11th Amendment

The 11th Amendment came about as a direct result of the Supreme Court decision in Chisholm v Georgia (2 U.S. 419) in 1793 (see the Events Page for details). Congress felt that the Supreme Court had over stepped its bounds, and feared it would do so again unless prohibited by the Constitution. The Chisholm case was decided in 1793, just five years after the adoption of the Constitution. The Amendment was approved by Congress on March 4, 1794, and ratified on February 7, 1795 (340 days). The Amendment limits the jurisdiction of the federal courts to automatically hear cases brought against a state by the citizens of another state. Later interpretations have expanded this to include citizens of the state being sued, as well.

In Hollingsworth v Virginia (3 USC 378 [1798]), the passage and ratification of the 11th was challenged for two reasons. First because the President did not sign the amendment bill, and second because the amendment presented a situation where people had some legal relief before ratification that dried up after, creating an ex post facto situation. The Supreme Court rejected both challenges, setting some important precedent for future amendments.

13th Amendment
Slavery was an institution in America in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Southern states, with their agricultural economies, relied on the slavery system to ensure the cash crops (cotton, hemp, rice, indigo, and tobacco, primarily) were tended and cultivated. Slaves were not unknown in the North, but abolition in the North was completed by the 1830's. In 1808, the Congress prohibited the slave trade, not a year later than allowed in the Constitution. A series of compromises, laws, acts, and bills tried to keep the balance between the slave states and the non-slave states. For a more thorough history of slavery, see the Slavery Topic Page.

South Carolina voted to secede from the United States as a result of Abraham Lincoln's election to the Presidency. Lincoln had, over time, voiced strong objections to slavery, and his incoming administration was viewed as a threat to the right of the states to keep their institutions, particularly that of slavery, the business of the states. More states seceded, eleven in all, forming the Confederate States of America. The secession movement led to the Civil War. In the waning days of the war, which ran from 1861 to 1865, the Congress approved an amendment to abolish slavery in all of the United States. Once the CSA was defeated, approval of the 13th Amendment was quick in the Northern states. By the end of 1865, eight of the eleven Confederate states had also ratified it. Proposed on January 31, 1865, it was ratified on December 6, 1865 (309 days). Eventually, all of the CSA states except Mississippi ratified the 13th after the war; Mississippi ratified the amendment in 1995. Blue = Very Important Red = Important Orange = Semi-Important Green = fact

14th Amendment
The ratification of the 13th Amendment was a major victory for the North, and it was hoped that with the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment, the effects of slavery in the United States would quickly diminish. The original plan to readmit states after acceptance of the 13th was supported by President Andrew Johnson, but the Radical Republicans, as they became known, wanted more than just a return to normalcy. They wanted to keep the power they had attained during the war years. The South did not make it easy for Johnson, however, and the so-called Black Codes started to be passed in Southern states. Congressional inquiries into the Black Codes found them to be a new way of controlling ex-slaves, fraught with violence and cruelty.

The ensuing Reconstruction Acts placed the former CSA states under military rule, and prohibited their congressmen's readmittance to Congress until after several steps had been taken, including the approval of the 14th Amendment. The 14th was designed to ensure that all former slaves were granted automatic United States citizenship, and that they would have all the rights and privileges as any other citizen. The amendment passed Congress on June 13, 1866, and was ratified on July 9, 1868 (757 days).

23rd Amendment
The District of Columbia has been a unique city since its founding in 1800 as the seat of the new government. When first established, it was a town of 5000, and it was assumed that it would be the center of government, and not a population center. But by 1900, over a quarter of a million people lived within its bounds. Since it is a federal district, however, and not a state, the inhabitants not only had no real local government, they had no vote in the federal government either. By 1960, when 760,000 people lived in Washington, D.C., it seemed odd that people from a dozen states, with lower populations, had more voting rights than residents of the District. As citizens, they were required to pay taxes and to serve in the military, but a vote in the Presidential election was available only to the states.

It is important to note that the 23rd Amendment does not make Washington, D.C., a state; it just confers upon its citizens the number of electors that it would have if it were a state. It also did not provide full representation in Congress for the District. The Congress passed the amendment on June 17, 1960; the amendment was ratified on March 29, 1961 (285 days).

26th Amendment
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The United States was in the throes of the Vietnam War and protests were underway throughout the nation. Draftees into the armed services were any male over the age of 18. There was a seeming dichotomy, however: these young men were allowed, even forced, to fight and die for their country, but they were unable to vote. The 14th Amendment only guaranteed the vote, in a roundabout way, to those over twenty-one.

The Congress attempted to right this wrong in 1970 by passing an extension to the 1965 Voting Rights Act (which itself is enforcement legislation based on prior suffrage amendments) that gave the vote to all persons 18 or older, in all elections, on all levels. Oregon objected to the 18-year-old limit, as well as other provisions of the 1970 Act (it also objected to a prohibition on literacy tests for the franchise). In Oregon v Mitchell (400 U.S. 112), a sharply divided Supreme Court ruled that the Congress had the power to lower the voting age to 18 for national elections, but not for state and local elections. The case was decided on December 1, 1970. Within months, on March 23, 1971, the Congress passed the text of the 26th Amendment, specifically setting a national voting age, in both state and national elections, to 18. In just 100 days, on July 1, 1971, the amendment was ratified.

Close Up, an organization dedicated to involving youth in government, has produced a PDF pamphlet on the 26th Amendment and history. You can find the pamphlet on their web site.

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Bibliography:
"Notes on the Amendments." - The U.S. Constitution Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2012. <http://www.usconstitution.net/constamnotes.html>.

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Socratic Seminar:

I
My opinion: I believe that what the framers did was ethical. According to dictionary.com, Ethical means: 1. Pertaining to or dealing with morals or the principles of morality; pertaining to right and wrong in conduct. 2. Being in accordance with the rules or standards for rightconduct or practice, especially the Standards of a profession Using the second definition, there were no guidelines in which the framers needed to follow that made one consider their doings against the rules or unethical. Their secret meeting did not contradict any guidelines set forth by the Articles of Confederation because there was nothing in the Articles of Confederation that stated this was against a rule. One could argue that the framers were going against the first definition. However, the end product made up for the wrong morality. The overall Constitution that the framers created from going behind AOC fans was greater than the wrong doing of going behind their backs in the first place. The Constitution is a good guideline that is still used to this day. If the Articles o Confederation was still used in the Constitutions place, the state governments would override and chance at a balanced government.

II
My Belief: I do not believe that all citizens can be protected under rights. There is always some human who ignores the laws or find loopholes within a set of rules in order to conduct wrong doings upon someone. Also, the questions asks for ALL people to be protected, not just citizens. This

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creates problems if one were to travel from out of state or country. For example, someone travels from the UK (United Kingdom) to visit friends in California. If that person was put on trial for a crime and convicted with ignored Amendment, then that person would probably be pled guilty. This person is not covered by the Amendment therefore is not protected along with it.

III
My opinion: I believe that the founding fathers were not hypocrites. The question is opened to endless interpretations and doesnt specify what the fathers are hypocrites of. In certain aspects, the founding fathers were hypocrites. For example, the founding fathers said all men were created equal, but each father owned a slave. They knew they could not get rid of slavery in their time in the country--it was too entrenched and they needed the support of the southern states to fend off the Brits. The fathers, however, knew that U.S. citizens would eventually turn against slavery and thus end the gigantic problem.

IV
My belief: I believe that national government should have more power than state governments. If each of the state governments had more power than national government, then each state would become too independent. The national government would overall unify the states more and represent the country as a whole. If states were to rule, then the national government could become irrelevant and could do nothing to help unify the dis-united states.

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V
My choice: 14th Amendment The question asks which amendment is most critical for the protection of individual liberties? not which amendment do you think is the most important in granting U.S. citizens rights. In breaking down the question, one might ask what an individual liberty is.

Individual liberty is: (Dictionary.com) The liberty of an individual to exercise freely those rights generally accepted as being outside of governmental control. In order to figure out what individual liberty truly means, however, one must know what liberty is Liberty: (Thefreedictionary.com) a. The condition of being free from restriction or control. b. The right and power to act, believe, or express oneself in a manner of one's own choosing. c. The condition of being physically and legally free from confinement, servitude, or forced labor.

2. Freedom from unjust or undue governmental control. 3. A right or immunity to engage in certain actions without control or interference: the liberties protected by the Bill of Rights. 14th Amendment: The 14t Amendment gives these rights to U.S. citizens: 1) all persons born in the United States are granted citizenship, 2) no state can deny any person the equal protection of the laws; 3) no state can deny any person life, liberty, or property without due process of law.

- This amendment literally protects the most important rights given to a citizen from the 1 amendment. This protects citizens from the government taking away their rights, thus making it the most important amendment that protects individual liberties. The 1st amendment states the most important individual liberties, but the 14th amendment protects them.
st

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News Articles: July 9, 2012 The New York Times

On this day, the infamous case of Lance Armstrong was conducted. In the end of the trial, Lances suit was quickly dismissed. The reason for this quick trial was simple; the Anti-doping agency that sued Lance violated the 14th Amendment. Due to the judge learning this information, Lance was found not guilty and proceeded on with his life. The 14th Amendment literally saved Armstrong from life in jail. _____________________________________________________________________________________

Amendments that other people can state in which contradict my ideas and the reasons why mine is better:

Amendment 1:
Gives citizens Freedom of Speech, Religion, Press, Assembly, and Petition.

This amendment simply states the most important individual liberties, but does not protect them. The fourteenth amendment protects the amendments and grants humans born in the U.S. as U.S. citizens.

Amendment 9:
The 9th Amendment states: the rights not specifically granted to the people in the Bill of Rights, still belong to the people.

However this amendment does not specify what those rights are. No one can say for certain that this amendment protects the most amounts of rights if the amounts of rights arent specified. Logical reasoning can prove my belief.

Amendment 13:
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery

This amendment abolished slavery. Sure, the restriction of slavery is a very important right; however it is an important right that only covers a specific group of U.S. citizens. The 1st Amendment covers all and in Blue = Very Important Red = Important Orange = Semi-Important Green = fact

turn gives slaves the rights of every other citizen. If the first amendment didnt exist, then slaves would be wandering aimlessly without any rights, simply free.

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