American Government and the Constitution Homework Eight Answers

American Govt. And Constitution Lecture 8 Homework Andrew B

1. The 17th Amendment is actually what established the election of senators by popular vote. As opposed to the former method of them being chosen by elected state legislatures. I think that the system of popular vote is better than a system of state legislatures because state legislatures can be swayed by a multitude of factors. Whereas people vote for who they want, for the most part, unswayed.

GOOD EXPLANATION OF THE 17TH AMENDMENT, AND YOUR VIEW OF IT.

2. An article V convention is held by congress to alter the text of the constitution. To hold one a ¾ vote of state legislatures need to vote in favor of it. This system is, in my opinion, never going to be needed. The constitution has kept our country together for over two hundred years. I therefore do not believe it will ever need to be altered.

INCORRECT ABOUT THE FRACTION NEEDED: IT IS 2/3RDS OF THE STATES, NOT 3/4THS, WHICH IS NEEDED TO CALL A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. (-1) APPROVAL BY 3/4THS OF THE STATES IS THEN NEEDED TO APPROVE (RATIFY) WHAT THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION PROPOSES. BUT YOUR CONCLUSION IS EXCELLENT.

3. I think that the least important, failed amendment would be the Anti-Nobility amendment, which required that any titles of nobility granted to a citizen by any foreign government official, king etc. without the consent of congress would leave that citizen, no longer a citizen. In other words, if you were granted a title of Sir Jon Doe by the king of England without the consent of congress you could lose your American citizenship. This is, in my opinion the least important of the failed amendments because titles of nobility mean very little to nothing today. The most important failed amendment is one that was important for it to fail. The ERA amendment. This amendment stripped the gender differences and made Male and Female the same. This could cause massive problems in many areas of normal everyday life. Thankfully after it was ratified in 35 states, effots led by Christian Conservative Phyllis Schlafly, and others, stopped it from being ratified into any more states. In fact, a few of the states that had ratified it, changed their minds and rescind their approval.

SUPERB ANSWER!

5. If a private club limits what their members say, it does NOT violate the constitution. This is because the constitution applies to the government not private clubs. I believe that, although this can cause problems for Christians in secular settings, it also protects the rights of Christian clubs to limit what their members can say. Thus, keeping them safe from outside corruption.

EXCELLENT ANSWER AGAIN.

6. It the ERA amendment was ratified one of the many strange problems that would arise from it would be unisex bathrooms. This could cause many horrible problems. There are a variety of other problems that could arise from the ERA amendment.

GOOD ANALYSIS.

7. Even though the constitutional convention was held in complete secrecy, I highly doubt that an Article V convention would be able to be kept secret in this day. The first problem is that men do not have the same morals they did when the constitutional convention was held. All it would take is one man telling one person for the story to grow like wild fire. The media would pick up the story and before you knew it, the entire world would know.

VERY GOOD AGAIN.

TOTAL: 59/60, INCLUDING SOME SUPERB ANSWERS.