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Running head: STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION 1

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION 5

Strengths and Weaknesses of the U.S. Constitution

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Strengths and Weaknesses of the U.S. Constitution

The strengths of the constitution

The U.S. constitution has a lot of articles and sub articles that dictate a lot of laws and thus with it, there are many strengths as well as weaknesses to the U.S. constitution. For one, Article 1 section 8 dictates that the congress has the power to establish and maintain an army as well as the navy. This means that should the current army and navy fall maybe in the rise of a war the congress has the power and mandate to set up a new army and navy so as to the United States of America (Stange, 2008).

Another major strength of the U.S. constitution is article 4 section 1 that states that all states must respect each other’s state. This means that failure for members of a certain state to follow the laws of another state, they can be prosecuted under the state laws and their native states wouldn’t be able to mediate for them in the judicial process. This law therefore makes it easy for states to respect each other as if there wasn’t that federal state law, many states would commit crimes against one another without fear of prosecution (Stange, 2008).

Weaknesses of the U.S. Constitution

One of the major weaknesses of the U.S. constitution is article 3, section 1B. It gives the judge permission to retain their seats for life or until such a time they feel that they are ready to retire. This for one could mean that either democrats could have their way with the law and retain leadership in the house and always have their way in terms of controversial cases. It may also mean that the elderly might retain seats for a very long term which inhibits the younger generation from eyeing and focusing their strength and energy on the seats. It also means that old conventional methods of judicial rule will always be retained and new and upcoming methods would have little or no effect in the judicial system (Ragone, 2004).

Another major weakness of the constitution is Article 2 section 1C that states that for a person to become the president of the United States of America, one must be of 35 years of age and above and must be born in the USA. This has been one of the most contentious clauses of the article and it brought about a lot of debacle recently for the current president of the U.S.A. President Barrack Obama after the contender for the seat, business mogul Donald Trump claimed that the president who has been running the country for 8 years wasn’t a citizen of the U.S.A. but after a series of the U.S.A it was proved that indeed he was a citizen of the U.S.A. from his maternal side. This is a major defect to the constitution as it inhibits people of more capability with a better understanding of the constitution and a better chance for leadership from taking the seat and leading the country to greatness (Ragone, 2004).

Proposed amendments to the constitution strengths

The way to make sure that the constitutional strengths are maintained like the first strength is to add a non-refutable clause so as to ensure that whichever government that takes the seat doesn’t amend the clause to cause harm but to either strengthen or maintain it. Another way is to make sure that they add time to the period which the law can be applied for to ensure that there is proper debate on the law amendments before they are officiated (Pets, 2014).

Proposed amendments to the constitution weaknesses

The constitution should be amended in the article 3 section 1B to give chance to other worthy candidates to also serve term. This will give law a chance to prevail free of prejudice from political or personal influence that could have been gained with time from serving the judiciary for a very long time. It will also allow modernism to have its way in the judicial system so as to ensure that if there is an easier process to deliver justice through the right channels, it can be done. This will give a chance for many people to be served and for them to heal faster from the trauma that comes with delivery of the law. The maximum years for any judge to serve the court especially the supreme court should be 8 to 10 years and be at least 30 years and above to allow the candidates to have gained enough knowledge and experience in the field. Another amendment should be to section 1C of article 2. The clause that dictates the contender for the seat should be a citizen of the U.S. should be scrapped out. They should introduce that the candidate must have served in a law firm and practiced constitutional law and related fields for about 10 to 15 years so as to gain knowledge on the constitution and related laws and thus give people with enough knowledge to serve and lead the country (Ragone, 2004).

References

Pets, S. (2014). The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Constitution. Prezi, 1.

Ragone, N. (2004). The Everything American Government Book: From the Constitution to Present-Day Elections, All You Need to Understand Our Democratic System. New Jersey: Adams Media; Everything edition (June 4, 2004).

Stange, M. (2008). Understanding the U.S. Constitution, Grades 5 - 8. (I. Mark Twain Media, Ed.) USA: Carson Dellosa.