What is the purpose of the Constitution?

Question

For those who weren't quite with it enough to figure this out I'll spell it out for you. I didn't ask this question because I don't know the answer, I wanted to see what kind of answers I would get. HELLO!!!

Answer 1

To place limits on the government, to define what they can do, our responsibilities and the individual states responsibilities.

To reiterate, TO PLACE LIMITS ON THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.

Answer 2

The US Constitution is a written constitution which governs the laws of the country. Here in the UK, our constitution is unwritten and not in the form of a legal document. By having a written constitution, the laws of the US are under greater protection as it is harder to change/amend the laws. In the UK, our unwritten constitution is much more flexible in nature because there is not a formal written document and therefore it is much easier to change legislation in parliament. You could argue advantages and disadvantages of both flexible and rigid constitutions. A flexible constitution means that it is easier to change laws when required but it also perhaps means that it may be too easy and the laws are not protected enough. Whilst with a written constitution the advantage is that the laws are protected and easily known, and the disadvantage being the long process of changing/creating new laws. Other functions of a constitution are the seperation/fusion of powers (the executive, legislature and judiciary), whether a constitution is unitary (UK) or federal (US) and whether its monarchical (UK) or republican (US). If this is an exam type question you are answering, its probably a good idea to contrast your constitution with that of another countries i.e. compare the US's with the UK's. This will help you gain a better insight into the purpose of the constitution in your country and using specific examples help back up what you are saying. Hope that helps!

Answer 3

It is the supreme law of the land. No law approved by Congress and signed by the President can be contrary to the Bill of Rights and other ammendments in the Constitution. It also established a government which in principle has power distributed across the three branches of government, the executive that enforces the law, legislative, that enacts the law and the judicial, that interpret the laws. These three branches are supposed to be equal in stature, not one being more important than the other. So, the system of checks and balances was created. The founding fathers wanted a rather weak government, but with time, we have seen how each branch has tried to assert its supremacy over the other. The Constitution is written is such a form that each branch depends on the other to do things. It is also very difficult to ammend and that was done on purpose, so that only when there is a wide concensus in an issue it can be ammended. It established our republican form of government and it is a living document that through interpretation by the Supreme Court, introduction of new ammendments, it has expanded the rights of the citizens of the United States of America to what we have right now.

Answer 4

MH/Citizens' answer is partly incorrect. There is nothing about racial equality in the Constitution's original articles, and the only suggestion of "equality before the law" occurs in the 14th Amendment, which was never validly ratified by a 3/4 majority of the states (see Article 5) and, regardless of what the federal government will tell you, is not a legal part of the US constitution.

The purpose of the Constitution of the United States was to establish a government, define its methods of operation, and limit its powers. The Preamble to the Constitution sets forth the objectives that the Founding Fathers wanted the government described in the Constitution to achieve: justice, defense, the blessings of liberty "to ourselves and to our posterity." They didn't define the scope of the plural pronoun "our," but you may have noticed that all the Founding Fathers were White, every one of them.

Little did they know that only 70 years later the American Civil War would begin the undoing of all their work, and that 200 years after the ink from the Constitution's signing had dried, the US government would have become the antithesis of everything the Founding Fathers had hoped for.

http://www.constitution.org/14ll/no14th.htm
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061220093635AAspZWV

Answer 5

The purpose of the U. S. Constitution is spelled out in the preamble.

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.

Answer 6

In 1929 on black thursday, the constitution of the u.s. was nullified to the closest version of marshal law they had at the time. to keep his power & our economy stable, we joined ww2 on both sides as weapons manufactorers. we only joined the fighting b/c germany was ssinking our shipments to england, & that hurt our profits. After the initial war was progressing, roosevelt didn't pull any bushcrap, and didn't push to keep office since truman was a fellow republican. the constitution has never been turned back on. the patriot act was just a test to see whether the people would fight for their rights or just accept it like everything else. that way, they can judge when to explain how FEMA has been calling all the shots from behind the curtain for a while, while barely anyone knows what FEMA even is.

Answer 7

The purpose of the US constitution is contained in the preamble.

"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."

Note the phraise "Secure the blessing of liberty" The men who wrote that and edorced it, ALL believed that God was the one who grants liberty. It was up to the people to keep themselves free. The first 10 ammendments to the constitution do not give righs to the people. God already did that. The first 10 ammendments are designed to stop the Government from taking God given rights away.

Answer 8

To define -- and LIMIT -- the powers of Government which, sad to say, has been a catastrophic failure because "We, the people" have been too busy worrying about things that really don't matter like sports, celebrity gossip, buying cheap goods from China, etc. than closely monitoring the activities of our elected and appointed public officials.

The US is a SINKING SHIP. Why more Americans don't wake up and see that is a mystery to me.

VOTE RON PAUL FOR PRESIDENT!

Answer 9

To ensure that our government doesn't take away the rights and privileges of the citizens. To ensure that all citizens are subject to the same laws regardless of their race, creed, national origin, or monetary wealth or lack thereof. To ensure that the people and only the people have the right to change the constitution and the vote required is 2/3rds to get an amendment passed. It is to protect our citizens and insure our freedoms and our protection.

Answer 10

It says it right in the preamble:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.overview.html