Amendment 27

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

This amendment is simple. It just says that Congressmans' salaries won't be changed until their next term. This was basically made so that the current people in Congress couldn't vote for a raise for themselves. I think that this amendment was helpful because if we didn't have this amendment, Congress could need a couple more bucks for Christmas this year and raise their salary.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment27

This link is just some information on the 27th amendment, and why it was a good thing.



This picture basically just shows that all Congress cares about is making more money all the time.

Amendment 26

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment 26 lowered the age of voting to 18. The big argument was that if an 18 year old was old enough to go fight in the Vietnam War for our country, he should be able to vote. This new thing that is pretty similar to that is the drinking age. People are saying if you can fight at 18 then you should be able to buy a beer. This does make sense, and there have been plenty of bills that have been brought up. And I agree with it, I believe that they should lower the drinking age to 18. 18 is the mark for everything; being an adult, voting, fighting in a war, and so on. Why is the drinking age three years more?

So many people drink before they are 21. The one clips says something like 85% of 21 drank before their 21st birthday. They say that they are going to be more car accidents from drunk drivers if the age is lowered. Well duh! There are going to be more people drinking in public becuase 18 year olds won't be afraid to go out anymore.



This video clip gives both sides of the issue. Talks about brain maturing and fighting in wars.



Another clip giving points on each side, but seems to be leading towards lowering the drinking age.

Amendment 25

Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

Section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

The line of succession is what amendment 25 deals with. It talks about who comes after who if the president can't fulfill his duty or dies and so on. I think that have a line planned out is an extremely good thing. Otherwise we would have to have an election every time a president passes away in office or can't do their job. This would be very time consuming and present many problems to the country.



Couldn't find much media stuff on 25th amendment so I picked another one of James's clips. In this one he goes over the first 6 in line of the presidential succession.



Just a picture of Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of The House of Representatives. Also next in line after the Vice President.

Amendment 24

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment 24 clearly states that poll taxes shall be eliminated. We eliminated these taxes because they were used in the south to discriminate against the blacks because they were usually poor and couldn't afford the taxes. But on the other hand they were making the government money. If we still had poll taxes today, yeah we probably wouldn't be as much in debt, but voter turn out would be at an all time low. Especially with the way the economy looks right now.

http://www.deafvote.com/why_vote/24th-amendment-explained.html

This link takes you to a little commentary about how poll taxes worked and why the 24th amendment was created.

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This video talks about how long it takes to wait to vote. This is the problem mainly for presidential and popular election where everyone wants to vote in. She is saying that the amount of time that it takes to vote is simular to a poll tax because it's taking time from peoples jobs and cause them to have to pay anyway.

Amendment 23

Section 1. The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct:
A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article using appropriate legislation.

This amendment allowed citizens of the District of Columbia to vote in presidential elections. But why don't they have a vote in Congress? This is because they aren't a state, and the 23 amendment doesn't say any where in it that they can do anything more than have electors in the presidential election. On the other side, the District still has to pay taxes, why don't they have representation in Congress?

In my mind I believe that we should stay true to the Constitution, if we believe that they really need representation we can just make another amendment giving them that. But for now, things should stay the way they are.



This guy basically gives all of the reasons why the District of Columbia can't have a vot in Crongress.



This is a picture of the other side of the arguement. That there won't be any taxing without respresentation.

Amendment 22

Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Section 2. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.

So the 22nd amendment just states that a president can't hold office for more than 2 terms, and only one term is he/she took office for longer than 2 years of the presidents spot they took. Basically there cannot be a president for longer than 10 years.
In the early part of 2009 there was talk of a bill going through Congress dealing with the repealment of amendment 22 and taking the limit off of the amount of terms a president can have. Personally I don't think that doing this is a good idea. If we didn't limit the amount of terms a president could have, it would be basically like a king running the country. One person always in charge. There could be one good president that holds office for 5 terms, and because of that a better candidate of the same party might not get a chance to run. America is always looking for change so I don't think that this bill has any chance and probably never will.



This girl talks about the bill that was going through Congress that was going to repeal the 22nd amendment.



There are quite a few people out there who want the 22nd amendment ratified. And this is just a picture showing it.

Amendment 21

Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.
Section 2. The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.

Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

The 21st amendment repealed the 18th amendment, making it okay to have alcoholic beverages again.



Just my boy James again. This time he is talking about the 21st amendment and how it repealed the 18th.



This is how a lot of Americans felt when the 21st amendment was ratified.