Six Amendments: Changing the Constitution for a Better Future - Essay Sample

Introduction

Justice Stevens argues in his book "Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution." That as time passes by the soundness of each and every proposal that he puts forth will come to be very important and more evident and that most probably each of the proposals will be adopted. The purpose of the book "Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution." Is to exploit the process and to avoid the occurrence of crises in the future.

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The “Anti-Commandeering” Rule

This rule as provided by Justice Stevens generally discourages Congress from passing laws that might need the involvement of the state official to implement or enforce the federal laws. A proper example to illustrate this scenario is given within the law that requires the Attorney general to come up with a national background checking system that can prevent persons with mental problems from purchasing guns. As a result of this Judge-created rule, the county sheriffs do not have the permission of participating in ant background checks for the gun purchasers, and all these come even though the police officers together with their national organizations support that are doing a proper check on the gun purchasers.

Why do we need a constitution amendment?

A constitutional amendment is needed because in the late 1990s, the Unite State supreme court clearly stated that the supremacy clause as applying specifically to the State Judges and not to any other federal program. This kind of situation, therefore, creates a risk that the purpose o the federal response to the act of terrorism or the national catastrophe might be inadequate. The case also impairs the proper administration of the general administration of the ordinary federal programs and thus to improve the performance of this there will need to implement the rule.

What should the constitutional amendment state?

There are for very important words that should be entailed in the Supremacy clause and these words or clauses should be added after the prevailing words of the judges. And Justice Steven's quotes "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States, which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges and other public officials in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."

Partisan Gerrymanders

Three major characteristic features or distinguishing features identify any kind of political gerrymander. The first point is that it is generally a decision that is made by the ruling party in control of the government. The second characteristic is that it promotes the ruling party by proving the number of elections that the candidates belonging to the ruling party can win and thirdly the system contains the districts that are merely anything but impact-districts that can promote observers to question the motive of this particular architects.

Why do we need the constitutional amendment?

A 2004 Supreme Court case, Vieth v. Jubelirer, 541 U.S. 267 (2004) constantly held that there did not exist any kind of judicially manageable and discernible standards that should be applied and as a result, the court did not have the authority of deciding on any issue related to the political gerrymandering. The issue was therefore nonjusticiable and constitutional amendments were needed.

What should the constitutional amendment state?

The constitution needs to provide that the districts which are represented by the members of the congress or the districts that are represented by any other person belonging to any state legislative body need to be composed and compact of contiguous territory. The state thus needs to have the burden of justifying departures relating to this requirement through the neutral criteria such as the historic boundaries, political, natural and demographic changes. The major interest should generally be preservation or enhancing the political power of the ruling party of the states because it will not serve as a neutral ground or as a neutral criterion for selection.

Campaign Finance

Justice Stevens discusses and reviews the history related to the amount of money that is being spent by the cooperations and unions in the political campaigns. In the year 1907, the congress passed laws referred to as the Tillman Act completely burn the cooperate from participating pr contributing to any kind of federal election. Therefore both the unions and the cooperation were from contributing or participating in the political campaign. In Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, 494 U.S.652 (1990), there was a decision by the supreme court that all the political speeches need to be banned and this was to be based on the speaker's identity. Justice Stevens argues that the unions and the cooperation should not give directly to political campaigns or the candidates but the individuals within the cooperation of the union can speak politically through a separate legal entity. Corporations should, therefore, ask their respective stakeholders, administrative and executive personnel together with their families to contribute money that can be used in a political campaign. The unions and corporate also don't have the authority to request assistance from any person that is outside the union or the corporate to help or contribute to any political activity. Employees that are being solicited to contribute to the political activities have the right to reject and refuse without any reprisal. However, all the people that are associated with the union or the groups have a full right to talk and engage their respective unions and corporations even in the mood of political activities.

Justice Stevens, therefore, argues that preventing wealth to be one of the determining factors of an election is significant and very valid. This is because it will provide a neutral ground for a competition where ideas and capabilities of the candidates that can improve the productivity of the state will be considered instead of a person's wealth when the individual might not even be having the .required leadership qualities.

Why do we need a constitutional amendment?

The constitutional amendment is needed because it is only through the amendment that there is the possibility of overturning the Citizens United v. FEC.

What should the constitutional amendment provide?

The constitution should provide room for extensive political campaigns and Justice Stevens quote that "Neither the First Amendment nor any other provision of this Constitution shall be construed to prohibit the Congress or any state from imposing reasonable limits on the amount of money that candidates for public office, or their supporters, may spend in election campaigns."

Sovereign Immunity

Justice Stevens describes sovereign immunity as a doctrine that would have never been adopted or applied in democracy. The doctrine the government from being sued by the creditors and at the same time permits suit against any state official.

Why we need a constitutional amendment?

The power that has been bestowed upon the congress that enables it to impose obligation towards the state and the state urgency need also to include the power of the congress to authorize a proper remedy regarding the violation of those particular federal commands. Therefore the fact that a hospital or an institution is owned by the state should give that organization a sovereign immunity defense so that the organization can claim federal law for which the hospital is owned just to take an example. It is very unfair and unconstitutional to give a defense to the federal laws whether it is owned by the state or privately. It cannot be fair to provide a security officer that is employed by New York with the defense to claim that they should violet the suspect constitutional rights that are nor provided within the act.

What should the constitutional amendment state?

The constitutional amendment should state that neither the tenth amendment or the eleventh amendment or any other kind of provision of the constitution should be allowed to provide any state, state officer or the state urgency t posses and immunity in regards to the violation of any act of the congress. This will also apply to the provision of the constitution to follow the due procedure in establishing sovereign immunity.

Work Cited

Stone, Geoffrey R. "Six Amendments: How And Why We Should Change The Constitution By John Paulstevens. Boston, Little, Brown, And Company, 2014. 192 Pp. $23.00.". Political Science Quarterly, vol 129, no. 4, 2014, pp. 711-712. Wiley, doi:10.1002/polq.12280.