Some have asked me what constitutionalism is. This pretty much describes it. I swore to defend it with my life against all enemies both foreign and domestic. I the every American should at least read it! Lol well ill get off the soap box now! American constitutionalism has been defined as a complex of ideas, attitudes, and patterns of behavior elaborating the principle that the authority of government derives from the people, and is limited by a body of fundamental law. These ideas, attitudes and patterns of behavior, according to one analyst, derive from "a dynamic political and historical process rather than from a static body of thought laid down in the eighteenth century".[18] In U.S. history, constitutionalism—in both its descriptive and prescriptive sense—has traditionally focused on the federal Constitution. Indeed, a routine assumption of many scholars has been that understanding "American constitutionalism" necessarily entails the thought that went into the drafting of the federal Constitution and the American experience with that constitution since its ratification in 1789.[19] There is a rich tradition of state constitutionalism that offers broader insight into constitutionalism in the United States.[20] While state constitutions and the federal Constitution operate differently as a function of federalism—the coexistence and interplay of governments at both a national and state level—they all rest on a shared assumption that their legitimacy comes from the sovereign authority of the people or Popular sovereignty. This underlying premise—embraced by the American revolutionaries with the Declaration of Independence—unites the American constitutional tradition.[21] Both the experience with state constitutions before—and after—the federal Constitution as well as the emergence and operation of the federal Constitution reflect an on-going struggle over the idea that all governments in America rested on the sovereignty of the people for their legitimacy.[22]
Posted on: Tue, 30 Jul 2013 23:26:17 +0000