United States Constitution

United States Constitution
Page one of the original copy of the Constitution
Page one of the original copy of the Constitution
Created September 17, 1787
Ratified June 21, 1788
Location National Archives, Washington, D.C.
Authors Delegates of the Philadelphia Convention
Signatories 39 of the 55 Philadelphia Convention delegates
Purpose National constitution to replace the Articles of Confederation
United States of America
Great Seal of the United States

This article is part of the series:
United States Constitution


Original text of the Constitution
Preamble

Articles of the Constitution
I · II · III · IV · V · VI · VII

Amendments to the Constitution
Bill of Rights
I · II · III · IV · V
VI · VII · VIII · IX · X

Subsequent Amendments
XI · XII · XIII · XIV · XV
XVI · XVII · XVIII · XIX · XX
XXI · XXII · XXIII · XXIV · XXV
XXVI · XXVII


Other countries ·  Law Portal

The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. The Constitution is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.

The Constitution creates the three branches of the national government: a legislature, the bicameral Congress; an executive branch led by the President; and a judicial branch headed by the Supreme Court. The Constitution specifies the powers and duties of each branch. The Constitution reserves all unenumerated powers to the respective states and the people, thereby establishing the federal system of government.

The Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787, by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and ratified by conventions in each U.S. state in the name of "The People". The Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times; the first ten amendments are known as the Bill of Rights.[1][2]

The Constitution holds a central place in United States law and political culture.[3] The handwritten original document penned by Jacob Shallus is on display at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C.

Contents

History

Drafting and ratification requirements

The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was the first constitution of the United States of America.[4]

In September 1786, commissioners from five states met in the Annapolis Convention to discuss adjustments to the Articles of Confederation that would improve commerce. They invited state representatives to convene in Philadelphia to discuss improvements to the federal government. After debate, the Congress of the Confederation endorsed the plan to revise the Articles of Confederation on February 21, 1787.[5] Twelve states, Rhode Island being the only exception, accepted this invitation and sent delegates to convene in May 1787.[5] The resolution calling the Convention specified that its purpose was to propose amendments to the Articles, but through discussion and debate it became clear by mid-June that, rather than amend the existing Articles, the Convention decided to propose a rewritten Constitution.[6] The Constitutional Convention voted to keep the debates secret, so that the delegates could speak freely. They also decided to draft a new fundamental government design. Despite Article 13 of the Articles of Confederation stating that the union created under the Articles was "perpetual" and that any alteration must be "agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be afterwards confirmed by the legislatures of every State,"[7] Article VII of the proposed constitution stipulated that only nine of the thirteen states would have to ratify for the new government to go into effect (for the participating states).[1] Current knowledge of the drafting and construction of the United States Constitution comes primarily from the diaries left by James Madison, who kept a complete record of the proceedings at the Constitutional Convention.[8]

Work of the Constitutional Convention

The Virginia Plan was the unofficial agenda for the Convention, and was drafted chiefly by James Madison, considered to be "The Father of the Constitution" for his major contributions.[8] It was weighted toward the interests of the larger states, and proposed among other points:

An alternative proposal, William Paterson's New Jersey Plan, includes the following points that countered the previous proposal that favored the larger states, among others:

Roger Sherman of Connecticut brokered The Great Compromise whereby the House would represent the people, a Senate would represent the states, and a president would be elected by electors.[11]

The contentious issue of slavery was too controversial to be resolved during the convention. As a result, the original Constitution contained four provisions tacitly allowing slavery to continue for the next 20 years. Section 9 of Article I allowed the continued "importation" of such persons, Section 2 of Article IV prohibited the provision of assistance to escaping persons and required their return if successful and Section 2 of Article I defined other persons as "three-fifths" of a person for calculations of each state's official population for representation and federal taxation.[12] Article V prohibited any amendments or legislation changing the provision regarding slave importation until 1808, thereby giving the States then existing 20 years to resolve this issue. The failure to do so contributed to the Civil War.[13]

Ratification

Ratification of the Constitution
  Date State Votes
Yes No
1 December 7, 1787 Delaware 30 0
2 December 11, 1787 Pennsylvania 46 23
3 December 18, 1787 New Jersey 38 0
4 January 2, 1788 Georgia 26 0
5 January 9, 1788 Connecticut 128 40
6 February 6, 1788 Massachusetts 187 168
7 April 26, 1788 Maryland 63 11
8 May 23, 1788 South Carolina 149 73
9 June 21, 1788 New Hampshire 57 47
10 June 25, 1788 Virginia 89 79
11 July 26, 1788 New York 30 27
12 November 21, 1789 North Carolina 194 77
13 May 29, 1790 Rhode Island 34 32

Contrary to the process for "alteration" set out in Article 13 of the Articles, Congress submitted the proposal to the states and set the terms for representation.

On September 17, 1787, the Constitution was completed, followed by a speech given by Benjamin Franklin, who urged unanimity, although the Convention decided that only nine states were needed to ratify. The Convention submitted the Constitution to the Congress of the Confederation, where it received approval according to Article 13 of the Articles of Confederation.[9]

Once the Congress of the Confederation received word of New Hampshire's ratification, it set a timetable for the start of operations under the new Constitution, and on March 4, 1789, the government began operations.

Historical influences

Several ideas in the Constitution were new, and a large number were drawn from the literature of Republicanism in the United States, the experiences of the 13 states, and the British experience with mixed government. The most important influence from the European continent was from Montesquieu, who emphasized the need to have balanced forces pushing against each other to prevent tyranny. (This in itself reflects the influence of Polybius's 2nd century BC treatise on the checks and balances of the constitution of the Roman Republic.) British political philosopher John Locke was a major influence, and the due process clause of the Constitution was partly based on common law stretching back to Magna Carta (1215).[9]

Influences on the Bill of Rights

The United States Bill of Rights consists of the ten amendments added to the Constitution in 1791, as supporters of the Constitution had promised critics during the debates of 1788.[14] The English Bill of Rights (1689) was an inspiration for the American Bill of Rights. Both require jury trials, contain a right to keep and bear arms, prohibit excessive bail and forbid "cruel and unusual punishments." Many liberties protected by state constitutions and the Virginia Declaration of Rights were incorporated into the Bill of Rights.

Articles of the Constitution

The Constitution consists of a preamble, seven original articles, twenty-seven amendments, and a paragraph certifying its enactment by the constitutional convention.

Preamble: Statement of purpose

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, 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.

—United States Constitution, Preamble

The phrase "We the People" indicates that the government of the United States "is, emphatically and truly, a government of the people," rather than a league of the states.[15]

Article One: Legislative Power

United States

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Politics and government of
the United States



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Article One describes the Congress, the legislative branch of the federal government. The United States Congress is a bicameral body consisting of two co-equal houses: the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The article establishes the manner of election and the qualifications of members of each body. Representatives must be at least 25 years old, be a citizen of the United States for seven years, and live in the state they represent. Senators must be at least 30 years old, be a citizen for nine years, and live in the state they represent.

Article I, Section 1, reads, "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives." This provision gives Congress more than simply the responsibility to establish the rules governing its proceedings and for the punishment of its members; it places the power of the government primarily in Congress.

Article I Section 8 enumerates the legislative powers. The powers listed and all other powers are made the exclusive responsibility of the legislative branch:

The Congress shall have power... To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

Article I Section 9 provides a list of eight specific limits on congressional power and Article I Section 10 limits the rights of the states.

The United States Supreme Court has interpreted the Commerce Clause and the Necessary and Proper Clause in Article One to allow Congress to enact legislation that is neither expressly listed in the enumerated power nor expressly denied in the limitations on Congress. In McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), the United States Supreme Court fell back on the strict construction of the necessary and proper clause to read that Congress had "[t]he foregoing powers and all other powers..."

Article Two: Executive power

Section analysis

Section 1 creates the presidency. The section states that the executive power is vested in a President. The presidential term is four years and the Vice President serves the identical term. This section originally set the method of electing the President and Vice President, but this method has been superseded by the Twelfth Amendment.

Section 2 grants substantive powers to the president:

Section 2 grants and limits the president's appointment powers:

Section 3 opens by describing the president's relations with Congress:

Section 3 adds:

Section 4 provides for removal of the president and other federal officers. The president is removed on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

Article Three: Judicial power

Article Three describes the court system (the judicial branch), including the Supreme Court. The article requires that there be one court called the Supreme Court; Congress, at its discretion, can create lower courts, whose judgments and orders are reviewable by the Supreme Court. Article Three also creates the right to trial by jury in all criminal cases, defines the crime of treason, and charges Congress with providing for a punishment for it. This Article also sets the kinds of cases that may be heard by the federal judiciary, which cases the Supreme Court may hear first (called original jurisdiction), and that all other cases heard by the Supreme Court are by appeal under such regulations as the Congress shall make.

Article Four: States' powers and limits

Article Four describes the relationship between the states and the federal government and amongst the states. For instance, it requires states to give "full faith and credit" to the public acts, records, and court proceedings of the other states. Congress is permitted to regulate the manner in which proof of such acts, records, or proceedings may be admitted. The "privileges and immunities" clause prohibits state governments from discriminating against citizens of other states in favor of resident citizens (e.g., having tougher penalties for residents of Ohio convicted of crimes within Michigan). It also establishes extradition between the states, as well as laying down a legal basis for freedom of movement and travel amongst the states. Today, this provision is sometimes taken for granted, especially by citizens who live near state borders; but in the days of the Articles of Confederation, crossing state lines was often a much more arduous and costly process. Article Four also provides for the creation and admission of new states. The Territorial Clause gives Congress the power to make rules for disposing of federal property and governing non-state territories of the United States. Finally, the fourth section of Article Four requires the United States to guarantee to each state a republican form of government, and to protect the states from invasion and violence.

Article Five: Amendments

An amendment may be ratified in three ways:

Regardless of the method of proposing an amendment, final ratification requires approval by three-fourths of the states.

Today Article Five places only one limit on the amending power: no amendment may deprive a state of equal representation in the Senate without that state's consent. The original Article V included other limits on the amending power regarding slavery and taxation; however, these limits expired in 1808.

Article Six: Federal power

Article Six establishes the Constitution, and the laws and treaties of the United States made according to it, to be the supreme law of the land, and that "the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, any thing in the laws or constitutions of any state notwithstanding." It also validates national debt created under the Articles of Confederation and requires that all federal and state legislators, officers, and judges take oaths or affirmations to support the Constitution. This means that the states' constitutions and laws should not conflict with the laws of the federal constitution and that in case of a conflict, state judges are legally bound to honor the federal laws and constitution over those of any state.

Article Six also states "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

Article Seven: Ratification

Article Seven sets forth the requirements for ratification of the Constitution. The Constitution would not take effect until at least nine states had ratified the Constitution in state conventions specially convened for that purpose, and it would only apply to those states that ratified it.[6] (See above Drafting and ratification requirements.)

Judicial review

The way the Constitution is understood is influenced by court decisions, especially those of the Supreme Court. These decisions are referred to as precedents. In the 1803 case Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court established the doctrine of judicial review. Judicial review is the power of the Court to examine federal legislation, executive agency rules and state laws, to decide their constitutionality, and to strike them down if found unconstitutional. Judicial review includes the power of the Court to explain the meaning of the Constitution as it applies to particular cases. Over the years, Court decisions on issues ranging from governmental regulation of radio and television to the rights of the accused in criminal cases have changed the way many constitutional clauses are interpreted, without amendment to the actual text of the Constitution.

Legislation passed to implement the Constitution, or to adapt those implementations to changing conditions, broadens and, in subtle ways, changes the meanings given to the words of the Constitution. Up to a point, the rules and regulations of the many federal executive agencies have a similar effect. If an action of Congress or the agencies is challenged, however, it is the court system that ultimately decides whether these actions are permissible under the Constitution.

Amendments

The framers of the Constitution were aware that changes would be necessary if the Constitution was to endure as the nation grew. However, they were also conscious that such change should not be easy, lest it permit ill-conceived and hastily passed amendments. On the other hand, they also wanted to ensure that a rigid requirement of unanimity would not block action desired by the vast majority of the population. Their solution was a two-step process for proposing and ratifying new amendments.[16]

Amending the Constitution is a two-part process: amendments must be proposed then ratified. Amendments can be proposed one of two ways. To date, all amendments, whether ratified or not, have been proposed by a two-thirds vote in each house of Congress. Over 10,000 constitutional amendments have been introduced in Congress since 1789; during the last several decades, between 100 and 200 have been offered in a typical congressional year. Most of these ideas never leave Congressional committee, and far fewer get proposed by the Congress for ratification.

Alternatively, if two-thirds of the state legislatures demand one, Congress must call for a constitutional convention, which would have the power to propose amendments. As no such convention has been called, it is unclear how one would work in practice. In two instances—reapportionment in the 1960s and a balanced federal budget during the 1970s and 1980s—attempts to use this process have come extremely close to triggering a constitutional convention. The apportionment debate of the 1960s fell only one state short of the required number of states.

Regardless of how the amendment is proposed, it must also be ratified by three-fourths of states. Congress determines whether the state legislatures or special state conventions ratify the amendment. The 21st Amendment is the only one that employed state conventions for ratification.

There are currently only a few proposals for amendments which have entered mainstream political debate. These include the Federal Marriage Amendment, the Balanced Budget Amendment, and the Flag Desecration Amendment. All three proposals are supported primarily by conservatives, but failed during periods of Republican control of Congress to achieve the supermajorities necessary for submission to the states. As such, none of these are likely to be proposed under the current Congress, which is controlled by the more liberal Democratic Party.

Unlike amendments to most constitutions, amendments to the United States Constitution are appended to the body of the text without altering or removing what already exists, although nothing prevents a future amendment from doing so.

Successful amendments

The Constitution has twenty-seven amendments. The first ten, collectively known as the Bill of Rights, were ratified simultaneously by 1791. The following seventeen were ratified separately over the next two centuries.

The Bill of Rights (Amendments 1 to 10)

United States Bill of Rights currently housed in the National Archives.

It is commonly understood that originally the Bill of Rights was not intended to apply to the states; however, there is no such limit in the text itself, except where an amendment refers specifically to the federal government. One example is the First Amendment, which says only that "Congress shall make no law...", and under which some states in the early years of the nation officially established a religion. A rule of inapplicability to the states remained until 1868, when the Fourteenth Amendment was passed, which stated, in part, 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.

The Supreme Court has interpreted this clause to extend most, but not all, parts of the Bill of Rights to the states, a process known as incorporation of the Bill of Rights. The balance of state and federal power under the incorporation doctrine is still an open question and continues to be fought separately for each right in the federal courts.

The amendments that became the Bill of Rights were the last ten of the twelve amendments proposed in 1789. The second of the twelve proposed amendments, regarding the compensation of members of Congress, remained unratified until 1992, when the legislatures of enough states finally approved it; as a result, after pending for two centuries, it became the Twenty-seventh Amendment.

The first of the twelve, which is still technically pending before the state legislatures for ratification, pertains to the apportionment of the United States House of Representatives after each decennial census. The most recent state whose lawmakers are known to have ratified this proposal is Kentucky in 1792, during that commonwealth's first month of statehood.

Subsequent amendments (11 to 27)

Amendments to the Constitution after the Bill of Rights cover many subjects. The majority of the seventeen later amendments stem from continued efforts to expand individual civil or political liberties, while a few are concerned with modifying the basic governmental structure drafted in Philadelphia in 1787. Although the United States Constitution has been amended 27 times, only 26 of the amendments are currently in effect because the twenty-first amendment supersedes the eighteenth.

Unratified amendments

Of the thirty-three amendments that have been proposed by Congress, six have failed ratification by the required three-quarters of the state legislatures, and four of those six are still technically pending before state lawmakers (see Coleman v. Miller). Starting with the 18th Amendment, each proposed amendment has included a deadline for passage, except the 19th Amendment (women's voting) and the Child Labor Amendment, proposed in 1924 and still unratified. The following are the unratified proposals:

Expired deadlines. This category is separate from the other four unratified constitutional amendments. These two were not ratified by their deadlines and they have expired.

Criticism of the Constitution

Several academics have criticized the Constitution for specific shortcomings. University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato wants an amendment to organize primaries to prevent a "frontloaded calendar" long before the election to prevent a "race by states to the front of the primary pack" which subverts the national interest, in his view.[19] Sabato details more objections in his book A More Perfect Constitution.[19] Richard Labunski agrees with Sabato about the "incoherent organization of primaries and caucuses,"[20] and faults the Constitution for enabling presidents to continue unpopular wars,[20] for requiring presidents to be "natural born citizens",[20] for lifetime tenure for Supreme Court judges which "produces senior judges representing the views of past generations better than views of the current day."[20] He writes "If the 26 least populated states voted as a bloc, they would control the U.S. Senate with a total of just under 17% of the country’s population."[20]

University of Texas law professor Sanford Levinson also wonders whether it makes sense to give "Wyoming the same number of votes as California, which has roughly seventy times the population".[21] He thinks this imbalance causes a "steady redistribution of resources from large states to small states."[21] Levinson is critical of the electoral college since it allows the possibility of electing presidents who do not win the majority of votes.[21] Three times in American history, presidents have been elected by the electoral college despite failing to win the popular vote: 1876 (Rutherford B. Hayes), 1888 (Benjamin Harrison) and 2000 (George W. Bush).[22][23][24][25] The current Constitution does not give the people a quick way to remove incompetent or ill presidents, in his view.[25] Others have criticized the politically driven redistricting process popularly known as gerrymandering.[26]

Vanderbilt professor Dana D. Nelson believes the presidency has become too powerful. In her book, Bad for Democracy, she argues that all citizens seem to do, politically, is vote for president every four years, and not much else. Nelson criticizes excessive worship of the president or presidentialism and sees the office as essentially undemocratic.[27]

Yale professor Robert A. Dahl sees a problem with an American tendency towards worship of the Constitution itself, and sees aspects of American governance which are "unusual and potentially undemocratic: the federal system, the bicameral legislature, judicial review, presidentialism, and the electoral college system."[28] Levinson and Labunski and others have called for a Second Constitutional Convention,[29] although professors like Dahl believe there is no real hope this might ever happen.[28]

Translations

The Constitution has been translated into many languages:

Professor James Chen has annotated the Spanish translation prepared by the U.S. State Department.[52] His notes focus on the problems and nuances of this translation.

Nguyen Canh Binh has translated the Constitution into Vietnamese.[53]

The Bill of Rights has been translated into Hawaiian.[54]

There is a partial translation of the Bill of Rights into Esperanto.[55]

The Federal Judicial Center has links to other materials about the United States government and judicial system.[48] The site has materials in 16 languages besides English, such as Indonesian, Malay, Serb, and Vietnamese.

Original pages of the Constitution

Commemoration on U.S. postage

Issue of 1937, 150th Anniversary of signing

In 1937 the U.S. Post Office released a commemorative postage stamp celebrating the 150th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution. The engraving on this issue is after an 1856 painting by Junius Brutus Stearns of Washington and Delegates signing the Constitution at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia.

See also

General

Related documents

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 WikiSource. "WikiSource: Constitution of the United States of America". http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_States_of_America. Retrieved 2007-12-16. 
  2. Library of Congress. "Primary Documents in American History: The United States Constitution". http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Constitution.html. Retrieved 2007-12-16. 
  3. Casey (1974)
  4. Christian G. Fritz, American Sovereigns: The People and America's Constitutional Tradition Before the Civil War (Cambridge University Press, 2008) at p. 131 [ISBN 978-0-521-88188-3 (noting that "Madison, along with other Americans clearly understood" the Articles of Confederation "to be the first federal Constitution.")
  5. 5.0 5.1 NARA. "National Archives Article on the Constitutional Convention". http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/charters.html. Retrieved 2007-12-16. 
  6. 6.0 6.1 National Archives and Records Administration. "National Archives Article on the Constitution". http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html. Retrieved 2008-09-01. 
  7. WikiSource. "Articles of Confederation". http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Articles_of_Confederation. Retrieved 2009-07-18. 
  8. 8.0 8.1 NARA. "National Archives Article on James Madison". http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/charters.html. Retrieved 2007-12-16. 
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 NARA. "National Archives Article on the Entire Constitutional Convention". http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/charters.html. Retrieved 2007-12-16. 
  10. NARA. "National Archives Article on William Paterson". http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/charters.html. Retrieved 2007-12-16. 
  11. NARA. "National Archives Article on Roger Sherman". http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/charters.html. Retrieved 2007-12-16. 
  12. Section 2 of Article I provides in part: "Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states . . . by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons."
  13. See South Carolina Declaration of Causes in Seccession (December 24, 1860), reprinted in Richard Hofstadter, Great Issues in American History. Volume II, Vintage Books (1958), p.76-7; Abraham Lincoln, Message to Congress (July 4, 1861) reprinted in Hofstadter, supra.
  14. NARA. "National Archives Article on the Bill of Rights". http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/charters.html. Retrieved 2007-12-16. 
  15. McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316, 404-5 (1816).
  16. Lutz, Donald (1994). Toward a theory of constitutional amendment. 
  17. "Findlaw.com". Caselaw.lp.findlaw.com. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment03/. Retrieved 2009-05-04. 
  18. "The Missing Thirteenth Amendment". Thirdamendment.com. http://www.thirdamendment.com/missing.html. Retrieved 2009-05-04. 
  19. 19.0 19.1 By Larry J. Sabato (September 26, 2007). "An amendment is needed to fix the primary mess". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070926/opcomwednesday.art.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  20. 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 Richard Labunski interviewed by Policy Today's Dan Schwartz (18 October 2007). "Time for a Second Constitutional Convention?". Policy Today. http://www.policytoday.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=258&Itemid=148. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  21. 21.0 21.1 21.2 Reviewed by Robert Justin Lipkin (January, 2007). "OUR UNDEMOCRATIC CONSTITUTION: WHERE THE CONSTITUTION GOES WRONG (AND HOW WE THE PEOPLE CAN CORRECT IT)". Widener University School of Law. http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/lpbr/subpages/reviews/levinson0107.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  22. "Popular vote, Electoral College vote at odds?". USA Today. November 2008. http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/benedetto/230.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  23. Levinson, Sanford (2006). Our undemocratic constitution: where the constitution goes wrong (and how we the people can correct it). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 248. ISBN 978-0-19-530751-1. http://books.google.com/?id=ZHQ8z2MAZToC&pg=PT30&lpg=PT30&dq=%22our+undemocratic+constitution%22+critic%3F+review%3F&q=. 
  24. Randall Kennedy (May 12, 2008). "Books: Randall Kennedy". Newsweek. http://www.newsweek.com/id/135401. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  25. 25.0 25.1 Nora Krug (reviewer) (March 23, 2008). "Radical Re-readings -- OUR UNDEMOCRATIC CONSTITUTION Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (And How We the People Can Correct It) By Sanford Levinson". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/20/AR2008032003015.html. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  26. Macedo, Stephen (August 11, 2008). "Toward a more democratic Congress? Our imperfect democratic constitution: the critics examined". Boston University Law Review (Boston University Law Review) 89: 609–628. http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache%3AQ33mcnJC4pkJ%3Awww.bu.edu%2Flaw%2Fcentral%2Fjd%2Forganizations%2Fjournals%2Fbulr%2Fvolume89n2%2Fdocuments%2FMACEDO.pdf+%22our+undemocratic+constitution%22+critic%3F+review%3F&hl=en&gl=us&pli=1. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  27. interview by David Schimke (September-October 2008). "Presidential Power to the People -- Author Dana D. Nelson on why democracy demands that the next president be taken down a notch". Utne Reader. http://www.utne.com/2008-09-01/Politics/Presidential-Power-to-the-People.aspx. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  28. 28.0 28.1 Robert A. Dahl (February 11, 2002). "How Democratic Is the American Constitution?". Yale University Press. http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=0300092180. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  29. "Professor Stanford Levinson Proposes a New Constitutional Convention". Colorado Law -- Univ. of Colorado at Boulder. January 25, 2008. http://lawweb.colorado.edu/news/showArticle.jsp?id=434. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  30. "Arabic-Constitution-2" (PDF). http://constitutioncenter.org/Images/constitution%20translations/Arabic-Constitution-2.pdf. Retrieved 2010-03-17. 
  31. "دستور الولايات المتحدة الأميركية - دستور الولايات المتحدة الأميركية". America.gov. http://www.america.gov/ar/publications/books/the-constitution.html. Retrieved 2010-03-17. 
  32. "Simplified Chinese translation" (PDF). http://constitutioncenter.org/Images/constitution%20translations/SCH-Constitution.pdf. Retrieved 2010-03-17. 
  33. "Constitution of the United States (1787)". Usinfo.org. http://usinfo.org/zhtw/PUBS/BasicReadings/6.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-17. 
  34. http://www.theusa.nl/bestuursamenleving/grondwetamerika-nl.htm
  35. "French translation of the U.S. Constitution" (PDF). http://constitutioncenter.org/Images/constitution%20translations/French%20Constitution%208-19.pdf. Retrieved 2010-03-17. 
  36. "German Constitution 8-19" (PDF). http://constitutioncenter.org/Images/constitution%20translations/German%20Constitution%208-19.pdf. Retrieved 2010-03-17. 
  37. "Verfassung" (PDF). http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/gov/gov-constitutiond.pdf. Retrieved 2010-03-17. 
  38. "U.S. Constitution". Israel.usembassy.gov. http://israel.usembassy.gov/publish/constitution/p1.html. Retrieved 2010-03-17. 
  39. "Hungarian translation of the U.S. Constitution". Hungarian.hungary.usembassy.gov. http://hungarian.hungary.usembassy.gov/constitution_in_hungarian.html. Retrieved 2009-05-04. 
  40. "Italian translation of the U.S. Constitution" (PDF). http://constitutioncenter.org/Images/constitution%20translations/Italian%20Constitution%208-19.pdf. Retrieved 2010-03-17. 
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References

Primary sources

Reference books

Secondary sources

Further reading

External links

National Archives

Official U.S. government sources

Non-governmental web sites