Calvert Hall

Baltimore, Maryland

Teacher: Mr. Kropp
 

 

Enumerated Powers vs. The Living Constitution

Greg Lastner

11th Grade

 

The enumerated powers clause prevents the government from gaining too much power over its people while allowing it to adapt to the needs of the people. In the past, the government has made many attempts to gain more power....  Unfortunately, in our present day the government is finding ways around this clause and is gaining more power constantly.

 

Something needs to be done about this very soon. The government is not worried about the people who have elected them into their positions, but more about how they can benefit themselves. Many elected officials involved with the government plans and contracts are corrupt. They take advantage of their position to gain power and greater wealth. Elected officials have made a promise to the people they represent to do things that would benefit us, the citizens of the United States. Many government officials are more worried about their personal interests and making contacts for their future when they leave government service.  For a young person, like myself, who will be eligible to vote in less than two years, it is hard to watch the news and see all the corruption.

 

I believe that we would be better off having a country for the people and by the people. After all, that is what our Constitution states. A government that is not as large and complex is better for us. A smaller more efficient government would be better, because it is human nature to want more power and money. This has caused our government to be more corrupt and constantly looking for ways around the rules set in place. By having a nation run by the people, I believe that it will benefit us as a nation greatly in two ways. Not only will we be making decisions to keep the majority of the public happy, but I think that the people will make decisions that are the best for the nation as a whole. People acting as one unit will concern themselves with the betterment of the entire group instead of improving life for a few select citizens. A true democracy [would] involve all people and enable them to be fair. Hopefully, the more citizens participating will mean less corruption and less people being power hungry.

 

By allowing the people to govern themselves, I also believe that the nation would be better off economically. First of all, we would not have to worry about spending money on things that do not benefit the country as a whole. This would also allow us to be a more peaceful nation and instead of having a large number of enemies we could have many allies, and we could broaden our trade markets. We would make more money this way and be able to spread our profit around to make technological advances in certain fields. Some money is wasted on things that were not even in the budget that was originally made. This is a waste and it needs to be stopped, so we can slowly start to rebuild financially. We are already eight trillion dollars in debt, because of our government officials. As we have seen recently our economy is ruled by other countries like China and if we do not fix our debt our reign as a superpower could come to a screeching halt.

 

This will also allow our citizens to stay in touch with what is going on in today's world. This will unite people into a solid nation, as well as educating them on very important topics. For example, our government has not made major breakthroughs on alternative fuels. There is no incentive to do this. Many government officials, including the President and Vice President have long standing ties with the oil industry. This is an immediate problem that will greatly affect us in the future. If the people were given the power, they could solve this problem immediately instead of watching the world around us suffer. Again, as a young citizen, I wonder if there will be fuel for my car or will our lives change drastically. Will we have to continue to fight wars, so we can get oil?

 

In conclusion, enforcing the enumerated powers clause will benefit us in the long run. It will make us a stronger more unified nation as well as allowing us to flourish economically. We will no longer have to worry about our government officials making decisions that benefit the few, instead of the majority, because the final word will be [with] you and me. We need to enforce these rules more and make sure that people who want to live lavish lifestyles are not just throwing away money and time. We can solve issues that the government is making almost no effort to fix. We must do this to stay powerful and benefit our future generations, so that they can live the same happy lives that we are living right now.

 

 Answers To The Required Reading Questions

 

 

Q1- Explain what Roger Pilon means when speaks of a bifurcated Bill of Rights.

 

A1- He is referring to when the Bill of Rights was split into two parts which were fundamental rights and nonfundamental rights.

 

Describe what happened in 1938, according to his testimony.

When the Bill of Rights was bifurcated which allowed the government to have unlimited power.

 

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?

 

A2- Fundamental: voting, free speech, and free press.

        Nonfundamental: property, commercial relations, and contract

 

Q3- Define

Enumerated Powers- 18 powers that are expressed in the          constitution

 

Living Constitution- A constitution that is able to change to fit the needs of the people.

 

Politicizing the constitution- Manipulating the constitution so that it fits the political needs of our nation.

 

Q4- Why does Roger Pilon claim a living constitution is worse than no constitution at all?

 

A4- Dr. Pilon says this because the constitution preserves the patina of constituonal legitimacy.

 

Q5- Explain what is meant by moral legitimacy, political legitimacy and legal legitimacy. Give your own example for each.

 

Moral legitimacy: The function of moral rights of a self government.

 

Political legitimacy: Being unable to see how the grounds of legitimacy are linked together.

 

Legal legitimacy: Abiding by the rules of the government.


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.

1.    The loss of moral, political, and legal legitimacy.
2.    Chaos follows law more generally.
3.    Disrespect of law and the rule of law.
4.    When constituional integrity declines we lose the respect a constitution is designed to impose on the government.
5.    Economic implications of effectively unlimited and unrestriced government.

I believe the first one is the most important because without laws things would be very chaotic and we would not be a succesful nation.

 

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 constituion’s preordained destiny as a living document?

 

A7- Mr Frankfurter is talking about the constitution’s preordained destiny, because there is a struggle of those who put the constituions into a lawyer’s document.

 

Q8- Do you agree, with Felix Frankfurter, that the Founding fathers refused to write limitations and qualifications into the U.S. Constitution?

A8- No I do not agree with this, because there were limitations that were put into the constitution.

 

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.

A9- The constitution was changed after the Civil war by giving more powers to the monorities. Both of these documents have changed with the growing technology that has happened over the years.

 

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 ___________________________.

A10- to give advantages to the rich powerful politicians rather than the American citizens.

 

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.

A11- Every decision affects someone or something almost immediately as it happens. We also need to become more united instead of being segregated as we are today.

 

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.

 

A12- I believe the past 70 years has turned it into an old idea that needs to be reformed. We can only be bullied by our government officials for so long, and we can only allow them to make so many big mistakes. The government does not care about us as they should and it needs to change.

 

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