Unintended Consequences of Constitutional AmendmentDavid E. Kyvig Constitutional amendments, like all laws, may lead to unanticipated and even undesired outcomes. In this collection of original essays, a team of distinguished historians, political scientists, and legal scholars led by award-winning constitutional historian David E. Kyvig examines significant instances in which reform produced something other than the foreseen result. An opening essay examines the intentions of the Constitution’s framers in creating an amending mechanism and then explores unexpected uses of that instrument. Thereafter, authors focus on the Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments, addressing such subjects as criminal justice procedures, the presidential election system, the Civil War’s impact on race and gender relations, the experiment in national prohibition, women’s suffrage, and, finally, limits on the presidency. Together these contributions illuminate aspects of constitutional stability and evolution, challenging current thinking about reform within the formal system of change provided by Article V of the Constitution. Forcefully demonstrating that constitutional law is not immune to unanticipated consequences, the eight scholars underscore the need for care, responsibility, and historical awareness in altering the nation’s fundamental law. |
Contents
Introduction David E Kyvig | 1 |
The Bill of Rights and Criminal Procedure | 43 |
The Twelfth Amendment David P Currie | 73 |
Unintended Consequences of the Fourteenth | 110 |
Race Class Gender and the Unintended Consequences | 141 |
Unintended | 164 |
The Unintended Consequences of the Nineteenth | 200 |
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adopted African Americans amending process amendment's Annals of Congress argued argument Article authority ballot Bill of Rights century Chicago citizens citizenship clause civil rights Clinton Confederation constitutional amendment constitutionalism convention crime criminal debate decisions Democratic disfranchisement drys Eighteenth Amendment election electors enforcement enfranchisement Fairman federal Federalist feminism Fifteenth Amendment Fourteenth Amendment framers guarantees History House Ibid intentions John Bingham jury Justice Kyvig leaders League legislative legislatures liberal liberty limit liquor Madison majority ment movement national prohibition Nineteenth Amendment party person Plumer's Memorandum political presidential procedure proposed amendment protection provision question ratification Reconstruction reform repeal Representatives Republican right to vote Roger Griswold rule Senate social southern stitutional suffragists supermajority Supreme Court teenth Amendment tion trial Twenty-first Amendment U.S. Constitution unintended consequences United University Press vice president Volstead Act voters Woman Suffrage woman's rights women York