My topic is the U.S. constitution and the amendments. I'll start by explaining the basics. It was made in Philadelphia in May 1787. The constitution lays out the basic rights of U.S. citizens. The U.S. constitution has three branches; Judicial, Legislative, and Executive.
The Executive branch has the president, vice president, and all the cabinet members. There are 43 presidents and 14 cabinet members. The president gets a bill sent by the legislative branch and then passes or vetoes the bill. The Legislative branch writes laws on a bill. When the bill is written, a majority vote passes it on or denies it. There are 2 groups. There are 100 senators and 435 senators called the congress. The senator can serve 6 years and a representative can serve 2 years. The first ten amendments are called The Bill of Rights. A bill has to go through the congress to get to the president. The last branch is Judicial. It explains and applies laws. They are in charge of the court system; district courts, court of appeals, and supreme court. The supreme court is set up by the constitution. The power of Judicial branch gives supreme court the right to overturn state laws and laws passed by congress.
There are 27 amendments. The first ten amendments are freedom of religion, right to bear arms, quartering of soldiers, search and seizure, trial and punishment, compensation for takings, right to speedy trial, confrontation of witnesses, trial by jury in civil cases, cruel and unusual punishment, construction of constitution, powers of the states and people. These are known as the Bill of Rights. Some other important ones are choosing the president, vice president, senators elected by popular vote, presidential term limits, and voting age set to 18 years. The point of amendments is to specify rights and rules.
In my opinion, some of the amendments could be slightly altered. Like the voting age should be 21. I only say that becuase most people at 18 don't get very into political stuff. At 21 you'll know what you want more than at 18. The constitution has a good system. i like that they use majority vote and then pass it to the president. Smart idea.
sources:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/constitution/about.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/J0110221/Legislative.html
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Am18
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080304145724AAU6CeI
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