It's Constitution Day!
221 years ago today the founding fathers signed the U.S. Constitution.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.POW! That's a badass sentence!
posted by Matt Bors at
12:41 PM
7 Comments:
But Matt, that sentence wasn't ratified until a few years later, along with a few other amendments to the original Constitution.
You know, amendments can be repealed.
Or, as the Clash once said, "You have the right to free speech, so long as you're not dumb enough to actually try it."
Jon, you win the wonk award.
Thanks for the award, Matt! Here is some more wonky information:
Kevin, once amendments are ratified, they are a part of the Constitution with no less validity than other parts (such as the original articles).
The Constitution's original articles (and the amendments) can be effectively repealed through amendments. For example, Article 2, Section 1 says that the presidential candidate with the most electoral votes becomes president and the cadidate with the next most votes becomes vice president. This was changed by the 12th amendments, which established the system we use today (candidates run for president and vice president as a slate).
Hey Matt, saw a number of your cartoons when I opened my issue of Free Inquiry this week! Nice to see your work in that publication! Keep up the great work.
Thanks, Mike. I'll be doing regular work for them. I should make an announcement about that!
Oh, I also did the cover.
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