Chapter Nine Essay

Karime Balderas-Ortega

January 9th, 2013

Core Four

Many things don’t work out the way they’re supposed to. Sometimes they actually do. It may take time for things to work right and an example of this is a science experiment. The scientist has to do many trials and the trials take time, and at the end he may get the result he wanted. Another example is The Constitution. Its the oldest living constitution and its inspired people all over. It was first ratified in September 1787. First published in the Pennsylvania Packet in September 19th, 1787.  

The constitution is the most important document in the history of The United States. What it does is to keep everyone in line and let everyone know their limits. The constitution contains the government and its three branches. The three branches are the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, and The Judicial Branch. Each branch has a specific job. The Legislative branch is the law making part. It contains two houses the Senate, upper house, and the house of Representatives, the lower house. There are many responsibilities that come with this part of the branch and it often is in the Capitol. The next part of the government is the Executive Branch. This branch is where the President, Vice President, and The Cabinet are. This is the branch that has all the pressure, the President decides what to do with the state the future of it. The last part of the government is the Judicial Branch. It Interprets the laws and mainly consists of the supreme court. It basically has 9 members at the time and their terms are till death. This branch only takes 100 cases out of the thousands of cases asked to be reviewed.

Another thing that the constitution consists of are the checks and balances. This concept is basically a system that allows each branch of government to limit the power of the other branches. It helps with the constitution because it doesn’t let just some people have all the power and be the boss. It shows that the United States isn’t dictated by the president. Congress can override vetoes and the President can veto bills.

A famous quote by Thomas Jefferson says the constitution “belongs to the living not the dead.” This means that the constitution may be changed but it is very very hard. The changes are called amendments and only 27 have been approved so far. First its proposed by ⅔ of either Congress or the state legislatures. From there it has to be approved or ratified by ¾ of the state legislatures or the state conventions. Most amendments don’t get approved though.

One of the last parts of the constitution is federalism. Federalism is the constitutional system that shares power between the national and state governments. One example of this is when there are presidential elections. Each state collects all the data and sends it to the national government. The thing is that the national government has way more important problems than a person committing a DUI, so it lets the states handle.

The constitution works because it states that not only one person is in charge of the future of the United States. The President isn’t a dictator, Congress aren’t a bunch of people together thinking that they can rule the world, and the supreme court knows that they have branch but they aren't rulers. The Constitution works because it has changes made to it often and it gives the people the power.