Rights and Freedom
In America, the rights and freedoms of individuals were included in the constitution through amendments. There are two ways of making amendments to the constitution. The first way requires the proposed bill to be passed by the House and senate halves of the congress by at least two thirds majority in each. The second way of amending is through a constitutional convention called by two thirds of the state legislatures. Either way, the proposed amendment is then sent to the states for approval and to become a law, three quarters of the states must approve it. The first ten amendments of the constitution provide the Bill of Rights. The ten amendments were made simultaneously (Chemerinsky, 1998).
The head of the National Archives and Records Administration is entrusted with the responsibility of overseeing the process of ratification. He submits the proposed amendment to the states for approval by issued a letter of approval to the respective governors of the states (Chemerinsky, 1998). Once the state has ratified the amendment, it sends the head of National Archives and Records Administration a certified copy of the state action. Immediately the copy is delivered, it is submitted to the Director of Federal Register who scrutinizes the document to ensure its correctness. The Director remains with the documents until the amendment passes or fails, after which he submits them to the National Archives for preservation.
Once a proposed amendment is ratified by at least three quarters of the states, it becomes a part of the constitution. A certification of its validity is produced and published in the Federal Register and the US statutes. This publication acts as the official notice entire nation of completion of the amendment process. This process is fair since it takes care of the majority of the citizens which is pure democracy. The people’s elected representatives do the voting in the Congress, and the governors afterwards act on the proposed amendments. The process is quite complex so that the core values of the society are not altered with too much ease (Gustin, 2003).
The bill of rights is the first amendment and has a strong significance to the citizens of America. It has defined a number of rights that has helped the citizen live peacefully. It has guaranteed privacy of the citizen, for example, by restricting entry of a policeman into people’s homes without the residents’ consent (Chemerinsky, 1998). The freedom of speech has helped the people monitor their government by blowing the whistle when something goes wrong. This has helped to reduce impunity of the senior public officeholders. The freedom of worship has let many citizens become religious and embrace the faith that they fill is appropriate for them (Yammarino, 2008).
The rights that oversee an accused person and the process of justice have safeguarded various rights of people accused of crimes. Otherwise, accused people would be receiving raw deals from the systems of justice (Yammarino, 2008). The Fifth Amendment guarantees that person may not be tried twice for the same crime and does not have to testify against him or herself. Another amendment has defined that an accused person has a right to have a fair trial and can have a lawyer.
Other provisions in the bill of rights guard a person guilty of a crime. They give the person a right to receive reasonable punishment and ensure the absence of torture during punishments. Were it, not for these provisions guilty people would be receiving unfair treatment from the authorities.
Of all the five freedoms stipulated in the first amendment, I find the freedom of speech extremely valuable personally. Also, known as the freedom of expression, it helps a person communicate his/her ideas and thoughts. Through this freedom, people are able to exercise democracy in the nation. Citizens are free to hold political rallies and campaigns where they gather together and deliberate on the way for forward. The freedom of speech has allowed people to exchange ideas and even go schools to study.
Since then, other amendments have been made to oversee the prevalence of democracy in the United States. They include the 22nd amendment of 1951 that limits the presidential terms to two. It has declared that even if a person had served for at least two years of a term, he or she is eligible to vie for a single term only. The 26th amendment of 1971 lowered the voting age to eighteen years. It promoted democracy in the sense that, more people were then allowed to vote thereby exercising their constitutional right of voting rather that limiting the right to older people alone. The nineteenth amendment prohibited the usage of gender as a qualification for voting. Previously women were not allowed to vote which was suppression of democracy since voting is a national issue (Gustin, 2003).
The Eighteenth Amendment allowed the production, exportation and importation of alcohol. Prohibition of alcohol has led to a lot of corruption by alcohol producers and law enforcers. The 13th amendment of 1865 was made to end slavery. Slavery suppressed the human dignity and the slaves had most of their rights denied. The 14th amendment was made in 1868, and it defined United States citizenship. It overruled the previous ruling of the high Court the blacks could not be recognized as American citizens (Gustin, 2003).
The constitution of America is subjected to changes over time. Amendments are made for the interest of the citizens. There are the formal procedures of making the amendment that must be followed. The bill of rights is an example of the amendments made to the constitution. It has played a vital role to safeguard the interest to the US citizen since its adoption. Subsequently, other amendments have been established to oversee democracy in the United States.
References
Chemerinsky, E. (1998). Amending the constitution. Michigan Law Review, 96(6), 1561-1577. http://search.proquest.com/docview/201073608?accountid=45049
Gustin, G. (2003). In defense of liberty: The story of Americans bill of rights. School Library Journal, 49 (10), 188-188. http://search.proquest.com/docview/211733109?accountid=45049
Yammarino, F. J. (2008). "We the people??": Levels of analysis and the US constitution. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 16(3), 187-193. doi:10.1108/19348830810937961
