Burlington High School
Burlington, Kansas
Teacher: Mrs. Devra Parker
Taking Advantage
By Becky Watts
Grade: 12th Grade
I live, breathe and walk this honorable land because of the men who created our Constitution. These men, known as our Founding Fathers, took time out of their every day lives to make me free. I feel I owe them my life because they made mine so I can be me and not get in trouble. To be an American is more than just living and breathing. People die to make us free. That is a true American, but most of us take that for [granted]. I am proud to be an American under our strict Constitution. It was made to be flexible, but not as flexible as a living Constitution.
Can we become one nation again and agree on the same decision? Right now our nation is taking drastic chances by splitting into two ideas. One idea is having a living Constitution and the other is a strict Constitution that doesn’t change close to every day. Our nation is bifurcated into these two groups making a bifurcated judicial review. This is caused by the fundamental and nonfundamental rights. I believe we won’t ever be able to solve our nation’s dispute if we stay split like this. This dispute may cause many problems between our government, and people, and it might even affect other nations. I hope we can find one idea to be better and come together again. As Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “13 republics agreed to join as one strong nation.” This is after they wrote four handwritten pages of our nation’s laws.
Many things that Pilon said in his speech fit my ideas. I think we should keep our Constitution flexible but strict enough to make sure it’s not easily changed. Pilon is supporting a speech [made] by Franklin D. Roosevelt, and defending our Founding Fathers. We could update it to fit how we live today. We don’t have to change most of it to a living Constitution just to have what we want. A living Constitution changes and adjusts to our life every day. I think that is too much change. We need to have a more definite Constitution with less change. We need to show that our Founding Fathers made a special document for our nation by making the original Constitution. Why do we need to change more than we have to? We don’t need to do it at all.
There is not one object in this world that can make a drastic change in one night. Our Constitution didn’t become illegitimate over night, but it became illegitimate due to our living Constitution beliefs. There are five implications that shows an illegitimate Constitution. We have committed most of them in the rewriting of our Constitution, changing the document so much that it has…lost all legitimacy. If we develop the enumerated powers to fit our society better and then make a more strict Constitution, we wouldn’t have very many changes. The more changes, the more illegitimate.
Many people are taking advantage [of] our great nation. They don’t respect the freedom they have [been given]. They have taken advantage of our Constitution. They have been changing it more than they need to. The Fathers gave room to make changes to help fit our society, but they didn’t want to make our Constitution completely different in only a couple hundred years. We need to stand up and fight for their beliefs. Their hard work is pretty much getting thrown in the garbage. The United States’ people have been getting lazy and taking advantage of all their own rights by changing them.
Pilon states in his speech, “We went to a limited government to an unlimited government.” I agree with what Pilon is saying. We don’t have a strong government anymore. We are letting famous people walk all over the government. There was a limited government that stated all men shall be punished equally. At first, just famous people that were in big time movies, had their own show, or sold millions of copies of their song albums were getting away with more things than the average person ever thought he could. Now, the average person is getting away with many crimes like speeding, not wearing a seatbelt, drinking and driving, and much more. What happened to our government? The living Constitution happened. We need to bring back enumerated powers.
Our nation has been working as one nation since the Constitution was written. In my opinion, our Fore Fathers would probably think we didn’t respect them if they were still alive today. I like the strict and hardly ever changing Constitution our Fore Fathers spent many days creating. We don’t need much change in our great nation. We need to stop being lazy and take advantage of this free land we live in. We must stop making changes every day. They aren’t needed. We should change it enough to fit our society today then leave it alone.
I
live,
breathe,
and
walk
this
honorable
land
because
of
the
men
who
created
our
Constitution.
I
appreciate
getting
the
opportunity
to
express
my
opinion
throughout
many
places.
I
am
proud
to
be
an
American
that
respects
the
original
Constitution.
Yes,
I
agree
with
Pilon
and
more
people
should.
It
is
time
to
make
people
realize
how
much
a
living
constitution
is
killing
our
growing
society.
I
will
respect
those
men
who
made
this
wonderful
place
for
me.
Answers To Questions Prompted By The Required Reading
Q1- Explain what Roger Pilon means when he speaks of a bifurcated Bill of Rights.
Describe what happened in 1938, according to his testimony.
o Roger Pilon is talking about the bifurcated Bill of Rights, which brought forth the bifurcated judicial review, or so, a split of two groups and areas. This came about because of the fundamental and nonfundamental rights. In this review, they take the important part of the 1937 step by splitting it into two areas. This step contributed in the rewriting of General Welfare Clause of the Constitution.
Q2- Give three examples of what is described in the testimony as fundamental rights and three examples of nonfundamental rights. Which of these rights do you, after reading portions of Dr. Pilon's testimony, believe should be subjected to strict scrutiny?
o The examples of fundamental rights would be the rights of speech, press and voting. Three of the nonfundamental rights are property, contract, and carrying concealed weapons. The right I believe should be strict scrutiny is voting. The reason for this no one is required or made to vote. Meaning it isn’t strict scrutiny.
Q3- Define:
Enumerated powers- list of legislative powers granted to the United States Congress.
Living constitution- This has multiple meanings. It is mostly used explaining the constitution. It is the ability of the constitution to change in an amendment.
Politicizing the constitution- brings a political character into the constitution by having a discussion of the laws.
Q4- Why does Roger Pilon claim a living constitution is worse than no constitution at all?
o What this is saying is that we are disrespecting our for fathers’ creation. It is also saying that we have legitimate laws in the United States and they should be followed and if not punished. He says are laws should be stricter about making people follow the laws of our Fore Fathers and stop changing what they wrote.
o “Because it preserves the patina of constitutional legitimacy while unleashing the political forces that a constitution is meant to restrain. And how long can "anything goes" for officials go unnoticed by the citizenry? A general decline in respect for law must follow.”
Q5- Explain what is meant by moral legitimacy, political legitimacy and legal legitimacy. Give your own example of each.
o Moral Legitimacy is when you are telling what you believed, and how you feel. What you feel and say is valid because it is legitimate in your own eyes.
o Political Legitimacy is when the government thinks is valid in the constitution.
o Legal Legitimacy is when it is written down on paper and signed a law that is valid to the constitution.
Q6- Dr. Pilon spends some time enumerating five implications of an illegitimate constitution. Name the five implications and state why one seems to be the most serious in your personal opinion.
o Loss of legitimacy
o Judicial Methodology
o Disrespect of the Constitution
o Constitution integrity declines
o Economic Implication of an ineffective government.
o Loss of legitimacy is the most important to me. The reason is because our constitution became an illegitimate document because of the living constitution.
Q7- When he says "those true to its conception as a means of founding, maintaining and promoting a great nation in the public good.” is Mr. Frankfurter talking about the wisdom of enumerated powers or the constitution's preordained destiny as a living document?
Q8- Do you agree, with Felix Frankfurter, that the Founding Fathers refused to write limitations and qualifications into the U.S. Constitution?
o Yes. They were afraid that the government might get too much power and over power the people.
Q9- Compare the manner in which the U.S. Constitution was changed after the Civil War with the way changes were made to the Constitution during the New Deal era.
o In the Civil War the slaves were freed. Therefore, we changed the constitution to show that all men are created equal. We later added parts to the constitution because women gained rights. It was also changed because our life styles evolved and advanced into a more technological society.
Q10- U.S. Constitution prevents legislators from making the needs of Americans their priority. This paragraph claims that the expressed purpose of the U. S. Constitution is _It is to prevent too much power in the legislation and let the people be part of the decision. (fill in the blank)
Q11- FDR made a political speech for the times; the eve of WW II. References were made in his speech that may be relevant to our position in the world today. Comment on the similarities.
o FDR explains in his speech that we need to honor our nation. Continue what our fathers started and become one nation that isn’t divided. This is related because we need to come together again because our nation is now divided into two. One part supporting a living constitution and the other is supporting a strict constitution.
Q12- Comment on whether you think the "new idea" come to "dominate thought about government" is still the dominate idea or has the past 70 years turned it into an old idea that needs to be reformed? Make these comments brief as this question is the crux of the paper you will be preparing for submittal.