Parts A and B

Dylan LaPointe 12/2/2008
A: Part 1: Preamble:
Paraphrase: We Americans, have created this constitution in order to uphold each individuals promise to uphold the law, maintain social peace, join the armed forces if need be, and keep liberty to ourselves.

Ideas and Skepticism: The government claims that it derives it’s power from the people, and to a degree that is true, but we are only given the right to elect a government official. The government has the rest of the power, so they can direct our country more or less without the consent of the citizens.
Reading further into the constitution, our founding fathers go into great detail to talk of each officials rights and restrictions. There is a great imbalance here, the section that talks about us is disproportionate to that of the government. Pretty much the American people are expected to be little sycophants, maintaining the word of the government despite whether or not they agree with them. It forgets to mention the premise upon which this government was founded.
Part 2: Articles 1-3 of the Constitution:
Why does the age of qualification vary for each official?

B: Part 3: Articles 4-7 of the Constitution:
Article IV: Section 1: Full Faith and Credit:
Paraphrase: Congress makes sure that each state respects the actions of others.

What does that mean for gay marriage?
If each state is to respect the legal actions of others, then unless there is an overall majority shift in favor of abortion, then no new legislation can be passed so gay marriage would remain unlawful. Also with this law states technically cannot change the first laws unless congress gives consent.

Why is: “ No person held to… may be due,” significant?
Paraphrase: If a slave escapes, they will not go back to work, but their owners may decide to put them back to work.
Slaves had absolutely no chance at achieving freedom during this time. Even if they managed to escape, they would most likely to be forced to work for their owners once again.

Article V: No amendment may be passed that affects the first and fourth amendments in the ninth section of the first article. The first amendment of section nine states that slavery could not be prohibited by Congress until 1808. This law pretty much permitted slavery in the U.S. until 1808. The 4th Amendment of the 9th section of Article 1 outlawed all direct taxes on individuals. Both of these Amendments were pretty much cut out of the constitution?

The process by which something is amended:
Two thirds of congress propose an amendment ‡ Congress calls a convention ‡ Must be ratified by three fourths of the states

Article VI:
The constitution is the supreme law of the land. Officials are bound by oath to support the constitution. No religious test is required. The religious test clause serves to supposedly not promote religious homogeneity. Mostly it is just there to appease people other religious faiths so it at least makes it look like our government is trying.

Article VII:
Nine states need to support the constitution for it to be ratified. At the time only thirteen states existed, but one could see how this could grow to be a problem. As the number of states increased support for the constitution may have changed, and if only nine states out of 50 support the constitution then that’s 41 dissatisfied states. Many now say that several of our rights are time bound and may have been suitable in the past but currently do not apply to our way of life. This is one of those things that does not work with modern society.