Revisiting the Constitution: Conversations with the Authors

Copyright © 2013

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-1201-4 (e)

Printed in the United States of America.

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/19/2013

Contents

Foreword

The Work Begins: Blueprint For A Nation

Legislation: Who Creates Our Laws

Executive Power: Used Or Abused

Judicial Interpretation Vs Judicial Legislation

Who Does What, Why, And When

Oops, Things We Forgot Like Basic Rights

First Amendment What Does It Really Say?

Guns, Military Houseguests, And Search Warrants

The Common Criminal & Common Law Amendments 5, 6, 7, And 8

Your Job Or Mine? Amendments 9, 10, And 11

Amendments 12, 20, 22, 17, 25, And 27 Parameters Of Office And Filling Vacancies

Amendments 13, 14, 15, & 24 Civil Rights And Fair Voting Practices

Who Votes? Changing The Law Amendments 19, 23, And 26

Time To Talk Taxes Amendment 16

To Drink Or Not To Drink Amendments 18 & 21

Presidents & Czars

Let’s Restore The Constitution, If We Can…

Author’s Note

Resources

"More than 224 years have passed since the forefathers of our great nation framed an enduring and supreme law, the United States Constitution. Revisiting the Constitution is nothing short of a passport through time, providing a historically accurate and unique perspective of the magnificent discourse which surrounded the creation of this time honored doctrine. Any American citizen seeking a deeper understanding of the nation’s moral, legal, and governmental underpinnings can learn from such an outstanding text. Moreover, the words and enlightenment within come dir4ectly from authors such as Jefferson, Franklin, Madison and Hamilton. Revisiting the Constitution should be everywhere, from 8th grade civics classrooms to constitutional law libraries."

-Dr. Ed. Massey, President of Indian River State College, Florida.

"Revisiting the Constitution should be mandatory reading in high school and college and recommended reading in every American household. Elizabeth Renzulli’s masterpiece is an important work for everyone who loves and respects the United States of America."

-Ken Pruitt, Florida Senate President 2006-2008.

About the Author

Elizabeth Renzulli is the mother of five children and a retired high school English/Social Studies teacher from Sullivan West CSD in New York. She has also worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, U.S. Department of Labor, and Sullivan County Democrat as a string reporter and feature writer. Other work includes The Katyn Forest Massacre published in The Nassau Review, a publication of Nassau Community College in New York. She currently resides in Chambersburg, Pa.

FOREWORD

Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America

WE THE PEOPLE of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

September l7, l787

What would the authors say about the way politicians and judges are interpreting the Constitution? A document hobbled together against nearly impossible odds by a fledgling nation over two hundred years ago has been rendered nearly impotent by hot shot lawyers and ambitious politicians who seek not to abide by the words, but to twist the meaning of them to suit their own purposes

Conversations With The Authors: A Constitution Revisited examines this historical document Article by Article, and Section by Section with commentary from the founding fathers were they able to do so.

It is at once a reference book to the Constitution, presidential initiatives, and Supreme Court decisions examined with tongue-in-cheek humor, and a running commentary by men like Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and others. I have put words in their mouths to look at both sides of the issue whenever possible. They have been allowed to offer comments on many of today’s politicians and perplexing issues and make recommendations, if not to be implemented, at least to be considered as working alternatives or as a springboard for further discussion.

I hope you will enjoy their observations and seriously consider how you too can honor and preserve our Constitution so it will continue to function for many years to come.

Chapter l

THE WORK BEGINS: BLUEPRINT FOR A NATION

They drifted into the great hall in little groups, solemnly nodding to each other or exchanging greetings. A noisy trio engaged in a heated discussion approached the imposing columns.. One of the men could be heard to say, What tomfoolery! The country is financially troubled. Why would you choose a Treasury Secretary who could not even comprehend his own tax accounts these past four years?

Alexander is right of course, but is it any wonder it was such a poor choice? The man they elected to the presidency is totally devoid of managerial experience. Why he never ran so much as a dry goods or haberdashery, how could you expect him to run a country, a nearly bankrupt one I might add, or make appropriate appointments to assist him?

It would seem he promised the electorate a virtual paradise. They were seduced by his eloquent oratory, and their own greed in believing he was capable of uplifting their station in life by taking from the rich to support the poor, an American Robin Hood of sorts. I say gentlemen, the whole lot of them have taken leave of their senses.

Their former leader was bad enough, and I did not deem it possible to find one less qualified to lead. Somehow though, they managed to outdo themselves.

Perhaps that is why George has called this emergency session, said another.

Actually, it is something he often spoke of doing, but I rather thought he was indulging a whim. You know he could not wait to quit our company and return to his humdrum life on the plantation. Yet now he summons us from our bucolic existence to address problems we did not create nor anticipate solving.

On such a beautiful day, you would think he might have suggested meeting outdoors, grumbled one of the early arrivals.

Why? asked Mr. Franklin. Is not one day here as beautiful as the next? I need a chair for my weary bones. Let us go inside and be seated.

Shh, said the first. He is approaching. Let us hear what matter is so grave and perplexing that he would feel the necessity to call us together after all this time.

The President, wearing a stern expression, nodded solemnly to individuals as he entered the hall followed by his Secretary, William Jackson. The secretary settled himself at the table spreading out his writing materials as the President stood at the podium waiting for the room to quiet down. The gavel signaled the start of the meeting, and the Secretary rose.

Oyeh, oyeh, the emergency gathering of the authors of the Constitution of the United States is now in session.

The President cleared his throat and began, Gentlemen, we are hereby gathered to determine if the validity of our document is in peril and whether or not it maintains the degree of integrity we so intended.

I know this may come as a surprise to many of you, but that which we labored months to create has been slowly eroded over the years by one side or the other, and now this latest administration threatens to complete the destruction in record time. I know not what possesses those below. Leaders are making blunder upon blunder while the electorate patiently wait for the changes they were promised. I thought all was truly lost and then a glimmer of hope arose.

All eyes were upon him. The President who was usually a man of few words, nevertheless could mesmerize an audience when necessary. He paused for dramatic effect, then in a soft voice continued. They call themselves ‘Tea Parties’, but they do not dump good liquid into the bay as we did…

What a waste could be heard toward the back of the hall.

The President went on as it there had been no interruption. No, I believe their motto is ‘Taxed Enough Already’, thus the TEA in Tea Party. It is because of them I summoned you to this meeting. They have truly seen the need to go back to basics. They want only to save their country from this plunge into destruction. We will speak of them again, but now, let us get started.

We will start with a roll call. Each member please answer as your name is called. We will then go over the rules of this gathering and set to work with a diligence I fear we may have been lacking in our earlier endeavor. I have asked Mr. Jackson to record the proceedings as he did so capably when first we set our hands to this task, and so Mr. Secretary, if you would be so good as to call the roll and list the participants, we can get started."

Very good sir. As I call your name and your state of residence, kindly respond with an ‘aye’. If my information is in error, please indicate the correction and we will then proceed.

George Washington, Distinguished President and Virginia delegate…Aye.

Forty one of you have answered the call, and I am certain another handful will appear shortly. We are embarking on a task that if successful, will restore sanity to our great country. Failure, however may doom the country to a continued downward spiral. This is something I feel passionately about as I’m sure do all of you.

As the President spoke, Mr. Jackson sat thinking about how he would title his notes. Was this to be a modern Constitutional Congress, a Steering Committee, Ad Hoc authors of the Constitution. Oh well, George would title the completed document, of that there was no doubt. His job was as before, to take copious notes. Would that Mr. Madison were here. The journals he kept were extensive and it was always a good idea to compare notes.

He looked around at those assembled, reflecting on the lives they had led below. Checking through his papers, he noted that seventy had originally been chosen to work on the task of creating the constitution, fifty-five had actually attended a number of the sessions, but only thirty-nine had signed the completed document.

Of the original seventy invited, the names of six who did not attend surprised him. At the time he had been too busy to notice, but now he wondered what pressing business could have kept them away. The six on which he speculated included Richard Henry Lee, best known as the uncle of Light horse Harry Lee who in turn fathered Robert E. Lee, the great Civil War general. Patrick Henry, a patriot if ever there was one was best remembered for his quote to the Virginia legislature, As for me, give me liberty or give me death. Powerful words when it came right down to it. Thomas Jefferson, well known and well intentioned was one of his favorites. Mr. Jackson, a book lover, would always be grateful to Thomas for donating his extensive collection to the Library of Congress when the original collection had perished. He thought proudly to himself how he had read every volume. He still managed weekly trips below where he navigated the isles of Borders, Barnes & Noble, Waldens, and indeed he even paid visits to out of the way book warehouses like Edward R. Hamilton in Connecticut. He had read voraciously for the last two hundred years and would contentedly continue to do so. John and Samuel Adams were among the six together with John Hancock who was probably most famous for his flourishing signature. As to the amount of times he had heard someone say, Put your John Hancock here, to indicate the necessity of a signature, he could not even fathom a guess.

As he looked around the room, he reflected on those who had labored long and hard over this document. There sat Jonathan Dayton, at twenty-six, he had been the youngest of the original, and of course old Ben Franklin, the oldest at eighty-one. A slow grin creased his features as he remembered how Ben could pluck a witty comment out of thin air and diffuse a troublesome situation, even though he might have appeared to be asleep. He was equally adept at uttering a profound bit of wisdom when that was necessary. He was truly an amazing multi-talented man.

The men in this assembly were both ordinary and dynamic. Fifty of the fifty-one had served the government in some capacity, some serving in more than one position over the years. George Washington and three others had risen to the highest office of the land, while there were five cabinet members, eight Supreme Court Justices, four diplomats, fourteen senators, five representatives and twelve state governors. Twenty nine had been lawyers, some self taught, others formally educated at the best schools. Thirty of the fifty-one had fought in the Revolution. However, there were some among the group who retained some degree of allegiance to England and so did not engage in actual hostilities. Then there was Mr. Lansing and Mr. Yates from New York who felt their allegiance to the mother country would prevent them from granting the degree of liberty sought, and so they left early. Forty-eight had more than one profession. Three had been theologians, six were educators or college professors, two surveyors, two printers, and one scientist were represented. Eight had been businessmen or engaged in importing and exporting and four had been land speculators or large landowners while four more had been farmers. There were at least two authors, more if you counted the political tracts that some produced with great regularity. And a partridge in a pair tree, he thought as he snapped out of his reverie, and refocused on the President who was still speaking.

From such diverse backgrounds they answered the call of country to devise a plan that could accommodate the emerging nation, and now were once again gathered to see if they could help the struggling nation to overcome the current crisis.

Now gentlemen, this is a most auspicious beginning, the president was saying. It seems that most of us are here, although where else we might be I hardly dare to imagine. I believe it was you Mr. Franklin, who at the close of those fateful days in Philadelphia, did speculate as to what it would be like to review the progress of our document two hundred years hence. We are a bit off the mark by about thirty-five years but one does seem to lose track of time up here. In any case, happenings below of which I have been cognizant these past one hundred and seventy five years have reached a point where I deem it necessary to reevaluate the changes our progeny have enacted, and try to fathom their thought processes. In many instances, they have wandered far from our original intentions. It would be well to examine those many cerebral wanderings, and in light of the changes they have made, to examine their intent since it hardly matches our own. I fear some of their alterations have created a legal morass., and I find myself asking, If politicians still follow the form, why not the substance? However shamefacedly, I must admit that some of the changes are an improvement over what we intended.

Ever mindful of Tom Jefferson’s admonition that freedom cannot endure if government is not bound by a constitution, I felt we could ignore this crisis no longer. They are losing their freedom and worse yet, do not seem to be aware it is happening. You may recall how he warned us that a government too strong could take away our freedoms. It was because of his words coursing through my thoughts that I asked a few patriotic gentlemen much like ourselves to visit a few areas with which they were intimately familiar and report back on the state of the constitution. It is those gentlemen I yet expect to join us, although I must warn you, some of them came along at times of strife experienced after our own Revolution. Perhaps it will be good to have a few fresh opinions to complement our own. I have of course, also asked Thomas to join us. He can always be counted on for good advice.

Yes, said another, I remember well his reminder to be constantly vigilant. In 1798 he spoke against the passage of the Alien & Sedition Acts. He argued most eloquently that they violated both the first and tenth amendments which were added two years after we completed our work. And when he was elected to the presidency in 1801, he gave proof of his commitment by releasing any who had been imprisoned under that act. Once it was expired, we did not see legislation of that ilk until 1917.

Indeed gentlemen, it would seem that much of what we find fault with did not occur until around 1917. There were a few liberties taken with this blueprint but for the most part, they were decisions made in a time of crisis, and were quickly discarded when no longer needed. Up until the twentieth century, again for the most part, men were not so self-serving and of a more patriotic bent. What did happen to those individuals to so change their attitude toward their country? It is my fervent hope that as we peruse this document and discuss the deviations it will help us to understand their mindset.

Now let us begin. As to the rules…We will remain in this great hall until we have completed our task. Fortunately for some of us, there are no taverns to offer distraction, and since card games are not allowed in this environ, we stand a good chance of completing our task in much less time than we originally utilized when working below. And considering that we have no pressing engagements, time should not be a problem. Nourishment will be provided at specified intervals. We must be properly fortified to stay focused on our task. Perhaps those currently absent from our assembly will join us later. I rather expected James to be the first one here, and yet he is not in attendance. Ah well…

In keeping with the rules of courtesy, please recognize the speaker who has the floor. At the outset, he will identify himself for the record by stating name and state of allegiance, thereafter name alone will be sufficient. If you wish to offer a dissenting remark, kindly wait until the current speaker has yielded to interject your thoughts. Then a period of discussion may ensue.

Mr. Jackson, if you will be so good as to record the proceedings, we can then conduct a final review to determine whether or not we have misspoken. I rather like the method employed by the Congress. At the end of the day, speeches are typed and a copy given to each of the participants. If they do not like what they uttered in chamber, they simply restate their position before it becomes part of the official Congressional Record. In this fashion, they are able to polish their eloquence, correct any misstatements, and in some cases alter the very intent of the words they earlier spoke. I venture to say this is a most sophisticated demonstration of the process those below refer to as ‘instant replay’.

***

Now that our parameters have been set, let us read the document Article by Article, and Section by Section, allowing for a period of deliberation when indicated. Mr. Jackson, display the preamble on the wall board if you will, please.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more

perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility,

provide for the Common defense, promote the general Welfare,

and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,

do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Mr. President, if I may sir…

The chair recognizes Mr. Livingston of New Jersey, although I hardly feel the necessity of suggesting any changes to the Preamble. You have the floor sir.

Thank you Mr. President. May I point out gentlemen that at the time of initial writing, we were colonies not yet United States as currently exists below. Now that the country in question comprises fifty states, you don’t suppose those who were not yet a part of our nation at the time of this undertaking will use that to quibble over whether or not they are bound by the document?

When we declared our independence from the British Crown, we called ourselves the thirteen original states of America though that had yet to be established. As you correctly point out Mr. Livingston, all thirteen states were not yet on board when we wrote this document. However, were we afraid that they as well as those who would eventually join us would find such a document objectionable, then sir, we might never have conceived this covenant which has served us well over the course of time.

Yes, Mr. Morris from Pennsylvania, you wish to comment."

I believe it is a moot point sir, since all states did sign on and formed quite an impressive union at that. I further believe Mr. President, that the ideas being formulated here speak to a people who would not be asked to sign on until a comprehensive document had been presented to them, one that did not limit in size but encompassed expansion of existing territories and inclusion of new ones in just such a manner.

I quite agree, and I think it bears mentioning that the document was sorely tested during the period of civil strife that occurred a hundred and fifty years ago and the union remains strong despite continual tests of durability. If there are no other objections, then let us continue. Please display Article 1, Section 1, Mr. Jackson.

***

Chapter 2

LEGISLATION: WHO CREATES OUR LAWS

ARTICLE l, Section l

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress

of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of

Representatives

Discussion…The chair recognizes Mr. Sherman of Connecticut.

Well sir, while the language is clear enough, I fear we shall have to revisit this section after we have examined judicial duties under Article III. For unless I am mistaken, it would seem to me the justices below for some time now have been more fully engaged in the business of making laws rather than interpreting them as we originally intended.

Mr. Franklin of Pennsylvania then spoke up. If that be the case, then as needs be, we must also discuss the legality of input of those known as czars who serve at the pleasure of the President but are not elected by the people. While I recognize the need, and am fully in favor of a Cabinet to help the President, such a body must not usurp the legislative powers of the duly elected representatives of the populace. Besides which, they are not vetted and seemingly answer to no one. That is a recipe for disaster. I suggest we strongly recommend that they be subject to the approval of the combined houses.

Notwithstanding the remarks of Mr. Sherman and Mr. Franklin, of which I heartily concur, can we agree that the business of creating new laws should reside exclusively with the Congress, not the Judicial. Our language, I believe, is perfectly clear on this point. That would also be the time to examine these Czars of which you speak. Did we perchance import them from Russia? Sorry gentlemen, I jest of course.

Mr. President, I believe an examination of ‘czars’ should take place when reviewing executive duties. In this way, we can also address executive orders and signings.

Pray tell, asked Mr. Sherman, what are they? I fear I have been remiss in following the political climate below. Certainly I am less well informed than many of you my esteemed colleagues who have been monitoring congressional behavior on a regular basis. For this I apologize. I will however, endeavor to correct this oversight with all due haste.

Those of you who have been observing the administrations over the long period, will have noticed that for some time now, presidents have been taking increasingly more and more liberty in defining their duties.

Gentlemen, gentlemen, let us hold this discussion for Article two. It is imperative that we present an organized list of recommendations, else they will view our thoughts as the haphazard ramblings of dead old men and dismiss them out of hand.

And so we are, what of it? They should be grateful that we are magnanimous enough to help extricate them from the present predicament in which we find them, and which they are seemingly unaware of.

Yes, well, if there is no further dissent, I suggest we move on to Section two under Article One. Please post Section 2, Mr. Jackson.

***

ARTICLE 1, Section 2

The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen

every Second year by the People of the several States, and the Electors

in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the

most Numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the

age of twenty five years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United

States and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State

in which he shall be chosen.

Representatives not direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the

several States which may be included within the Union, according to

their Respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the

whole Number of free Persons ,including those bound to Service for a

term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other

Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three years

after the first Meeting of Congress of the United States, and within every

subsequent Term of ten years, in such Manner as they shall by Law

direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every

thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at least one representative

and until such enumeration