Greetings fellow students of American history. Today we are continuing our in-depth exploration of the United States Constitution by looking at one of its most ingenious features, its flexibility. One of the major weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation was its inability to change. Recall that any amendments or additions to it needed the unanimous consent of the whole Congress, which guaranteed that no changes would ever be made. If changes could not be made, the government and laws would never adapt to changing circumstances.
When the Constitution was written in 1787, the framers corrected this fatal flaw by including mechanisms that allow it to change and meet modern demands while still maintaining its integrity. There are three major ways that the Constitution is able to accomplish this. The amendment process, the process of judicial review, and a neat little feature known as the elastic clause. Amendments, or additions to the Constitution, are not easy to make, and they shouldn't be.
However, unlike the Articles, they are not impossible. Amendments must first be proposed and approved by two-thirds of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. If that happens, then the amendment is sent to state ratifying conventions. Three-fourths of the state must then ratify it.
To date, there are 27 amendments to the Constitution. The first 10, the Bill of Rights, were added almost immediately. which means that since 1791, only 17 amendments have been ratified. The process of judicial review means that the Supreme Court can determine whether or not laws are constitutional, and over time, their views and the views of society can change.
A great example of this would be the issue of segregation. In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in a very famous case, Plessy v. Ferguson, that segregation based on race did not violate the 14th Amendment. of the Constitution.
We don't need to get into the details of the case for now, but fast forward to the year 1954 and there was another very famous case, Brown v. Board of Education. In this case, the issue of segregation based on race was brought up again. This time, the court ruled that segregation did, in fact, violate the 14th Amendment. During that time, the 14th Amendment did not change.
What did change was how the court and society viewed segregation. Lastly, we have what is known as the Elastic Clause. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution details what powers the federal Congress has. For instance, Congress can levy taxes, regulate interstate trade, coin money, and do a lot of other things.
The Founding Fathers were ingenious enough to know that they could not predict the future. They realized it would be impossible to make a list that covered every type of law that the government might need to pass in the future. So at the end of Article I, Section 8, they included the clause which states that Congress can, quote, make all laws which shall be necessary and proper.
Congress decides if it's necessary, and the Supreme Court can decide if it's proper or constitutional. This allows Congress to make all sorts of laws that were inconceivable in 1787, such as laws regulating the Internet, airline travel, or child labor, just to name a few. Through these mechanisms, the Constitution is able to keep its overall character and integrity, while at the same time being able to meet modern demands.
Because of this, a document that was written in 1787 is still relevant today.