Constitutional Originalism
A living constitution is a concept that is found in the United States, it is also referred to as loose constitution. This is because it is a constitutional interpretation that the constitution is dynamic in meaning. It claims that the constitution has human properties since it constantly changes .I hold a strong opinion for the constitution to be interpreted as a living constitution due to several reasons. The idea of a living constitution is often associated with the views that a society which is contemporaneous should be factored in when key constitution phrases are being interpreted.

My argument is based on several issues one, interpreting the constitution according to the outdated views is not acceptable as a matter of policy. It is very necessary for the constitution to be interpreted from an evolving perspective. Secondly the people who wrote the constitution originally wrote it in terms that are broad and…...

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References

Chin, J & Stern, A.(1997). The Living Constitution. Retrieved April 27,2013 from http://library.thinkquest.org/11572/constitution/important/living.html

Straus, D.(2010).The living constitution. Retrieved April 27, 2013 from  http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/lpbr/subpages/reviews/Strauss1010.htm 

Strauss, D.A.(2010).The living constitution. Retrieved April 27, 2013 from  http://www.law.uchicago.edu/alumni/magazine/fall10/strauss

Constitutional Rights of Prisoners
he hands off doctrine that existed throughout the United States through the 1960s was the notion that the law did not apply to prisoners. It Convicted offenders, who were incarcerated, were not eligible for the same rights that applied to liberated U.S. citizens. he doctrine mandated that prisoners had forfeited those rights when they were convicted of whatever crime they committed. his doctrine made it impossible for the court system to intervene with prison administration or the daily affairs that took place in prisons throughout the country.

he Religious Freedom Restoration Act was passed in 1993 and that was supposed to prevent laws being passed that would impede on a person's free right to practice whatever religion he or she chose to practice. It was fairly broad in its original incarnation, until it was deemed unconstitutional at the state and the local level of authority in 1997, following…...

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This litigation affects prisoners and correctional administration in a number of ways. In terms of correctional administration, Title II holds that prisons are covered under this title whether or not they are receiving federal funding. Therefore, prison administrators must be more diligent and honest in their handling of prisoners in order to avoid lawsuits. For prisoners, they are also part of Title II and are eligible for certain rights under this title -- rights which the administration must provide or risk a lawsuit. The FLSA establishes minimum wage, overtime, and stipulations regarding record keeping, child labor, and hours that are worked. These also help to regulate the means by which prisoners can utilize lawsuits regarding these facets of their experience within a prison.

In the court case Payton v. United States, it was found that police officers need a warrant to enter the domicile of a resident for an arrest. The details of the cases essentially include two days' worth of preparation and gathering of evidence on the part of New York police officers, who suspected Mr. Payton had murdered someone two days prior. The officers entered Payton's home without a search warrant and found no one there. However, they located a gun that was used as evidence in Payton's murder trial. This case made its way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that police cannot make warrantless entries into people's homes for arrests.

The statement that prison litigation is confusing because the law is no longer solely determined by the law and judicial interpretation means that that there is a large amount of grey area that governs justice in the prisons. It also means that there are many who do not think that justice has any place within the prison system, and that prisoners' rights should be duly reduced. The variety of legislation that diminished the capacity of prisoners to seek litigation attests to this fact, as exemplified by the Antiterrorism and Death Penalty Act of 1996 and the Prison Litigation Reform Act.

Kennedy referred to international as well as domestic standards in defense of the court's majority opinion. He wrote: "Our determination that the death penalty is disproportionate punishment for offenders under eighteen finds confirmation in the stark reality that the United States is the only country in the world that continues to give official sanction to the juvenile death penalty. This reality does not become controlling, for the task of interpreting the Eighth Amendment remains our responsibility. Yet at least from the time of the Court's decision in Trop, the Court has referred to the laws of other countries and to international authorities as instructive for its interpretation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of 'cruel and unusual punishments'" (Roper, 2005, University of Cornell Law School).
Holding: The court overturned Stanford v. Kentucky, stating that society's mores had changed, and thus executing individuals for crimes committed while juveniles was cruel and unusual…...

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Work Cited

Roper v. Simmons. (2005). University of Cornell Law School.

Retrieved March 31, 2009 at  http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/03-633.ZO.html

Constitutional Law Debate: The Legislative Branch
The Legislative Branch of government is the most powerful for many reasons. Of course, there would be people who would argue against that and state that other branches are more powerful because of specific powers that those branches possess. Despite that argument, the Legislative Branch of the U.S. Government clearly has more power because of the types of decisions that have been entrusted to them. Discussed here will be some of those decisions, along with how they apply to the "real world" and how they are viewed by people who have to live with the decisions that the Legislative Branch makes.

The Legislative Branch is the one that levies taxes (Trethan, 2011). Taxes are important and they pay for many government programs. They also allow crews to keep up roads and bridges, along with other structures that are owned and operated by the government. Overall, taxes…...

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References

Federal Legislative Branch (2011). USA.gov. Retrieved from  http://www.usa.gov/Agencies/Federal/Legislative.shtml 

The Legislative Branch (2011). The White House. Retrieved from  http://www.whitehouse.gov/our-government/legislative-branch 

Trethan, P. (2011). The Legislative Branch. Establishing the laws of the land. Retrieved from  http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/a/legbranch.htm 

United States - Legislative Branch (2011). HG.org Legal Directories. Retrieved from  http://www.hg.org/legislative.html

Constitutional Rules
IS OUR CONSTITUTION A "LIVING" DOCUMENT?

Americans are hugely proud of and greatly revere their Constitution, and so does the rest of the world stand in awe at the economic and political might of the United States in adherence to its Constitution. Founding Fathers poured out their highest and best during the Constitutional Convention held in 1787 in fashioning a most precious document (Patton 2000) that would define and establish the role of government. The standards set were high. George Washington said "Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the event is in the Hand of God (qtd in Patton p 1)." The Preamble ordained and established a government "to promote the general welfare" and "secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. (Patton)"

That liberty meant economic freedom or a free-market economy. This free-market economy would in turn be basically dependent on…...

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Buchanan, James. The Domain of Constitutional Economics. Constitutional Political Economy, vol 1 #1, 1990.  http://www.theihs.org/article.php/516.html 

2. Lutge, Christopher. Self-Governing the Commons? Political Theory and Constitutional Economics. University of Munich, 2002. http://www.ifbf.unizh.ch/orga/downloads/EGOS2002/Luetge.pdf

3. Patton, Judd W. Constitutional Economics: General Welfare or Enumerated Powers? Economics Department: Bellevue University, 2000. http://academic.bellevue.edu/~jpatton/welfare.html

4. Pfahler, Thomas. The Development of Human Capital in the Light of Constitutional Economics. ORDO, vol 30, 1979. http://www.uni.bayreuth.de/departments/rw/lehrstuehle/vw12/downloads/VWLII_W1PoartikelPfahlerHCuCE.pdf

Berkin clearly writes a book that covers the details of the Constitutional Convention, how deals were struck, what compromises were put together and why.
Another of the leading characters in Philadelphia during the convention -- John Adams -- is briefly introduced by Berkin as "feisty" and "outspoken" (p. 11); Adams observed "his nation's circumstances with more than his usual pessimism" (p. 12), Berkin writes. Adams is mentioned again in several brief passages (pp. 17, 30, 48-49, 52) albeit most of her early narrative paints a picture of the dynamics within the convention, the arguments, the grandstanding, the axes to grind and other differences -- and not so much with the characters per se.

As for Middlekauff's descriptions of Adams, he of course has many more pages to devote to the more powerful and interesting characters, and John Adams certainly was among the aforementioned participants. On page 239 Middlekauff offers the readers…...

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Works Cited

Berkin, Carol. (2002). A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution.

New York: Harcourt, Inc.

Middlekauff, Robert. (1982). The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution 1763-1789.

New York: Oxford University Press.

Nelson -- the decision in which was binding on all lower courts -- was decided in favor of the state law in Minnesota banning same-sex marriages (UMT 2010).
Conclusion

The issue of the rights of gay, lesbian, and transgendered people are still in a state f flux and some confusion, based on the Supreme Court's rulings on the various matters. On the one hand, there is a legal mandate in place that affords same-sex partners to engage in consensual conduct with each other, but at the same time there is no legal requirement that same-sex couples be afforded the legal protection of marriage. Essentially, the constitutional stance on same-sex marriage as it now stands is one of complete laissez-faire -- the government does not want to become involved either privately or civically n the affairs of same-sex couples.

eferences

Cornell University Law School. (2010). Lawrence v. Texas. Accessed 22 January 2010. http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-102.ZS.html

Justia. (2010).…...

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References

Cornell University Law School. (2010). Lawrence v. Texas. Accessed 22 January 2010.  http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-102.ZS.html 

Justia. (2010). Bowers v Hardwick. Accessed 22 January 2010.  http://supreme.justia.com/us/478/186/case.html 

Oyez. (2010). Bowers v. Hardwick. Accessed 22 January 2010.  http://www.oyez.org/cases/1980-1989/1985/1985_85_140 

UMT. (2010). Baker v. Nelson. Accessed 22 January 2010.  http://www.cas.umt.edu/phil/faculty/Walton/bakrvnel.htm

The prima facie evidence provision in this statute blurs the line between these two meanings of a burning cross. As interpreted by the jury instruction, the provision chills constitutionally protected political speech because of the possibility that a State will prosecute -- and potentially convict -- somebody engaging only in lawful political speech at the core of what the First Amendment is designed to protect. Id. At 556.
In his dissent, Justice Thomas disagreed with the Court's reasoning. In fact, Thomas accuses the Court of ignoring the realities of cross burning. Justice Thomas points out that "in every culture, certain things acquire meaning well beyond what outsiders can comprehend. That goes for both the sacred and the profane." Id. At 388. Thomas points out that the Ku Klux Klan is a terrorist organization, "which, in its endeavor to intimidate, or even eliminate those it dislikes, uses the most brutal of…...

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References

Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969).

Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568 (1942).

Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989).

U.S. Const. amend. I.

For example in "Bonita P. Bourke, et al. v. Nissan Motor Corporation in U.S.A.," (California Court of Appeals, Second Appellate District, Case No. B068705, July 26, 1993). The plaintiffs said the company's review of e-mail messages over a company system constituted an invasion of their right of privacy in violation of both the California Constitution and common law. But the court found that plaintiffs lacked a reasonable, objective expectation of privacy that their sexual and explicit e-mails would be private, because the company had given them notice e-mail could be reviewed without their knowledge or consent.
It should be noted that the right to privacy is not explicitly protected by the Constitution, but is generally accepted to exist implicitly in the penumbra of the Constitution. Another legal protection sought by employees embroiled in email workplace privacy issues is the 4 thAmendment which explicitly provides for "[t]he right of people to…...

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Works Cited

Asia Global Crossing, Ltd., et al." (2005). 322 B.R. 247. Bankr. S.D.N.Y., 21 March

16 Mar 2007.  http://www.phillipsnizer.com/library/cases/lib_case435.cfm 

Rich, Lloyd. (1994). "Right to Privacy in the Workplace in the Information Age."

Publaw. 16 Mar 2007. http://www.publaw.com/privacy.html

To date, President ush still asserts the authority to hold enemy combatants with little or no chance of having their case heard before a court. However, some strides have been made to curtail the president's assumed power.
In June, the Supreme Court ruled that the president's war powers are not "a blank check." The court said that a U.S. citizen held in a Navy brig in South Carolina and nearly 600 suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives held in Cuba have a right to contest their detentions.10

Despite the ruling, there is still a fight going on whether the detainees have the right to receive legal counsel indicating that the ush administration is not likely to let go of its newly claimed authority.

The Future of the Presidency

It seems likely that given the trends toward increasing power for the executive branch of the government that similar developments will occur in the future. However,…...

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Bibliography

Bonafede, Dom. "Presidential Mythology," National Journal, 1980, 2.

Locy, Toni, "U.S.: 'No legal rights' for detainees," USA Today, 2004, 15a.

Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency," Publishers Weekly, 2004,

Lowi, Theodore J. And Ginsberg, Benjamin. American Government. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1992, 131-166.

However, the courts did find that police officers at any time may be forced to appear in a lineup, although this constituted a seizure of the officer's physical person.
Explain how the free exercise of religion can pose problems for criminal justice administrators.

Police work requires individuals to assume certain duties, at certain times, which may conflict with religious prohibitions and proscriptions. Officers must work weekend and night shifts and also act with violence, when necessary, to protect the public. For example, merely because a person is an observant Orthodox Jew, Seventh Day Adventist, or a member of another religious sect which requires an individual to observe certain behaviors (such as attending church on Sunday or not riding in a car on the Sabbath) does not mean that a police department can be forced to accommodate all of the officer's requests. When an officer assumes his or her employment, he or…...

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Reference

Peak, Kenneth J. (2009). Justice administration: Police, courts, and corrections management.

5th Edition. New York: Prentice Hall.

Georgia (428 U.S. 153). In that case, the Supreme Court finally ruled specifically that capital punishment was not inherently necessarily cruel or unusual, and therefore, was not a violation of the Eighth Amendment in and of itself (Schmalleger, 2008).
Since Gregg, the issues surrounding the Eighth Amendment constitutionality of capital punishment relate to the specific methods of implementation in light of evidence that lethal injection, the most common method used by states, may violate the prohibition against cruelty by virtue of the frequency of mistakes that prolong suffering unnecessarily (Schmalleger, 2008; Zalman, 2008). In addition to Eighth Amendment issues, capital punishment also raises equal protection issues in connection with suggestions of differential application with respect to minority defendants and those who are economically disadvantaged (Dershowitz, 2002).

Personal Opinion:

In many ways, the extensive constitutional protections afforded by the Bill of ights interfere with efficient law enforcement efforts by the state. This is…...

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References

Dershowitz, A. (2002). Shouting Fire: Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age. New York:

Bantam Books.

Friedman, A. (2005). A History of American Law. New York: Touchstone.

Hoover, L. "The Supreme Court Brings an End to the 'End Run' Around

Northern states hoped that slavery would eventually prove unprofitable and wanted the Constitution to ban the (external) slave trade. This would not have banned slavery outright, merely banned the import of new slaves. The Constitution gave congress the power to ban the slave trade only 1808, presumably to give the southern economy time to 'adjust' or to determine how necessary the trade was to the economy in the future. Also, the North felt slaves should be counted for the purpose of taxation but not for representation, as slaves could not vote. Regarding population census of slaves and taxation, the most infamous compromise was arrived upon, namely that "delegates agreed to count slaves as 3/5ths of a person when apportioning representation and taxation" ("Constitutional Compromises," 2008, NY State Regents).

Economic tensions also existed between Southern and Northern states irrespective of slavery. Southerners, who then produced a wide array of exported cash crops…...

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Works Cited

Constitutional Compromises." NY State Regents. Retrieved 12 Apr 2008.  http://www.icsd.k12.ny.us/highschool/pjordan/ushonors/Regents%20Review/Review%20Lessons/Compromises.html 

Kelly, Martin. "What was the great compromise?" About.com. Retrieved 12 Apr 2008.  http://americanhistory.about.com/od/usconstitution/f/greatcompromise.htm 

Stern, Jeffrey. "Federalists." American Foreign Relations. Retrieved 12 Apr 2008.  http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/En-Fl/Federalists.html

Briefly, statutes that seek to prohibit or regulate conduct that is not constitutionally protected need only satisfy the lowest level of constitutional review: the rational basis test. According to that standard, as long as the state has a rational basis for the regulation and the manner of regulation is logically related to achieving those rational bases, the statute is constitutional (Dershowitz, 2002; Friedman, 2005). For statutes seeking to regulate conduct that is constitutionally protected but not as fundamental rights or the rights of protected "suspect" classes of individuals, courts apply the intermediate level of scrutiny. That test requires that statutes be related to important governmental interests and that the law furthers those interests in ways that are substantially related to those interests (Dershowitz, 2002; Friedman, 2005).
However, when it comes to fundamental rights (such as voting, liberty, and privacy), any statute seeking to curtail those rights must serve a compelling…...

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References

Dershowitz, A.M. (2002). Shouting Fire: Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age. New York:

Little Brown & Co.

Friedman, L. (2005). A History of American Law. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Constitutional, Legal and Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice
Police abuse remains one of the most serious and divisive human rights violations in the United States. The excessive use of force by police officers, including unjustified shootings, severe beatings, fatal chokings, and rough treatment, persists because overwhelming barriers to accountability make it possible for officers who commit human rights violations to escape due punishment and often to repeat their offenses. Police or public officials greet each new report of brutality with denials or explain that the act was an aberration, while the administrative and criminal systems that should deter these abuses by holding officers accountable instead virtually guarantee them impunity.

However, there are some things that need to be mentioned in order to fully understand the nature, role and importance of policing. Police work by its very nature involves the slippery slope (the potential for gradual deterioration of socio-moral inhibitions and perceived sense…...

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Bibliography

1. Crank, John P. "Police Ethics: The Corruption of a Noble Cause,"

Michael A. Caldero. 2000 ed. Anderson Publishing

2. Tarbell, Ida "Police Deviance & Ethics A thing won by breaking the rules of the game is not worth winning" http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/205/205lect11.htm

3. Braswell, Michael C.; McCarthy, Bernard J.; McCarthy, Belinda R. "Justice Crime and Ethics"

Constitutional law is one of the two most important types of law for anyone in the legal field to understand.  The United States legal system is derived from a combination of a common law tradition and constitutional law.  The common law tradition helps people understand the legal norms that are not expressly outlined in the Constitution or by legislation, while the Constitution places limits and guidelines on the rights and duties that can be governed by the law.  This is true with administrative law, which specifically addresses the laws related to various government agencies.  This is especially....

The United States Postal Service is, oddly enough, one of the least understood public services. Established in the Constitution, this department is often derided as being non-profitable, but the goal of the USPS is not to make a profit, but to provide a service.  It does so efficiently, delivering mail at a fraction of the cost to consumers of similar private services.  In standard five-paragraph a research paper about the USPS, we would discuss the constitutional mandate for the USPS, the history of the USPS, and the current state of the USPS. 

USPS....