The document summarizes the key aspects and amendments of the United States Constitution. It outlines the original 7 articles that established the separation of powers and federalism. It then describes the 27 amendments, including those that protect civil rights and liberties. The amendments have adapted the Constitution to meet the changing needs of the nation over time. The document provides context on the framers' original intent for the Constitution to serve the people and balance governmental powers.

4. to

6. so what matters..?
perhaps what matters is ..
o n g o i n g

7. 1 space to be you (authenticity)..true to self..eudaimonia
2 space to be us (attachment)..invited to exist..known by someone..
eudaimoniative surplus
l y

9. [it also matters that we trust what constitutes being human..ie: emergence
which is more about being indigenous and antifragile than having consensus]

10. and what is irrelevant..? (to authenticity and attachment)

11. The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States
of America. The Constitution, originally comprising seven articles, delineates the national frame of government. Its first three
articles entrench the doctrine of the separation of powers, whereby the federal government is divided
into three branches: the legislative, consisting of the bicameral Congress; the executive, consisting of the President; and the judicial,
consisting of the Supreme Court and other federal courts. Articles Four, Five and Six entrench concepts of federalism, describing the
rights and responsibilities of state governments and of the states in relationship to the federal government. Article Seven establishes
the procedure subsequently used by the thirteen States to ratify it.

12. Lysander Spooner (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysander_Spooner)
Spooner argued that the Constitution was a contract of government (see social contract
theory) which could not logically apply to anyone other than the individuals who signed
it, and was thus void. Furthermore, since the government now existing under the
Constitution pursued coercive policies that were contrary to the Natural Law and to
the consent of the governed, it had been demonstrated that that document could not
adequately stop many abuses against liberty or prevent tyranny.

13. Since the Constitution came into force in 1789, it has been amended twenty-seven times to meet
the changing needs of a nation now profoundly different from the
eighteenth-century world in which its creators lived. In general, the
first ten amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, offer specific
protections of individual liberty and justice and place restrictions on the powers of government. The majority of the seventeen later
amendments expand individual civil rights protections. Others address issues related to federal authority or modify government
processes and procedures.

14. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9dM0l1ZxO8 ---
‘on everyone willing to break promise of bill of rights once got into congress.. ie: Madison and Burke on bill of rights and amendments‘
- Sheldon Richman at 51 min

15. Safeguards of liberty (Amendments 1, 2, 3)
The First Amendment (1791) prohibits Congress from obstructing the exercise of certain individual freedoms: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom
of the press, freedom of assembly, and right to petition.
The Second Amendment (1791) protects the right of individuals to keep and bear arms.
The Third Amendment (1791) prohibits the federal government from forcing individuals to provide lodging to soldiers in their homes during peacetime without
their consent.
Safeguards of justice (Amendments 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
The Fourth Amendment (1791) protects people against unreasonable searches and seizures of either self or property by government officials
The Fifth Amendment (1791) establishes the requirement that a trial for a major crime may commence only after an indictment has been handed down by a
grand jury;
The Sixth Amendment (1791) provides several protections and rights to an individual accused of a crime.
The Seventh Amendment (1791) extends the right to a jury trial to federal civil cases, and inhibits courts from overturning a jury's findings of fact.
The Eighth Amendment (1791) protects people from having bail or fines set at an amount so high that it would be impossible for all but the richest defendants
to pay and also protects people from being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment.
Unenumerated rights and reserved powers (Amendments 9, 10)
The Ninth Amendment (1791) declares that individuals have other fundamental rights, in addition to those stated in the Constitution.
The Tenth Amendment (1791) was included in the Bill of Rights to further define the balance of power between the federal government and the states.

16. Governmental authority (Amendments 11, 16, 18, 21)
The Eleventh Amendment (1795) specifically prohibits federal courts from hearing cases in which a state is sued by an individual from another state or another
country, thus extending to the states sovereign immunity protection from certain types of legal liability.
The Sixteenth Amendment (1913) removed existing Constitutional constraints that limited the power of Congress to lay and collect taxes on income.
The Eighteenth Amendment (1919) prohibited the making, transporting, and selling of alcoholic beverages nationwide.
The Twenty-first Amendment (1933) repealed the Eighteenth Amendment and returned the regulation of alcohol to the states.
Safeguards of civil rights (Amendments 13, 14, 15, 19, 23, 24, 26)
The Thirteenth Amendment (1865) abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime, and authorized Congress to enforce
abolition.
The Fourteenth Amendment (1868) granted United States citizenship to former slaves and to all persons "subject to U.S. jurisdiction".
The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) prohibits the use of race, color, or previous condition of servitude in determining which citizens may vote.
The Nineteenth Amendment (1920) prohibits the government from denying women the right to vote on the same terms as men.
The Twenty-third Amendment (1961) extends the right to vote in presidential elections to citizens residing in the District of Columbia by granting the
Districtelectors in the Electoral College, as if it were a state
The Twenty-fourth Amendment (1964) prohibits a poll tax for voting.
The Twenty-sixth Amendment (1971) prohibits the government from denying the right of United States citizens, eighteen years of age or older, to vote on
account of age.
Government processes and procedures (Amendments 12, 17, 20, 22, 25, 27)
The Twelfth Amendment (1804) modifies the way the Electoral College chooses the President and Vice President.
The Seventeenth Amendment (1913) modifies the way senators are elected
The Twentieth Amendment (1933) changes the date on which a new President, Vice President and Congress take office, thus shortening the time between
Election Day and the beginning of Presidential, Vice Presidential and Congressional terms
The Twenty-second Amendment (1951) limits an elected president to two terms in office, a total of eight years.
The Twenty-fifth Amendment (1967) clarifies what happens upon the death, removal, or resignation of the President or Vice President and how the Presidency
is temporarily filled if the President becomes disabled and cannot fulfill the responsibilities of the office.
The Twenty-seventh Amendment (1992) prevents members of Congress from granting themselves pay raises during the current session.

17. Collectively, members of the House and Senate typically propose
around 200 amendments during each two-year term of Congress. Most
however, never get out of the Congressional committees in which they were proposed, and only a fraction of those that do receive
enough support to win Congressional approval to actually go through the constitutional ratification process.

19. According to the United States Senate: "The Constitution's first three words—We the
People—affirm that the government of the United States exists to
serve its citizens. For over two centuries the Constitution has remained in force because its framers wisely
separated and balanced governmental powers to safeguard the interests of majority rule and minority rights, of liberty and
equality, and of the federal and state governments."
The first constitution of its kind, adopted by the people's representatives for an expansive nation, it is interpreted, supplemented,
and implemented by a large body of constitutional law, and has influenced the constitutions of other nations.

20. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9dM0l1ZxO8 ---
‘Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry asking.. what’s with this we the people.. this is a confed of states‘
- Sheldon Richman at 50 min

21. Article One describes the Congress, the legislative branch of the federal government.
Article Two describes the office of the President of the United States.
Article Three describes the court system (the judicial branch), including the Supreme Court.
Article Four outlines the relations among the states and between each state and the federal government.
Article Five outlines the process for amending the Constitution.
Article Six establishes the Constitution, and all federal laws and treaties of the United States made according to it,
to be the supreme law of the land, and that "the judges in every
state shall be bound thereby, any thing in the laws or
constitutions of any state notwithstanding." It validates
national debt created under the Articles of Confederation and requires that all federal and state
legislators, officers, and judges take oaths or affirmations to support the Constitution. This means that the states'
constitutions and laws should not conflict with the laws of the federal constitution and that in case of a conflict, state
judges are legally bound to honor the federal laws and constitution over those of any state. Article Six also states
"no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."
Article Seven describes the process for establishing the proposed new frame of government.

22. constitution of no authority - Spooner’s in treason (http://praxeology.net/LS-NT-6.htm)
The Constitution has no inherent authority or obligation. It has no authority or obligation at all, unless as a contract between man and man.
And it does not so much as even purport to be a contract between persons now existing. It purports, at most, to be only a contract between
persons living eighty years ago. And it can be supposed to have been a contract then only between persons who had already come to years of
discretion, so as to be competent to make reasonable and obligatory contracts. Furthermore, we know, historically, that only a
small portion even of the people then existing were consulted on the
subject, or asked, or permitted to express either their consent or
dissent in any formal manner. Those persons, if any, who did give their consent formally, are all dead now. Most of them have been
dead forty, fifty, sixty, or seventy years. And the constitution, so far as it was their contract, died with them. They had no natural power or
right to make it obligatory upon their children. It is not only plainly impossible, in the nature of things, that they could bind their posterity,
but they did not even attempt to bind them. That is to say, the instrument does not purport to be an agreement between any body but “the
people” then existing; nor does it, either expressly or impliedly, assert any right, power, or disposition, on their part, to bind anybody but
themselves.

24. we perpetuate the notion of consensus by assuming we ever have consensus
[which was perhaps understandable. but we now have the means to listen to all the voices. all matters.]

25. The way the Constitution is understood is influenced by court
decisions, especially those of the Supreme Court. These decisions are referred to as
precedents. Judicial review is the power of the Court to examine federal legislation, federal executive, and all state branches of
government, to decide their constitutionality, and to strike them down if found unconstitutional.
Judicial review includes the power of the Court to explain the meaning of the Constitution as it applies to particular cases. Over
the years, Court decisions on issues ranging from governmental regulation of radio and television to the rights of the accused in
criminal cases have changed the way many constitutional clauses are interpreted, without amendment to the actual text of the
Constitution.
Legislation passed to implement the Constitution, or to adapt those implementations to changing conditions, broadens and, in
subtle ways, changes the meanings given to the words of the Constitution. Up to a point, the rules and regulations of the many
federal executive agencies have a similar effect. If an action of Congress or the agencies is challenged, however, it is the court
system that ultimately decides whether these actions are permissible under the Constitution.
time to redefine decision making

26. time to redefine decision making
e v e r y where
The United States Constitution has been a notable model for
governance around the world. Its international influence is found in similarities of phrasing and borrowed
passages in other constitutions, as well as in the principles of the rule of law, separation of powers and recognition of individual
rights. The American experience of fundamental law with amendments and judicial review has motivated constitutionalists at times
when they were considering the possibilities for their nation's future.

27. The United States Constitution has faced various criticisms since its
inception in 1787.
The Constitution did not originally define who was eligible to vote, allowing each state to determine who was eligible. In the early
history of the U.S., most states allowed only white male adult property owners to vote. Until the Reconstruction Amendments were
adopted between 1865 and 1870, the five years immediately following the Civil War, the Constitution did not abolish slavery, nor
give citizenship and voting rights to former slaves. These amendments did not include a specific prohibition on discrimination on
the basis of sex; it took another amendment – the Nineteenth, ratified in 1920 – for the Constitution to prohibit any United States
citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex.
time to disengage from consensus

28. because how is .. voting/war/justice/liberty .. working out for us..?
seems we spend a lot of the hours of our days..
protesting
complaining
stressing
lobbying
begging
obeying
following
submitting
inspecting
on-hold
after 200+ years shouldn’t we be a little closer to..
liberty
equity?
perhaps we give ourselves a go.. by giving something else a go
let’s just see

29. disengage..

30. perhaps we..
..from using something that’s fundamentally not us to
ongoingly define/constitute/bind us..
perhaps assumptions that the u.s. constitution is
constitutional is what’s humane-ly unconstitutional..
[perpetuating our broken feedback loop]

31. questioning/wondering about comments from wise people..
constitutional ..?

32. Edward Snowden (@Snowden) tweeted at 2:57 PM - 29 Jan 2017 :
No matter your politics, this is a grave concern. A government which refuses to respect the
orders of its own courts is called a regime. https://t.co/lRubPy47N9
(http://twitter.com/Snowden/status/825825196678459399?s=17)
perhaps.. graver concern.. that we’re living by any orders

33. Peter Schurman (@PSchurman) tweeted at 8:45 AM - 30 Jan 2017 :
Washington Monthly | Is Steve Bannon Trying to Instigate a Constitutional Crisis?
https://t.co/hmOZSKUpRJ(http://twitter.com/PSchurman/status/826093957411004416?s=17)
perhaps constitutional crisis is what we need.. we keep hitting snooze on all the other alarms

34. Helen Walters (@HelenWalters) tweeted at 7:41 AM - 30 Jan 2017 :
"We must remind the partisans that they are citizens first." Wisdom from @lessig:
https://t.co/eKXwqrVBrS(http://twitter.com/HelenWalters/status/826077819704840192?s=17)
And that as citizens, we must rally an allegiance to the
Constitution that this President seems so keen to ignore.
?
perhaps we’re missing an incredible opportunity for a do-over
impossible is irrelevant et al

35. Thomas O'Brien sharing David Graeber - [fitting with Sheldon Richman's defn of anarchism and govt]:
concocted by some form of elite which
presumes it knows better than others
how their affairs are to be conducted

36. 8 min -
anarchy: society where the initiation of physical force is regarded as illegitimate.. no one is privileged w/authority to initiate force….
govt: part of what has in society..a special/privileged institution..can do something no one else can ie: person demanding $ -criminal; govt
demanding $ -not so
10 min – so this govt has gained legitimacy in people’s eyes and anarchism would be assuming no one has that
p r i v i le g e.. w/respect of being able to initiate force against people who themselves have not used force..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsunlCr-Ar0 -- Sheldon Richman
just started reading Cory Doctorow’s
little brother
p 22 - marcus: it's funny but
when she was talking about
my getting 'privileges' it
scared me into submission. i
felt like i'd done something
to end up where i was, like
maybe it was partially my
fault, like i could do
something to change it.

37. assuming that no one has that privilege..

38. intro’d to Sheldon Richman while looking into human institution ness.. and searching Kevin Carson‘s insight/site.. and
found his book: America’s Counter-Revolution-The Constitution Revisited
From the back cover:
This book challenges the assumption that the Constitution was a landmark in the struggle for liberty. Instead,
Sheldon Richman argues, it was the product of a counter-revolution, a setback for the radicalism represented by
America’s break with the British empire. Drawing on careful, credible historical scholarship and contemporary
political analysis, Richman suggests that this counter-revolution was the work of conservatives who sought a
nation of “power, consequence, and grandeur.” America’s Counter-Revolution makes a persuasive case
that the Constitution was a victory not for liberty but for the agendas and interests of a
militaristic, aristocratic, privilege-seeking ruling class.

39. privilege-seeking ruling class with agendas

41. assuming that no one has that privilege..

42. 17 min - Kevin Carson likes to use the marxist phrase:
state ends up being exec committee of ruling class
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsunlCr-Ar0 -- Sheldon Richman

43. privilege-seeking ruling class

44. assuming that no one has that privilege..

46. privilege-seeking

47. assuming that no one (or 100% of us) has that privilege..

48. The libertarian movement has long suffered from a constitutional fetishism that
embraces an ahistorical reverence for the U.S. Constitution. Far too many are
unaware of the extent to which the framing and adoption of the Constitution was in fact a setback
for the cause of liberty. Sheldon Richman, in a compilation of readable, well researched, and
compelling essays, exposes the historical, theoretical, and strategic errors in the widespread
reification of a purely political document. With no single correct interpretation, the Constitution has
been predictably unable to halt the growth of the modern welfare-warfare American State. I urge all
proponents of a free society to give his book their diligent attention.
--Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, Professor, San Jose State University; author, Emancipating Slaves,
Enslaving Free Men: A History of the American Civil War
https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Counter-Revolution-Constitution-Sheldon-Richman/dp/0692687912

49. privilege-seeking

50. assuming that no one has that privilege..

51. "No state or government can limit itself through a written constitution, no
matter how fine the words or how noble the sentiments they express. It is
one of the many virtues of Sheldon Richman's book that it shows how this is true even of the American
Constitution, which despite the promises of its designers and the insistence of its defenders down the
years, made limited government less and not more likely."
--Chandran Kukathas, London School of Economics
Chandran Kukathas is a Malaysian-born Australian political theorist and the author of several books. He is the Head
of the Department of Government at the London School of Economics, where he holds the Chair in Political Theory.
Wikipedia
https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Counter-Revolution-Constitution-Sheldon-Richman/dp/0692687912

52. privilege-seeking

53. assuming that no one has that privilege..

54. from what is
let’s

55. and let’s o n g o i n g l y be..

56. 1 space to be you (authenticity)..true to self..eudaimonia
2 space to be us (attachment)..invited to exist..known by someone..
eudaimoniative surplus
both take us being indigenous.. not about consensus..
deep/simple/open enough.. for all of us..
we try a more