U.S. Constitution: A \'Living Document\'

U.S. Constitution: A 'Living Document'

The United States Constitution: A 'Living Document'

The United States Constitution is "the supreme law of the United States of America" (United States Constitution, May 29, 2006). The original written text of the United States Constitution was completed on September 17, 1787, with its adoption by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (United States constitution). After that, the U.S. Constitution was ratified, during special conventions that were held, separately, in each of the then-thirteen states. Although the United States itself is a relatively young nation (America is 230 years old in 2006) he Constitution of the United States "is the oldest federal constitution currently in use" (United States Constitution). America's Constitution has often been called a 'living document', because, like a living, breathing entity, the Constitution is ever-evolving and changing. This is possible because there was a great deal of flexibility built into the Constitution, in the late 18th century when it was written by Thomas Jefferson and signed by America's "Founding Fathers."

Since 1787, the U.S. Constitution has been amended many times. For example, there are 27 amendments to the United States Constitution, including, the most recent, ratified in 1992, which limits Congressional pay raises (United States constitution, May 29, 2006). As the nation has changed, and developed various national circumstances and needs unforeseen and unanticipated by America's original founding fathers, however, the Co0nstitution itself has also been changed along with it, thereby proving, again and again, the Constitution's unique status as a "living document."

The Preamble to the Constitution, which states: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence [sic], promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America" (Preamble, 2006) spells out America's founding (and abiding) philosophy of each citizen's entitlement to justice, peace, and liberty. However, throughout the history of the United States, the Constitution as it was written has at times found to have been inadequate. The 14th; 15th; and 16th Amendments to the Constitution, for example, sprang from the need, following the Civil War, to abolish slavery and then ensure equal rights for all Americans regardless of race or color. The U.S. Constitution as it was originally written by Thomas Jefferson and signed by the Founding Fathers, however, was flawed in this way.

Within the U.S. Constitution as it was originally written, for example, blacks are explicitly referred to as unequal. Article I, Section 2 of the United States Constitution states: "Representatives...shall be apportioned among the several States... according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons...and....three-fifths of all other persons" [italics added] (Constitution of the United States, 2000, pp. 26-27). The 14th Amendment (1868), however, which states that: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws" (Fourteenth Amendment, May 28, 2006) abolished this earlier law (Constitution, 2000).