Constitutional Essays (Examples)

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Constitutional Originalism
PAGES 3 WORDS 1059

Constitutional Originalism
A living constitution is a concept that is found in the United States, it is also referred to as loose constitution. This is because it is a constitutional interpretation that the constitution is dynamic in meaning. It claims that the constitution has human properties since it constantly changes .I hold a strong opinion for the constitution to be interpreted as a living constitution due to several reasons. The idea of a living constitution is often associated with the views that a society which is contemporaneous should be factored in when key constitution phrases are being interpreted.

My argument is based on several issues one, interpreting the constitution according to the outdated views is not acceptable as a matter of policy. It is very necessary for the constitution to be interpreted from an evolving perspective. Secondly the people who wrote the constitution originally wrote it in terms that are broad and….

Constitutional Rights of Prisoners
he hands off doctrine that existed throughout the United States through the 1960s was the notion that the law did not apply to prisoners. It Convicted offenders, who were incarcerated, were not eligible for the same rights that applied to liberated U.S. citizens. he doctrine mandated that prisoners had forfeited those rights when they were convicted of whatever crime they committed. his doctrine made it impossible for the court system to intervene with prison administration or the daily affairs that took place in prisons throughout the country.

he Religious Freedom Restoration Act was passed in 1993 and that was supposed to prevent laws being passed that would impede on a person's free right to practice whatever religion he or she chose to practice. It was fairly broad in its original incarnation, until it was deemed unconstitutional at the state and the local level of authority in 1997, following….

Kennedy referred to international as well as domestic standards in defense of the court's majority opinion. He wrote: "Our determination that the death penalty is disproportionate punishment for offenders under eighteen finds confirmation in the stark reality that the United States is the only country in the world that continues to give official sanction to the juvenile death penalty. This reality does not become controlling, for the task of interpreting the Eighth Amendment remains our responsibility. Yet at least from the time of the Court's decision in Trop, the Court has referred to the laws of other countries and to international authorities as instructive for its interpretation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of 'cruel and unusual punishments'" (Roper, 2005, University of Cornell Law School).
Holding: The court overturned Stanford v. Kentucky, stating that society's mores had changed, and thus executing individuals for crimes committed while juveniles was cruel and unusual….

Constitutional Law Debate: The Legislative Branch
The Legislative Branch of government is the most powerful for many reasons. Of course, there would be people who would argue against that and state that other branches are more powerful because of specific powers that those branches possess. Despite that argument, the Legislative Branch of the U.S. Government clearly has more power because of the types of decisions that have been entrusted to them. Discussed here will be some of those decisions, along with how they apply to the "real world" and how they are viewed by people who have to live with the decisions that the Legislative Branch makes.

The Legislative Branch is the one that levies taxes (Trethan, 2011). Taxes are important and they pay for many government programs. They also allow crews to keep up roads and bridges, along with other structures that are owned and operated by the government. Overall, taxes….

Constitutional Rules
PAGES 4 WORDS 1214

Constitutional Rules
IS OUR CONSTITUTION A "LIVING" DOCUMENT?

Americans are hugely proud of and greatly revere their Constitution, and so does the rest of the world stand in awe at the economic and political might of the United States in adherence to its Constitution. Founding Fathers poured out their highest and best during the Constitutional Convention held in 1787 in fashioning a most precious document (Patton 2000) that would define and establish the role of government. The standards set were high. George Washington said "Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the event is in the Hand of God (qtd in Patton p 1)." The Preamble ordained and established a government "to promote the general welfare" and "secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. (Patton)"

That liberty meant economic freedom or a free-market economy. This free-market economy would in turn be basically dependent on….

Berkin clearly writes a book that covers the details of the Constitutional Convention, how deals were struck, what compromises were put together and why.
Another of the leading characters in Philadelphia during the convention -- John Adams -- is briefly introduced by Berkin as "feisty" and "outspoken" (p. 11); Adams observed "his nation's circumstances with more than his usual pessimism" (p. 12), Berkin writes. Adams is mentioned again in several brief passages (pp. 17, 30, 48-49, 52) albeit most of her early narrative paints a picture of the dynamics within the convention, the arguments, the grandstanding, the axes to grind and other differences -- and not so much with the characters per se.

As for Middlekauff's descriptions of Adams, he of course has many more pages to devote to the more powerful and interesting characters, and John Adams certainly was among the aforementioned participants. On page 239 Middlekauff offers the readers….

Nelson -- the decision in which was binding on all lower courts -- was decided in favor of the state law in Minnesota banning same-sex marriages (UMT 2010).
Conclusion

The issue of the rights of gay, lesbian, and transgendered people are still in a state f flux and some confusion, based on the Supreme Court's rulings on the various matters. On the one hand, there is a legal mandate in place that affords same-sex partners to engage in consensual conduct with each other, but at the same time there is no legal requirement that same-sex couples be afforded the legal protection of marriage. Essentially, the constitutional stance on same-sex marriage as it now stands is one of complete laissez-faire -- the government does not want to become involved either privately or civically n the affairs of same-sex couples.

eferences

Cornell University Law School. (2010). Lawrence v. Texas. Accessed 22 January 2010. http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-102.ZS.html

Justia. (2010).….

The prima facie evidence provision in this statute blurs the line between these two meanings of a burning cross. As interpreted by the jury instruction, the provision chills constitutionally protected political speech because of the possibility that a State will prosecute -- and potentially convict -- somebody engaging only in lawful political speech at the core of what the First Amendment is designed to protect. Id. At 556.
In his dissent, Justice Thomas disagreed with the Court's reasoning. In fact, Thomas accuses the Court of ignoring the realities of cross burning. Justice Thomas points out that "in every culture, certain things acquire meaning well beyond what outsiders can comprehend. That goes for both the sacred and the profane." Id. At 388. Thomas points out that the Ku Klux Klan is a terrorist organization, "which, in its endeavor to intimidate, or even eliminate those it dislikes, uses the most brutal of….

For example in "Bonita P. Bourke, et al. v. Nissan Motor Corporation in U.S.A.," (California Court of Appeals, Second Appellate District, Case No. B068705, July 26, 1993). The plaintiffs said the company's review of e-mail messages over a company system constituted an invasion of their right of privacy in violation of both the California Constitution and common law. But the court found that plaintiffs lacked a reasonable, objective expectation of privacy that their sexual and explicit e-mails would be private, because the company had given them notice e-mail could be reviewed without their knowledge or consent.
It should be noted that the right to privacy is not explicitly protected by the Constitution, but is generally accepted to exist implicitly in the penumbra of the Constitution. Another legal protection sought by employees embroiled in email workplace privacy issues is the 4 thAmendment which explicitly provides for "[t]he right of people to….

To date, President ush still asserts the authority to hold enemy combatants with little or no chance of having their case heard before a court. However, some strides have been made to curtail the president's assumed power.
In June, the Supreme Court ruled that the president's war powers are not "a blank check." The court said that a U.S. citizen held in a Navy brig in South Carolina and nearly 600 suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives held in Cuba have a right to contest their detentions.10

Despite the ruling, there is still a fight going on whether the detainees have the right to receive legal counsel indicating that the ush administration is not likely to let go of its newly claimed authority.

The Future of the Presidency

It seems likely that given the trends toward increasing power for the executive branch of the government that similar developments will occur in the future. However,….

However, the courts did find that police officers at any time may be forced to appear in a lineup, although this constituted a seizure of the officer's physical person.
Explain how the free exercise of religion can pose problems for criminal justice administrators.

Police work requires individuals to assume certain duties, at certain times, which may conflict with religious prohibitions and proscriptions. Officers must work weekend and night shifts and also act with violence, when necessary, to protect the public. For example, merely because a person is an observant Orthodox Jew, Seventh Day Adventist, or a member of another religious sect which requires an individual to observe certain behaviors (such as attending church on Sunday or not riding in a car on the Sabbath) does not mean that a police department can be forced to accommodate all of the officer's requests. When an officer assumes his or her employment, he or….

Georgia (428 U.S. 153). In that case, the Supreme Court finally ruled specifically that capital punishment was not inherently necessarily cruel or unusual, and therefore, was not a violation of the Eighth Amendment in and of itself (Schmalleger, 2008).
Since Gregg, the issues surrounding the Eighth Amendment constitutionality of capital punishment relate to the specific methods of implementation in light of evidence that lethal injection, the most common method used by states, may violate the prohibition against cruelty by virtue of the frequency of mistakes that prolong suffering unnecessarily (Schmalleger, 2008; Zalman, 2008). In addition to Eighth Amendment issues, capital punishment also raises equal protection issues in connection with suggestions of differential application with respect to minority defendants and those who are economically disadvantaged (Dershowitz, 2002).

Personal Opinion:

In many ways, the extensive constitutional protections afforded by the Bill of ights interfere with efficient law enforcement efforts by the state. This is….


Northern states hoped that slavery would eventually prove unprofitable and wanted the Constitution to ban the (external) slave trade. This would not have banned slavery outright, merely banned the import of new slaves. The Constitution gave congress the power to ban the slave trade only 1808, presumably to give the southern economy time to 'adjust' or to determine how necessary the trade was to the economy in the future. Also, the North felt slaves should be counted for the purpose of taxation but not for representation, as slaves could not vote. Regarding population census of slaves and taxation, the most infamous compromise was arrived upon, namely that "delegates agreed to count slaves as 3/5ths of a person when apportioning representation and taxation" ("Constitutional Compromises," 2008, NY State Regents).

Economic tensions also existed between Southern and Northern states irrespective of slavery. Southerners, who then produced a wide array of exported cash crops….

Briefly, statutes that seek to prohibit or regulate conduct that is not constitutionally protected need only satisfy the lowest level of constitutional review: the rational basis test. According to that standard, as long as the state has a rational basis for the regulation and the manner of regulation is logically related to achieving those rational bases, the statute is constitutional (Dershowitz, 2002; Friedman, 2005). For statutes seeking to regulate conduct that is constitutionally protected but not as fundamental rights or the rights of protected "suspect" classes of individuals, courts apply the intermediate level of scrutiny. That test requires that statutes be related to important governmental interests and that the law furthers those interests in ways that are substantially related to those interests (Dershowitz, 2002; Friedman, 2005).
However, when it comes to fundamental rights (such as voting, liberty, and privacy), any statute seeking to curtail those rights must serve a compelling….

Constitutional, Legal and Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice
Police abuse remains one of the most serious and divisive human rights violations in the United States. The excessive use of force by police officers, including unjustified shootings, severe beatings, fatal chokings, and rough treatment, persists because overwhelming barriers to accountability make it possible for officers who commit human rights violations to escape due punishment and often to repeat their offenses. Police or public officials greet each new report of brutality with denials or explain that the act was an aberration, while the administrative and criminal systems that should deter these abuses by holding officers accountable instead virtually guarantee them impunity.

However, there are some things that need to be mentioned in order to fully understand the nature, role and importance of policing. Police work by its very nature involves the slippery slope (the potential for gradual deterioration of socio-moral inhibitions and perceived sense….

Constitutional law is one of the two most important types of law for anyone in the legal field to understand.  The United States legal system is derived from a combination of a common law tradition and constitutional law.  The common law tradition helps people understand the legal norms that are not expressly outlined in the Constitution or by legislation, while the Constitution places limits and guidelines on the rights and duties that can be governed by the law.  This is true with administrative law, which specifically addresses the laws related to various government agencies.  This is especially....

The United States Postal Service is, oddly enough, one of the least understood public services. Established in the Constitution, this department is often derided as being non-profitable, but the goal of the USPS is not to make a profit, but to provide a service.  It does so efficiently, delivering mail at a fraction of the cost to consumers of similar private services.  In standard five-paragraph a research paper about the USPS, we would discuss the constitutional mandate for the USPS, the history of the USPS, and the current state of the USPS. 

USPS....

The President plays an important role in both the budgetary process and policymaking, even if the roles are less formal and direct than many people realize.  The President and his Administration help establish the priorities for the nation, which is how a President impacts policymaking.  Likewise, the President submits budget recommendations to Congress, but is not actually responsible for the budget.   The two process are similar, but different, so they will be addressed sequentially. 

The President’s role in developing the nation’s budget is dictated by statute and by precedent.  The Budget and Accounting....

1. The Role of Emotions in Political Decision Making: Exploring how emotions influence political beliefs and actions, and whether they should be considered in political theory.

2. The Impact of Technology on Political Communication: Analyzing how social media and other digital platforms have changed political discourse and debate in the modern age.

3. Intersectionality in Political Theory: Examining how issues of race, gender, and class intersect in political theory and shape debates on social justice and equality.

4. The Ethics of Political Violence: Discussing the moral implications of using violence as a political tool and when it may be justified.

5. Post-Colonial Perspectives in....

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3 Pages
Essay

Business - Law

Constitutional Originalism

Words: 1059
Length: 3 Pages
Type: Essay

Constitutional Originalism A living constitution is a concept that is found in the United States, it is also referred to as loose constitution. This is because it is a constitutional…

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3 Pages
Essay

Criminal Justice

Constitutional Rights of Prisoners the Hands Off

Words: 984
Length: 3 Pages
Type: Essay

Constitutional Rights of Prisoners he hands off doctrine that existed throughout the United States through the 1960s was the notion that the law did not apply to prisoners. It Convicted…

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1 Pages
Research Proposal

Criminal Justice

Constitutional Law Facts of the

Words: 389
Length: 1 Pages
Type: Research Proposal

Kennedy referred to international as well as domestic standards in defense of the court's majority opinion. He wrote: "Our determination that the death penalty is disproportionate punishment for…

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2 Pages
Essay

Government

Constitutional Law Debate The Legislative Branch the

Words: 933
Length: 2 Pages
Type: Essay

Constitutional Law Debate: The Legislative Branch The Legislative Branch of government is the most powerful for many reasons. Of course, there would be people who would argue against that and…

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4 Pages
Term Paper

Government

Constitutional Rules

Words: 1214
Length: 4 Pages
Type: Term Paper

Constitutional Rules IS OUR CONSTITUTION A "LIVING" DOCUMENT? Americans are hugely proud of and greatly revere their Constitution, and so does the rest of the world stand in awe at the…

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9 Pages
Research Proposal

American History

Constitutional Convention a Brilliant Solution

Words: 2645
Length: 9 Pages
Type: Research Proposal

Berkin clearly writes a book that covers the details of the Constitutional Convention, how deals were struck, what compromises were put together and why. Another of the leading characters…

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6 Pages
Thesis

Women's Issues - Sexuality

Constitutional Queer the Modern Legal

Words: 1723
Length: 6 Pages
Type: Thesis

Nelson -- the decision in which was binding on all lower courts -- was decided in favor of the state law in Minnesota banning same-sex marriages (UMT 2010). Conclusion The…

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6 Pages
Term Paper

Business - Law

Constitutional Law Virginia v Black

Words: 1939
Length: 6 Pages
Type: Term Paper

The prima facie evidence provision in this statute blurs the line between these two meanings of a burning cross. As interpreted by the jury instruction, the provision chills…

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2 Pages
Term Paper

Careers

Constitutional Rights Constitutional Law Is

Words: 938
Length: 2 Pages
Type: Term Paper

For example in "Bonita P. Bourke, et al. v. Nissan Motor Corporation in U.S.A.," (California Court of Appeals, Second Appellate District, Case No. B068705, July 26, 1993). The…

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4 Pages
Term Paper

American History

Constitutional Authority Examining the Nature

Words: 1968
Length: 4 Pages
Type: Term Paper

To date, President ush still asserts the authority to hold enemy combatants with little or no chance of having their case heard before a court. However, some strides…

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2 Pages
Research Paper

Criminal Justice

Constitutional Rights and Criminal Justice

Words: 621
Length: 2 Pages
Type: Research Paper

However, the courts did find that police officers at any time may be forced to appear in a lineup, although this constituted a seizure of the officer's physical…

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6 Pages
Essay

Criminal Justice

Constitutional Protections in American Criminal

Words: 1668
Length: 6 Pages
Type: Essay

Georgia (428 U.S. 153). In that case, the Supreme Court finally ruled specifically that capital punishment was not inherently necessarily cruel or unusual, and therefore, was not a…

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3 Pages
Term Paper

Government

Constitutional Compromises Reforming the Articles

Words: 949
Length: 3 Pages
Type: Term Paper

Northern states hoped that slavery would eventually prove unprofitable and wanted the Constitution to ban the (external) slave trade. This would not have banned slavery outright, merely banned the…

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2 Pages
Research Paper

Business - Law

Constitutional Analysis of Home Birthing

Words: 628
Length: 2 Pages
Type: Research Paper

Briefly, statutes that seek to prohibit or regulate conduct that is not constitutionally protected need only satisfy the lowest level of constitutional review: the rational basis test. According…

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12 Pages
Term Paper

Criminal Justice

Constitutional Legal and Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice

Words: 4668
Length: 12 Pages
Type: Term Paper

Constitutional, Legal and Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice Police abuse remains one of the most serious and divisive human rights violations in the United States. The excessive use of force…

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