Importance of the constitution

The constitution embodies the will of the people of the United States. The constitution gains its legitimacy from several components. The legitimacy of power falls under three perspectives. First is the moral justifiability of power relations. This perspective stands for the acquisition and exercise of power to the degree that can be justified. Second is the legal validity, which refers to acquiring and using power by following the existing rules. Finally, is the evidence of consent usually by the subordinate to the power relations. The three elements of constitutional legitimacy are first, the embodiment of the constitution or amendments on good and just principles. Second, the people whom the law governs should actively accept and give affirmative consent to the roots of the constitution or its amendments, and lastly, the constitution or its amendments should comply with and promote the rule of law. The constitution provides rules for its change typically. For the constitution to remain legitimate, the public must participate in its amendment in a formalized manner during its proposal and ratification (Jackson).

The constitution practices the theory of rights, which recognizes citizens as free and equal participants in the process of making and amending the constitution. The constitution maintains the integrity of a system of government through correction, reflection, and maintaining coherence. In order to be effective, the law needs to be updated due to the change of authority in modern systems of social coordination. These systems do not self-correct; they need a process of correction and reflection, especially when they interact. At this point of interaction, the constitution defines hard and soft boundaries. Hard boundaries are the core functions and values of a system, while soft boundaries may take the form of soft law and provides diffused support. The constitution provides a benchmark for monitoring, which leads to reflection; it identifies problems that are not self-correcting and corrects them. It is, therefore, having a corrective function. It also serves as an expressive function whereby it sets out basic rules (Prosser)..

How the First Amendment Impacts Today’s Society

James Madison introduced twelve amendments to the US constitution in the year 1789. The first amendment advocates for the freedom of worship, speech press, assembly, and petition against the government for the redress of grievances. Speech increases the risk of social harm; for example, ruining a person’s reputation can make them lose a job or a business. The criticism of government policies leads to people breaking the law, and thus they end up experiencing social losses. Individuals who exercise their freedom of speech face the risk of being attacked. The provisions on the first amendment enable people to make a hurtful speech that inflicts harm on victims. An example is the funeral protest case that happened in the year 2011. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church protested at the funeral of a soldier called Mathew Snyder while holding signs containing hurtful messages. The signs read “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” and other such like messages that inflicted harm to the grieving. When the family sewed the church for intentional infliction of emotional distress, the court family protected the church on the grounds of avoiding public debate (Tushet).

The first amendment has brought about the regulation of commercial and non-commercial speech. Businesses engage in communication such as commercial advertisements, securities disclosures, and advertising public policy proposals of interest to the company. Not all commercial expression is regulated only some parts of the speech based on their content. An example of this regulation is the Vermont statute that prohibits the sale of data records to data-mining companies that have the intention to sell them to pharmaceutical companies. This move cuts on medical costs because it does not expose the doctors who prescribe cheaper medication to their patients and also protects the privacy of the physician (Tushet).

The Second Amendment and its Impacts on Today’s Society

The second amendment states that citizens have a right to bear arms. This acquisition of guns is independent of any service in a militia and should only be used in self-defense purposes. It is, however, not regulated through gun control measures. The lack of regulation has led to events such as mass shootings such as the one that happened in Orlando and the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre in 2012. The amendment has also led to a rise in crime rates in the US.  A national database should be created to track gun sales. The purchaser should undergo background checks; those who are mentally ill should not be allowed to own a gun. This process will enable the restricton to the selling of firearms. The US ranks number one as the country with the most number of privately owned firearms. As a result, 32 lives are lost every day, and 140 people are treated every day from gun-related wounds. More than $2.3 billion is used every year by the health system as a result of gun-related violence. Gunshot assaults are high in young black men, and in older white men, there seem to be high suicidal injuries caused by firearms (Jehan, Pandit, and O’Keeffe).

Works Cited

Jackson, V. “The (Myth of un) Amendability of the US Constitution and the Democratic Component of Constituanalism .” International Journal of Constitutional Law 13.3 (2015): 575-608. <https://doi.org/10.1093/icon/mov050>.

Jehan, F., et al. “The Burden of Firearm Violence in the United States: Stricter Laws Results in Safer States.” Journal of Injury and Violence Research 10.1 (2018): 11-16.

Prosser, T. “Constitution as Communication.” International Journal of Constitutional Law 15.4 (2017): 1039-1065. <https://doi.org/10.1093/icon/mox085>.

Tushet, M. “The First Amendment and Political Risk.” Journal of Legal Analysis 4.1 (2012): 103-130. <https://doi.org/10.1093/jla/las005>.