Interpretation of the Amendment in the Bill of Rights

Interpretation of the Amendment in the Bill of Rights

The Tenth Amendment

The tenth Amendment claims that any power, which is not listed in the US constitution, is either left to people or states. The Tenth Amendment was incorporated into the Bill of Rights to define the power of balance. This is between the states and the federal government. According to the Amendment, the constitution often plays a part in granting powers to the Federal government. Some of these powers include the authority to collect taxes, the supremacy of declaring war and, control of activities in businesses and organizations. However, since the Tenth Amendment has not specified the powers that are not listed in the Constitution, the Supreme Court in the US has set out the ruling, which classifies the laws affecting family relations to be reserved to the people or states. Some of the laws that affect family relationships involve divorce, adoption, and marriage.

Moreover, unlike other constitution Amendments that are entirely exposed to ambiguous terms and vagueness, the Tenth Amendment is considered to be precise. The constitution’s broader text confirms that the Tenth Amendment does not limit federal power.  It further recognizes the expansive federal power.

Fifth Amendment

The Fifth Amendment is deemed to be among the ten Amendments in the US constitution that makes up the Bill of Rights. It states that individuals’ rights of liberty, life, and possessing properties cannot be taken away from them, except by due process. This Amendment is often used to impose restrictions on prosecutions that are related to the government towards the individuals accused of committing a crime. The Fifth Amendment prohibits double jeopardy, thus is mandated to the due law process. Double jeopardy is regarded as the process by which an accused offender of a crime, is found innocent, and later be charged with a similar crime. However, the 5^th Amendment considers no trials of the same crime, mainly if an offender is found innocent in the court of law, even if the pieces of evidence are raised to prove that the person is guilty. The Amendment further gives several rights, which are relevant to both civil legal and criminal proceedings. In this case, it guarantees the rights to the grand jury, the right to counsel, and also offers protection against self-incrimination. The Amendment is essential in protecting people from being abused by the government. This means it has limited the government execution of punishment towards offenders anytime.

Moreover, The Fifth Amendment is considered to be a vague doctrine. This is because it requires criminal law to elaborate on the types of conduct that are punishable. For instance, a defendant who happened not to be read the Miranda Rights upon his arrest and further provided the information to the police, will still be protected by the 5^th Amendment. In this scenario, the information given to the police by the offender will be considered inadmissible and will later be thrown out. This applies even though the defendant had confessed the crime to the police. The Fifth Amendment requires that upon being arrested, an individual or an offender should first be read the Miranda rights, and afterward face interrogation by the police. While following this procedure, a defendant is further guaranteed a right to counsel (Levenberg 962). In this case, an offender’s attorney is required to be present during the process.

Work Cited

Levenberg, Thomas O. “Fifth Amendment. Responding To Ambiguous Requests For Counsel During Custodial Interrogations”. The Journal Of Criminal Law And Criminology (1973-), vol 85, no. 4, 1995, p. 962. JSTOR, doi:10.2307/1144090.