The Amendment Series: The Rest of Them

One of the unique and beautiful aspects of the U.S. Constitution is that it can be amended. Our Constitution is our government’s job description and “we the people” should have the ability to update or change our government’s job description if we please.

However, doing this is no small matter. We are fundamentally changing the job of government when we amend the Constitution. In the context of the federal government, we’re changing the job of the federal government in contrast to the job of the state and local governments.

So, while I have been and will continue to unpack issues regarding drug policy and policing power, I’m also going to start a new series: the rest of the amendments.

I already wrote a series on the first ten amendments, the ones we all know and love… however, the other seventeen did dramatically change the job of government of the past 200 years and it’s important that we, the employers of government, understand what those changes are.

It’s especially important that we understand how these amendment’s have changed our government’s job if we’re to ever do it again. How and in what ways have the citizens been affected? How has liberty been affected? Has liberty been protected or violated as a result of these changes. Did the Constitution’s ability to define and confine federal power increase with these amendments or decrease with these amendments. What events led to the passage of these amendments? Were they passed irrationally or did reason reign?

History always repeats itself, so it’s incumbent upon us to know and understand the history we’re about to repeat.

The Liberty Belle