants, or designated War I. as national parks. At the urging of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, Many Populists and the tax rates on top earners were reduced to 24% in the Progressives opposed the “Roaring Twenties,” a period of rapid economic sale of alcohol on moral growth. grounds. During the Great Depression, Franklin They also pushed for lower Rooseveltsupported income tax rates on the wealthy of tariffs in order to provide over 80%. Some politicians pushed for even greater relief to consumers. measures. Louisiana senator Huey Long proposed a “Share Our Wealth” plan that would have capped In addition, the size of the yearly income at $1 million, taxed large fortunes, and federal bureaucracy was used the revenues to redistribute $5,000 to every growing due to political American household.Though Long was assassinated patronage. and his plan was never implemented, income tax rates on the wealthiest Americans remained high through It was clear that a new most of the 20th century. source of revenue would be needed.The 16th In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan proposed a Amendment provided that “trickle-down” theory of supply-side economics. revenue, instituting a tax Reagan believed that reducing taxes on the rich would on personal income. allow businesses to hire more workers, pay their workers better wages, and stimulate economic growth. Reagan’s tax reforms cut the top income tax ratein half.

President Barack Obama has proposed increasing taxes on the top income bracket from 35% to 39.6%. 1 Direct election The Framers of the Today, all U.S. senators are elected by popular vote of senators Constitution hoped to in their home states. th balance the interests of the 17 small number of elites In addition to the 17th Amendment, Progressives in the against what they called early 1900s passed other voting reforms to increase the the “majority faction” of power of citizens and create a more direct democracy, the common people. The including: bicameral legislature  Initiative – voters propose a law by collecting established under the signatures on a petition Constitution provided for  Referendum – citizens vote directly on a the division of lawmaking proposed law, rather than having state power to be divided among legislatures decide the issue two houses to balance  Recall – a special election in which voters can these competing forces. remove a public official from office

The seats in the House of Representativesare distributed to the states based on proportional representation. Representatives are elected directly by the people. The Senate was created to protect the interests of both small states and the elite. Consequently, it provides for equal representation (two senators per state). Under the original wording of the Constitution, senators werechosenby state legislatures.

Populists and Progressives viewed the Senate as an obstacle to the regulation of powerful industries like railroads. They eventually succeeded in direct election of senators with the ratification of the 17th Amendment. th 1 Prohibition of Alcohol – and the taxes The Volstead Act clarified the language of the 18 alcohol levied on it – played an Amendment. It defined the term “intoxicating” to mean th important role in early any beverage containing more than .5% alcohol by 18 American history. volume. This essentially banned all alcoholic beverages. Britain sought to achieve a favorable balance of trade Prohibition, however, was poorly enforcedduring the with its colonies by Roaring Twenties. An enormousblack market for passing the 1733 Molasses alcohol flourished. Americans skirted the law by Act and the 1765 Sugar creating illegal bars called speakeasies. Bootleggers Act. Both acts angered manufactured “moonshine” in hidden stills, fermented colonists because they “bathtub gin” in their homes, and smuggled alcohol into interfered with the trade of the country from Cuba, Mexico and Canada. alcohol. Because alcohol was illegal, the trade in liquor was Alexander Hamilton’s often controlled by organized crime rings like Al economic plan sought to Capone’s mafia syndicate in Chicago. Caponebribed pay off the national debt, or intimidated police and judges to turn a blind eye to partly by placing a tax on his illicit activities. At the same time, Capone waged liquor, sparking the bloody turf wars against rival gangs. Prohibition saw a unsuccessful Whisky dramatic increase in urban violent crime. Rebellion of the 1790s. Nearly a century later, the Prohibition’s popularity waned as the 1920s progressed. corrupt practices of liquor When the stock market crashed in 1929, the federal tax collectors were government needed additional revenue to combat the exposed during the Great Depression.In 1932, “wet” candidate Franklin Whisky Ring scandal, Roosevelt trounced “dry” incumbent Herbert Hoover in tarnishing the reputation of the presidential election. Within the first year of the Grant administration. Roosevelt’s presidency, states ratified the 21st Amendment, repealing Prohibition. The Second Great Awakening in the 1820s and 1830s gave birth to a variety of reform movements, including the temperance movement. The goal of the temperance movement was to reduce or completely outlaw alcohol consumption.

Temperance advocates blamed alcohol for wasted incomes, marital infidelity, sexually transmitted diseases, early death, violent crime, mob violence, and domestic abuse.

Many leaders of the temperance movement were Protestant ministers who saw alcoholism as a sin. Other leaders were women who saw alcohol as a “corrupter of men.” But the temperance movement was also supported by those with less noble beliefs. Manynativists opposed alcohol sales because they disliked the immigrant communities whose social activities often involved alcohol consumption.

In the 1910s, the temperance movement gained a critical mass. The 16th Amendment allowed the government to collect income taxes, making federal revenues less dependent on the liquor tax. In addition, U.S. involvement in the First World War made some citizens feel guilty about consuming alcohol while American soldiers were making terrible sacrifices in the trenches of Europe.

In 1919, ratification of the 18th Amendment was complete. The amendment banned the sale of “intoxicating” liquors. Thus began the era of Prohibition. th 1 Women’s Since the earliest days of The 19 Amendment led to surge in voter turnout, just suffrage American independence, as the elimination of property requirements had in the th there were women who 1820s and 1830s. 19 demanded the right to vote, but the road to suffrage With the passage of the 19th Amendment, NAWSA was a long and difficult refocused its efforts and changed its name to the one. League of Women Voters (LWV). Today, the LWV registers voters and issues nonpartisan voter guides. Abigail Adams famously wrote to her husband The increased political clout of women eventually drew demanding the new attention to social issues that had been largely ignored, government grant women’s including reproductive rights, sexual assault, and “glass suffrage. ceilings” in the workplace.

In the mid-1800s, women became leaders of a variety of reform movements, but had no direct voice in government. Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized a convention of female leaders at Seneca Falls, NY in 1848. The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments called for women’s suffrage, among other reforms.Susan B. Anthony became a leading voice in the women’s suffrage movement and was convicted in 1872 for illegally voting in an act of civil disobedience.

A variety of suffrage organizations sprouted in the 19th century. These organizations merged into the National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1890.

Women gained the right to vote on a state-by-state basis in the late 1800s, especially in the west. During World War I, women made one final push for suffrage, eventually winning the support of President Woodrow Wilson achieving ratification of the 19th Amendment.

The New Deal Amendments

Amendmen Date Provisions Origins Legacy t th 1933 Shortened the As the economy spiraled The 20 Amendment allows for a rapid transition of t “lame duck” out of control in the Great presidential leadership, especially when voters reject period Depression, most the incumbent party’s leadership. 20 Americans rejected the leadership of Herbert However, the shortened lame duck period has also Hoover. His opponent, increased the sense of urgency in resolving close h Franklin D. Roosevelt, presidential elections. In 2000, close election results in won the presidential Florida led to a flurry of lawsuits that delayed the final election of 1932 in a results of the Electoral College. The Supreme Court landslide. issued its decision in Bush v. Gore on December 12, 2000 – a mere three weeks before Bush’s inauguration. FDR, however, was unable to take quick executive action because of the 4- month “lame duck” period that lasted from the November election until the March inauguration.

This long interim period was a throwback to the 1700s, when poorly maintained roads prevented a swift transition of political leadership.

The 20th Amendment shortened the lame duck period by moving the inauguration date forward from March to January. th th 1933 Repeal of See 18 Amendment, See 18 Amendment, above. 21st Prohibition above. 1951 Presidential The U.S. Some political reformers suggest that term limits term limits Constitutionoriginally should also be imposed on members of the U.S. House n placed no limit on the of Representatives and Senate. 22 number of terms a president could serve. House members in particular often run unopposed and sail to easy reelections because congressional districts d In 1796, many Americans lean heavily toward one party or another. This can lead hoped that George to very long tenures of house members and – critics Washington would run for charge – complacency and corruption. a third term. But Washington declined, establishingthe precedent of a two-term limit. No president successfully won a third term until Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940.

FDR’s leadership during the Great Depression and World War II made him a popular president, but his critics raised fears that the executive branch was becoming more authoritarian. They opposed his 1940 campaign with the slogan “No Man is Good Three Times.”

The 22nd Amendment was proposed in 1947, two years after FDR’s death. It limits the president to two full terms of four years each, plus an additional term of 2 years if they inherit the office upon the death of a sitting president.

Recent Amendments

Amendmen Date Provisions Origins Legacy t 1961 The city of Washington, The first presidential election conducted after the Washington, rd r D.C. residents D.C. was created as a ratification of the 23 Amendment was in 1964. In that may vote in the special federal district, election – and every election since – Washington, D.C. 23 presidential politically independent of has cast its three electoral votes for the Democratic election any state government. presidential candidate. d Washington, D.C. residents Although D.C. residents cannow vote for president, do not vote for Senators or they cannot elect Senators or members of the House of Representatives, and until Representatives. Consequently, D.C. residents have the passage of the 23rd complained that they must pay federal taxes without Amendment, they could having a voice in the federal legislative process. not vote for president. In 2000, the District of Columbia began issuing license The 23rd Amendment plates reading “Taxation Without Representation” to allocates the same number protest against their lack of legislative power. The of electoral votes to phrase harkens back to the days of colonial protest Washington, D.C. as the against British tax policies. number of electoral votes in the smallest state. 1964 Abolition of the The poll tax dates back to Some civil rights activists today have compared the poll tax the earliest days of poll tax to recent laws requiring photo identification t independence, but use of (driver’s license, military ID, etc.) at polling places. 24 poll taxes faded in the early They claim that voter ID laws unfairly discriminate 1800s as Jacksonian against poor and elderly voters. Democracy sought to h bring poor laborers and In the 2008 case of Crawford v. Marion County farmers in the political Election Board, the Supreme Court ruled that voter ID process. laws do not violate the constitution. The court ruled that such laws do not place an undue burden on voters, Poll taxes began to and that they help to prevent voter fraud. reappear in the late 1800s following the ratification of the 15th Amendment, which guaranteed the right to vote to newly freed slaves. Southern white supremacists utilized poll taxes to block these freedmen from voting. The poll tax also had the effect of disfranchising some poor whites, though many were exempted from the tax by the “grandfather clause.”

The New Deal coalition of the 1930s united poor blacks and whites under the Democratic Party’s banner. Reform efforts succeeded in repealing the poll tax in some, but not all, southern states.

At the urging of the Civil Rights Movement, President John F. Kennedy supported the ratification of the 24th Amendment. The amendment was ratified in 1964, outlawing the poll taxes still in use in five southern states. th 1967 Presidential With the assassination of The 25 Amendment has been invoked several times succession President Kennedy and the when presidents have gone into surgery, temporarily t Cold War possibility of a elevating the vice president to acting president. 25 nuclear strike against Washington, DC, the 25h Most notably, the amendment was invoked following Amendment clarified the the Watergate Scandal to elevate Gerald Ford to the h chain of succession upon presidency upon the resignation of Richard Nixon, and the death or incapacitation to make allow Nelson Rockefeller vice president, of the president. replacing the vacancy left by Ford. th 1971 Voting age The Vietnam War draft The 26 Amendment increased the number of eligible lowered to 18 was set at a minimum age voters, though voter turnout among young people has t of 18. traditionally been lower than turnout among the middle 26 aged and elderly. Of those drafted, 57% received deferments or h exemptions due to enrollment in college or employment in the defense industry. Many of those who did not qualify for exemption were poor or people of color. As the war dragged on, it became less and less popular at home and racial tensions and low morale among troops damaged the effectiveness of the army.

Because the voting age in some states was still 21, young soldiers complained that they should not have to fight if they did not have the right to vote.

The 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18 in all states. th th 1992 Congressional The 27 Amendment, Since the ratification of the 27 Amendment, Congress pay raises which prohibits has voted to increase its own salary 11 times, from t Congressional pay $129,500 in 1992 to $174,000 in 2012. 27 increases from taking effect until the next session of Congress, has a very long history. Proposed in 1788, it was ratified by only a handful h of states, and soon forgotten. Nearly 200 years later, a student at the University of Texas at Austin unearthed the amendment and led a successful campaign that led to its ratification.

Failed Constitutional Amendments

Amendment Dat Provisions Origins Legacy e Child Labor Passe Abolition of This amendment was The amendment has largely become moot because Amendment d child labor introduced by progressive New Deal labor laws outlawed industrial child Congr reformers who hoped to labor. ess in overturn two 1924 conservative Supreme Court decisions denying Still the federal government active power to regulate child , but labor. has not been ratifie d by any states since 1937 Equal Rights Passe Equal After a successful The ERA was quickly ratified by 30 states. Amendment (ERA) d campaign to ratify the Conservative groups then launched a vigorous constitutional th Congr rights for 19 Amendment, effort to block ratification by any more states. ess in women suffragist Alice Paul, They even succeeded in rescinding ratification of 1972 drafted the Equal Rights the ERA in four states that had already approved Amendment in 1923. the amendment. Failed Paul hoped that the ERA its would give women full The most prominent leader of the “Stop ERA” deadli legal equality. But the campaign was Phyllis Schlafly. She argued that ne in amendment failed to gain the ERA would upset the traditional role of women 1982 enough Congressional in society. Schlafly feared that ERA would make support to be sent to the women eligible for the military draft, require the states for ratification. creation of unisex bathrooms, and end child support and alimony payments for divorced The amendment women. languished until the new feminist movement of the The ERA ultimately failed, having been approved 1960s revived the debate by only 35 of the 38 states required for ratification over the ERA. The by its 1982 deadline. National Organization for Women (NOW) Despite the failure of ERA, theEqual Pay launched a major Act,Title IX, and other laws have addressed the campaign for passage of issue of sex discrimination on a more limited basis. the ERA.

In 1972, Congress approved the amendment and sent it to the states for ratification. District of Columbia Passe Congressional Washington, D.C. was The Voting Rights d representation created as a federal Amendment Congr for Washington, district distinct from all ess in D.C. other states. Voters in the 1978 district may vote for president, but have no Failed meaningful its representation in the deadli House or Senate. ne in 1985 With a population of 600,000, the city has a larger population than Vermont and Wyoming, D.C. residents argue that they should be allowed to elect Congressmen and Senators. However, the DC Voting Rights Amendment has failed to be ratified. Flag Desecration Propo Makes burning In the case of Texas v. The amendment was introduced in Congress Amendment sed in or damaging the Johnson, the Supreme several times in the 1990s and 2000s, but has 1995 flag in protest a Court ruled that burning failed to receive enough votes to send it to the crime the American flag in states for ratification. protest is a form of “symbolic speech” Polls show public opinion divided over whether protected under the 1st such an amendment should be added to the Amendment. Constitution.

Civil libertarians celebrated the decision, while some veterans and conservatives were outraged.