The U.S. Constitution, signed on September 17, 1787, created America’s federal government, established fundamental laws and legal structures while guaranteeing certain basic rights for American citizens.
Since the Constitution was ratified in 1789, hundreds of thousands of bills have been introduced attempting to amend the nation’s founding document. But only 27 amendments to the U.S. Constitution have been ratified.
Bill of Rights During the summer of 1787, a group of politicians, including James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, gathered in Philadelphia to draft a new U.S. Constitution. Antifederalists, led by the first governor of Virginia, Patrick Henry, opposed the ratification of the Constitution. They felt the new constitution gave the federal government too much power […]
The 26th Amendment: “Old Enough to Fight, Old Enough to Vote” During World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt lowered the minimum age for the military draft age to 18, at a time when the minimum voting age (as determined by the individual states) had historically been 21. “Old enough to fight, old enough to […]
Origins Of Free Press Before the thirteen colonies declared independence from Great Britain, the British government attempted to censor the American media by prohibiting newspapers from publishing unfavorable information and opinions. One of the first court cases involving freedom of the press in America took place in 1734. British governor William Cosby brought a libel […]
