The framers drafted the Constitution of the United States some 220 years ago, but the document still speaks to modern issues and shapes important aspects of American life and politics. It also continues to have a profound effect on other nations. Although the Constitution is widely revered, most people have only a rudimentary knowledge or understanding of it and of the implications of its provisions on the laws and government of the United States. The U.S. Constitution A to Z is a comprehensive guide to the history of the supreme law of the land and the concepts that continue to influence the structure of government and the basic rights of U.S. citizens.

According to William Gladstone (1809–1898), the four-time British prime minister, the Constitution of the United States is “the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.” It was not, however, a perfect work when it was drafted in 1787, nor is it today. Still a work in progress, the Constitution establishes the fundamental elements for governing the national affairs of the people of the United States. Yet it also contains gaps to be filled and language to be reinterpreted in light of the times and the needs of U.S. citizens and residents in the twenty-first century.

The U.S. Constitution is the oldest written constitution still in force. Norway’s 1814 constitution is the second oldest. Both of these were preceded by the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1638–1639), a colonial constitution that has been called the world’s first written constitution. The Massachusetts constitution of 1780 is the oldest existing state constitution and has been amended more than one hundred times.

The delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia came from twelve of the thirteen independent states that had evolved from British colonies during the Revolutionary War (1775–1783); only Rhode Island did not participate. At the time, these states constituted a confederacy established by the Articles of Confederation (1781). They called a convention to revise the Articles to reduce the friction among the states over interstate commerce and to strengthen the powers of the national government. James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution,” realized along with other delegates that simply trying to amend the Articles would not solve the problems that had become so evident. Creating a new government acceptable to the states and the people, however, required considering and deciding on a number of concepts, including the following:

Republican Democracy. At the time of the Revolutionary War, the British monarchy ruled one of the most democratically advanced countries in the world, with a long tradition of constitutional restraints on the sovereign’s absolute power. The revolutionary slogan “No taxation without representation” reflected the American colonists’ awareness of the value of representation in the British Parliament. All of the colonies had experimented to some degree with democratic institutions before the Revolution and after declaring independence in 1776 had incorporated elements of representative democracy in their governments. The colonists’ disappointment with the British monarch for not acting on their grievances resulted in a general agreement that any new national government must be a republic—one without a monarch and an aristocracy.

Separation of Powers. The underlying problem in creating a new government to replace the system under the Articles of Confederation concerned how to protect the rights of the states and the people from encroachment by a strong national government. Drawing on the works of earlier political theoreticians, the framers adopted the concept of the separation of powers. By preventing the legislative, executive, and judicial powers of government from falling into the hands of a few persons or even one person, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention created a system of checks and balances to protect the states and the people from tyranny.

Federalism. Ensuring that each state would retain certain basic sovereign powers over its own affairs emerged as a major consideration in getting the thirteen states to agree on a stronger national government. Federalism—a form of government that distributes political power between a national government and the constituent states that comprise the nation—solved the problem and has since been adopted by a number of other nations, including Australia, Brazil, and Germany. The line between federal and state power has shifted over the nation’s two centuries, and it continues to be the subject of much debate.

Judicial Review. A significant corollary of the separation of powers principle is judicial review, which gives the judiciary—one of the three branches of government—the power to declare acts of the other branches and the states unconstitutional. Contemporaneous materials indicate that judicial review, which was commonplace in some states at the time, was an intended consequence of the Constitution’s design. In addition to interpreting the provisions of the Constitution, the federal judiciary, and ultimately the Supreme Court, ensures that any major changes in the Constitution are made according to the document’s amendment procedures and not by more indirect actions.

Bill of Rights. The Constitution as drafted in 1787 contained some guarantees of rights for the states and individuals—for example, a promise of a republican form of government and a prohibition against ex post facto laws. As a condition for ratification of the Constitution, however, a number of states demanded that certain rights, many of which were contained in state constitutions, be specifically guaranteed as protection against infringement by the national government. The first ten amendments, ratified in 1791, became known as the Bill of Rights and guaranteed freedom of religion, speech, and the press and safeguards for those accused of crimes. Many national constitutions, including those of Ireland (1937) and South Africa (1997), have incorporated similar guarantees of individual rights. [Page xvii]

It is important for a nation’s citizens and residents to understand how they are governed and what their rights are in relation to the government. A written constitution is a basic source of such information. The U.S. Constitution, including its twenty-seven amendments, is only about 8,700 words long; only so much can thus be gleaned from the document alone. Other sources of information include the laws passed to implement the provisions of the Constitution, case law through which courts interpret the Constitution’s provisions, textbooks on the Constitution and government, treatises and articles by experts on the Constitution, and such reference works as this volume.

The U.S. Constitution A to Z provides a basic understanding of important aspects of the Constitution and its history as well as the law and institutions that have evolved from it. The volume offers an overview of the subject rather than exhaustive treatment; the full scope of the Constitution and constitutional law could never be reduced to a single, comprehensive work or a collection of works, for even as this book was being written, the Constitution and the law related to it were changing.

In studying the Constitution, it is always good to keep in mind the admonition of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841–1935): “[W]hen we are dealing with words that also are a constituent act, like the Constitution of the United States, we must realize that they have called into life a being the development of which could not have been foreseen completely by the most gifted of its begetters.” Like any living organism, the Constitution is continually evolving.

A number of people have lent their time and talent to creating this reference book. I would first like to thank my wife, Diane Maddex, president of Archetype Press. David Hosansky contributed the rich new editorial features, bringing keen insight and creativity to the project. This edition also benefited from the supervision of CQ Press acquiring editor Doug Goldenberg-Hart and associate editor Anna S. Baker, who, along with development editor Anastazia Skolnitsky, thoroughly and thoughtfully reviewed the manuscript. Amy Marks edited the manuscript, and Anne Stewart handled the book’s production, under the guidance of managing editor Joan Gossett.

We hope that this new edition of The U.S. Constitution A to Z will provide readers with easily accessible and accurate information about the United States’ most important document and the underlying principles and concepts on which its government and the people’s rights are based.

Robert L. Maddex

May 2008