Amendments in the U.S. Constitution and their effects on the legal system

¶ … amendments are an important part of the U.S. constitution and their effect on the legal system.

Generally, the constitutional amendment process is crucial to the United States Constitution and legal system because it allows it to grow and incorporate modern ideas and factual realities that might never have been imagined by the Framers. To date, some of the most important societal changes in the U.S. were directly attributable to specific amendments to the Constitution; many more are determined by the decisions of the Supreme Court on matters covered by the Bill of Rights. At the time when the idea of the Constitution was still being debated by representatives from the individual states, there was a long series of written debates communicated in public newspapers, known today as the Federalist Papers (Zalman, 2008). They arose out of the concern of the anti-Federalists that the text of the Constitution proposed for ratification was insufficiently protective of the rights of life, liberty, and property of individual citizens against government oppression. When the Constitution was finally ratified by the states in 1788, it was with explicit understanding that it would immediately be amended by a Bill of Rights. That Bill of Rights, comprising the first ten constitutional amendments, was ratified three years later. Those ten amendments provide some of the most fundamental rights, privileges, and protections from government oppression that define the American democratic republic and that distinguish it substantially from other national governments in relation to the rights of citizens (Schmalleger, 2009).

2. Choose one amendment that comprises the bill of rights for closer analysis. In your opinion, which amendment in the bill of rights offers the most protection for defendants? Explain your answer.

One could argue that the Fifth Amendment is the single most important amendment in the Bill of Rights for criminal defendants. That is because the Fifth Amendment explicitly introduces the idea of the due process of law from which, in many respects, all other rights and privileges derive (Zalman, 2008). In that respect, the Fifth Amendment is also the literal embodiment of the principal concerns of the anti-federalists at the time that they argued for a Bill of Rights to be included in the Constitution because it was necessary to safeguard the life, liberty, and property of citizens. The Fifth Amendment specifically provides for due process before any deprivation of life, liberty, and property and also provides the right of the individual against compelled self-incrimination (Zalman, 2008).

Without the Fifth Amendment, there would be no constitutional protection against compelled testimony elicited by force or even torture, as was typically the case throughout Europe prior to the modern age. It is the reason that criminal defendants may refuse to testify or to respond to questions by authorities. In the second half of the 20th century, U.S. law enforcement underwent a tremendous change to protect criminal suspects and defendants from excessive police authority or control. Many of the most important elements of those changes were attributable to interpretations and applications of Fifth Amendment principles by the Supreme Court of that era.

3. Which offers the most protection for the victims? Explain your answer.

It is tempting to argue that the Second Amendment is the most important to potential victims of crime, precisely because it allows citizens to protect themselves against threats to their safety. However, once someone is already a victim of a crime, the only Amendment in the Bill of Rights that pertains to them would be the First Amendment protections against censorship and the right to petition government with grievances. The first would allow victims to publicize and publicly protest against perceived injustices by the government; the second would provide a means for citizens to promote changes to laws they perceive as unjust or to propose new laws they believe are necessary to prevent specific types of harms they may have suffered.

4. Give three examples of how the constitution affects your daily life.

1. When I am in the privacy of my home, I never have to worry that the police could decide to suddenly break down my door looking for evidence of a crime. Likewise, I do not have to worry about being interrogated by police authorities if I am not engaged in illegal conduct in public. Unlike the citizens of many countries, I know that I do not have to be afraid of police because of the Fourth and Fifth constitutional amendments, in particular.