what is the U.S. constitution?

Question

detailed answer please

Answer 1

The US constitution is the document that the United States government is founded upon. It provides the philosophy behind the government and details the separation of powers, supremacy of the government, the realtionships between federal and local governments, ect.
The First Article deals with power given to the executive branch of the government (the President, the President's council, ect). The next article deals with the judicial branch (Courts, Judges, ect.) The third article deals with Congress (the Senate and the House of Representitives). The fourth article gives guidelines to the states about their role in the govenment and relationships with each other. The fith article outlines the process for making amendments to the constitution. The sixth article gives the federal govenment (national government) supremacy over all other government within it (this is called the supremacy clause and is derived from the idea that people have give their ulitmate suprememacy up to the government in order for protection. The final article lists how to go about ratifying the consitiution (in other words how many states need to agree with the consistution in order for it to be the new law of the land). Following the US Constitution are amendments to the consitution which are changes that have been made to the US constitution over the years in order to improve it. So when people discuss their first amendment right to freedom of expression, they are citing the first change/addition to the consitiution which basically states that people have the right to express themselves.

The constitution of the United States becomes much more complex when put into action and has many implications....but that is the jist of it.

Answer 2

It is a very old document which recent courts and legislators have basically phased out of existence as anything practical.

It was designed to define and regulate those areas where the central government of the REPUBLIC had authority over the citizens, and where it was bounded and constrained by personal rights.

At this point, since most politicians and educators call America a Democracy, which it is not under the Constitution, and since the Courts want to follow European and situational-ethics rather than the Constitution and bend and twist it to support their ideas, rather than making their ideas conform to the Constitution, it appears is is mostly of minor historical interest.

It was a good try, but the public became amoral, and uninterested in the government for anything more than aid and money, and maybe power, so now has been rendered obsolete aside from folks who like a good quote in the older American English.

Its major use now seems to be to tie up legal proceedings against things that cause harm to general populace, to appease powerful pressure groups, or for matters of Political Correctness, or because the Europeans did it that way, and also as a document to be interpreted by the court to permit whatever perversion and questionable ethics are popular, or whichever party has last paid to pack the court with judges who show a marked lack of ethics, but strong allegiance the Party that paid them. Should dispense with it, and really have a Democracy, where all issues are decided by a strict numeric majority of those who choose to vote, period.

Of course, that has always led to a dictatorship in the past, but America is Different...we think of the long-range effects of our votes, Right?

Answer 3

The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. It was adopted on September 17, 1787, by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and later ratified by conventions in each state in the name of "the People"; it has since been amended twenty-seven times. The Constitution has a central place in American law and political culture. The U.S. Constitution is argued by many to be the oldest written national constitution. The handwritten, or "engrossed", original document is on display at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C.

Answer 4

It is the Supreme law of the United States of America.

It outlines and defines the KINDS of laws that Congress can and cannot pass. In doing so, it defines our rights and responsibilities as citizens of the USA.

Its a complex document that can be changed, when necessity arrives, and therefore is hard to discuss intelligently in a short-form answer like this.

Here's a link to a copy of the text, as well as some information about what it all means