One of the benefits of being a columnist is the chance to treat the readers to some good old history.
So I am starting out the New Year with some talk about the U.S. Constitution.
The first historical fact deals with the the late U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd who served from 1950 to 2010 making him longest serving senator is U.S. history.
He had many personal traits, some of which don’t need mention, but he was very famous for carrying around a copy of the Constitution wherever he went.
Because most readers do not carry around their own copy, it is worthwhile talking about the amendments to the Constitution that will dominate the news in 2018.
The First Amendment is a topic of daily discussion because it guarantees freedom of the press. That amendment is under attack daily by the President who believes that all articles that do not praise him are “fake news.”
That Trump criticism also applies to the news and cable networks.
It is hard to find any living and breathing politician who is not in favor of the Second Amendment, which deals with the “right of people to bear arms.”
Whether you are a liberal or a conservative member of Congress, no one is willing to stand up and say that not all citizens should bear arms.
Regrettably, when children are massacred in Connecticut or adults are mowed down in Las Vegas by machine gun type weapons, very few federal officials have the courage to speak out for limits to gun possession.
Most citizens are vaguely familiar with the Fifth Amendment.
That section guarantees that you cannot be compelled to be a witness against yourself. Years ago, only mobsters “took the Fifth” but nowadays almost any person connected to the 2016 Trump campaign is a believer in the Fifth Amendment.
There are laws, which provide that an elected official cannot invoke that amendment, but you can bet that as the Mueller investigation heats up there will be a lot of familiar faces using that excuse.
The 14th Amendment is a very timely law to discuss. It states that “all persons born or naturalized are citizens of the United States.” They are guaranteed equal treatment under the law. Obviously, that language doesn’t apply to the residents of Puerto Rico.
As of this date, the citizens of that island are still without power in most places and the death toll is said to have reached the 1,000 mark. Somehow in the eyes of the Trump administration, the 800,000 American citizens are not worthy of the same treatment given to voters in Texas and Florida.
The 15th Amendment provides that the “right to vote shall not be denied by any federal or state government.”
That amendment apparently doesn’t apply to the voters in 12 states who have been attacked by legislators who sit up nights thinking of ways to stop minorities from casting their ballots. Recently the voters in Alabama sent a message to those legislators that candidates like Roy Moore can get thousands of unwelcome voters to the polling place.
The 19th Amendment, better known as the Women’s Suffrage Rights law, was a milestone in establishing that the right to vote cannot be prohibited because of the sex of a person.
It was the product of years of protest by brave women who got the nation’s attention. Regrettably, that amendment does not guarantee women pay parity with their male co-employees and doesn’t stop the harassment of women at work.
It was the beginning of a movement, which now has been revitalized throughout the nation.
It is almost guaranteed that the 25th Amendment will be very much in the news this year. It deals with presidential disabilities.
This law provides that the vice president and a key number of the executive chamber officials can certify that the “president is unable to perform the powers and duties of his office.”
In that case, the vice president takes over. There is an ongoing debate as to whether President Trump has lost his ability to perform in the job, but it would take an extreme act to provoke such a dramatic step.
I hope that this is of help when the media starts talking about some amendment to the Constitution.
There is no doubt that the year 2018 will be the year when the thinking of the Founding Fathers will be under intense discussion.
