Happy 222 Years!

[Annie]

I bought the Schoolhouse Rocks DVD for my kids.
They got to learn the Preamble just like I did.

You are a good parent! I think School House Rocks is an underutilized tool in our arsenal. I actually use it to introduce units of study.

That makes a lot of sense. It gets the basic concepts in their heads, starts their interest, then you can talk more about it. Of course, my kids just started kindergarten this year. More of their questions are about what some of the words mean than anything. Oh well, vocabulary building is good too. And 5 is a little yhoung to be contemplating the nature of a Federal Republic.

Steps, that's what it is. You are bringing up the same topics as my 'lower grade' teachers. Did you see the link to here? http://gresyn0.100webspace.net/constitution_day_lessons.php

Mind you, they are lesson plans, but parents that wish to could adapt them.

 

[goldcatt]

Those are some good ideas. This weekend might be a good time to do something like the game they have for kindergarten.

 

[lawbuff]

Ya know, I have had so much on my mind, I totally forgot yesterday was Constitution day. Ratified in 1789, so technically it is only 220 years old.

Commonly known as the Original 7 Articles also.

I have studied Constitutional law off and on for many years and find it quite fascinating.

The actual document is in the Rotunda of the National Archives in Washington, D.C. I have been there a # of times in my life and have never failed to visit the Archives.

The Constitution is center, the Declaration, left of it, and the Bill of Rights, right of it, all 12 Articles as presented to the states.

I have also been to Philadelphia 3 times in my life and have always toured Independence Hall. To stand in the actual room where they drafted and signed the Constitution, to me, was so thrilling. Independence Hall is on UNESCO's prestigious World Heritage list, oddly enough though, the White House is not.

Assembly Hall/Declaration chamber has mostly period furnishings, but the chair George Washington sat in as President of the Convention is original.

I just love IH. To the west is Congress Hall, where they met when Philly was the Capital from 1790-1800. East of IH is Old City Hall, where the Supreme Court met, originally with 6 members.

At the time I was there last, they had not started excavating for the Philly WH, just slightly north of IH. Washington and Adams stayed there when they were the Presidents.

On excavation they found some old WH relics.

Benjamin Franklin, who signed both the Declaration and the Constitution, is buried in Philly, in Christ church burial ground. He is buried at the corner, so you can see his grave from there. It is a private cemetery, and a small admission is charged, at least when I was there, but it is well worth, it as 4 other signers of the Declaration are buried there besides old Ben.


Constitutional quiz: What is the only time in US history, the US Supreme Court held a criminal trial themselves.

 

[BasicGreatGuy]

Ya know, I have had so much on my mind, I totally forgot yesterday was Constitution day. Ratified in 1789, so technically it is only 220 years old.

Commonly known as the Original 7 Articles also.

I have studied Constitutional law off and on for many years and find it quite fascinating.

The actual document is in the Rotunda of the National Archives in Washington, D.C. I have been there a # of times in my life and have never failed to visit the Archives.

The Constitution is center, the Declaration, left of it, and the Bill of Rights, right of it, all 12 Articles as presented to the states.

I have also been to Philadelphia 3 times in my life and have always toured Independence Hall. To stand in the actual room where they drafted and signed the Constitution, to me, was so thrilling. Independence Hall is on UNESCO's prestigious World Heritage list, oddly enough though, the White House is not.

Assembly Hall/Declaration chamber has mostly period furnishings, but the chair George Washington sat in as President of the Convention is original.

I just love IH. To the west is Congress Hall, where they met when Philly was the Capital from 1790-1800. East of IH is Old City Hall, where the Supreme Court met, originally with 6 members.

At the time I was there last, they had not started excavating for the Philly WH, just slightly north of IH. Washington and Adams stayed there when they were the Presidents.

On excavation they found some old WH relics.

Benjamin Franklin, who signed both the Declaration and the Constitution, is buried in Philly, in Christ church burial ground. He is buried at the corner, so you can see his grave from there. It is a private cemetery, and a small admission is charged, at least when I was there, but it is well worth, it as 4 other signers of the Declaration are buried there besides old Ben.


Constitutional quiz: What is the only time in US history, the US Supreme Court held a criminal trial themselves.

I am stumped on the constitutional quiz question.

 

[goldcatt]

Ya know, I have had so much on my mind, I totally forgot yesterday was Constitution day. Ratified in 1789, so technically it is only 220 years old.

Commonly known as the Original 7 Articles also.

I have studied Constitutional law off and on for many years and find it quite fascinating.

The actual document is in the Rotunda of the National Archives in Washington, D.C. I have been there a # of times in my life and have never failed to visit the Archives.

The Constitution is center, the Declaration, left of it, and the Bill of Rights, right of it, all 12 Articles as presented to the states.

I have also been to Philadelphia 3 times in my life and have always toured Independence Hall. To stand in the actual room where they drafted and signed the Constitution, to me, was so thrilling. Independence Hall is on UNESCO's prestigious World Heritage list, oddly enough though, the White House is not.

Assembly Hall/Declaration chamber has mostly period furnishings, but the chair George Washington sat in as President of the Convention is original.

I just love IH. To the west is Congress Hall, where they met when Philly was the Capital from 1790-1800. East of IH is Old City Hall, where the Supreme Court met, originally with 6 members.

At the time I was there last, they had not started excavating for the Philly WH, just slightly north of IH. Washington and Adams stayed there when they were the Presidents.

On excavation they found some old WH relics.

Benjamin Franklin, who signed both the Declaration and the Constitution, is buried in Philly, in Christ church burial ground. He is buried at the corner, so you can see his grave from there. It is a private cemetery, and a small admission is charged, at least when I was there, but it is well worth, it as 4 other signers of the Declaration are buried there besides old Ben.


Constitutional quiz: What is the only time in US history, the US Supreme Court held a criminal trial themselves.

It's on the tip of my tongue. I just know it's one of those things where I'm going to go "D'oh"!

 

[jillian]

Constitutional quiz: What is the only time in US history, the US Supreme Court held a criminal trial themselves.

U.S. v Shipp...

because Tennessee wouldn't convict for lynching black people.

 

[BasicGreatGuy]

Constitutional quiz: What is the only time in US history, the US Supreme Court held a criminal trial themselves.

U.S. v Shipp...

because Tennessee wouldn't convict for lynching black people.

Good job Jillian.

 

[jillian]

Thank you...

thank you very much.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Happy Birthday!

But what does one get the document that has everything?

A nation and politicians who respect it?

 

[Cecilie1200]

Egads, brings to mind a 6th grader who said her parents said Obama is killing the Constitution and should be impeached! Mind you, I'm no Obama supporter, BUT... I said, "That's interesting, perhaps tonight at dinner you might ask what laws they think President Obama has broken? That's the only reason that the Constitution says the House should consider impeachment." Real problem is 6th grade curriculum is ancient history, this is a 'throw in.' Poor kid hasn't a clue what the Constitution says, obviously neither do her parents. But it was a teachable moment, can't wait for Monday. We're off tomorrow.

The Constitution doesn't require the President to break any laws to be impeached.

 

[goldcatt]

Egads, brings to mind a 6th grader who said her parents said Obama is killing the Constitution and should be impeached! Mind you, I'm no Obama supporter, BUT... I said, "That's interesting, perhaps tonight at dinner you might ask what laws they think President Obama has broken? That's the only reason that the Constitution says the House should consider impeachment." Real problem is 6th grade curriculum is ancient history, this is a 'throw in.' Poor kid hasn't a clue what the Constitution says, obviously neither do her parents. But it was a teachable moment, can't wait for Monday. We're off tomorrow.

The Constitution doesn't require the President to break any laws to be impeached.

Really? What part of the Constitution says that?

 

[Cecilie1200]

I bought the Schoolhouse Rocks DVD for my kids.
They got to learn the Preamble just like I did.

Believe it or not, my 8-month-old son, Quinn, LOVES Schoolhouse Rock.

 

[jillian]

Really? What part of the Constitution says that?

I guess the term "high crimes and misdemenors" must have escaped her recollection.

 

[lawbuff]

Constitutional quiz: What is the only time in US history, the US Supreme Court held a criminal trial themselves.

U.S. v Shipp...

because Tennessee wouldn't convict for lynching black people.

Yes, it was Sheriff Joseph Shipp et al. Not for the above reason though!

Shipp and his henchmen defied a SC stay of execution for Ed Johnson and hung him anyway. In a rare move, the SC assumed jurisdiction and held a Contempt of court trial themselves, first and only time in history.

In today's jurisprudence, such a defiant move would charged as Murder.

I learned about the Shipp case many years ago from this link:


Famous Trials - UMKC School of Law - Prof. Douglas Linder

 

[goldcatt]

Really? What part of the Constitution says that?

I guess the term "high crimes and misdemenors" must have escaped her recollection.

Look around, it's a popular memory lapse these days. Must be something in the water.

 

[lawbuff]

I learned about the Shipp case many years ago from this link:


Famous Trials - UMKC School of Law - Prof. Douglas Linder

Just as a side note, you will see the trial of Susan B. Anthony on here. Talking about the National Archives, they have only display there, I saw it, the original arrest warrant for her.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Really? What part of the Constitution says that?

I guess the term "high crimes and misdemenors" must have escaped her recollection.

Nope. It's just that, unlike apparently everyone else here, I know what it means. And it DOESN'T mean "breaking the law", as in criminal acts. The phrase "high crimes and misdemeanors" has nothing to do with criminal law. It was taken from English parliamentary impeachments, which notably did not require any sort of criminal act at all throughout the centuries it was used prior to the writing of the US Constitution. They defined impeachable conduct as: corruption, betrayal of trust, abuse of official power, neglect of duty, encroachment on Parliament's prerogatives, misapplication of funds.

This was all laid out very clearly in the Rodino Report, which framed the Articles of Impeachment against Richard Nixon. (Yes, I know he was never impeached, but there were plans afoot to do so when he resigned.)

Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, in "Commentaries on the Constitution", said not only "crimes of a strictly legal character" are impeachable offenses, but also political offenses, growing out of "personal misconduct . . . so various" that they "must be examined upon very broad and comprehensive principles of pubilc policy and duty." Impeachable offenses encompass "a great variety of circumstances . . . which do not properly belong to the judicial character in the ordinary administration of justice and are far removed from the reach of municipal jurisprudence."

Impeachment is not a criminal procedure; therefore, impeachable acts are not necessarily criminal, and impeachment is not intended as punishment. Its purpose is to protect the people from bad officials, by removing them from office, and there are many ways to be a bad official besides breaking the law.

Alexander Hamilton said the impeachment power is addressed to "the misconduct of public men" or the "violation of some public trust." He also said, "Men, in public trust, will much oftener act in such a manner as to render them unworthy of being any longer trusted than in such a manner as to make them obnoxious to legal punishment."

Edmund Burke said, "Other constitutions are satisfied with making good subjects; [impeachment] is a security for good governors." He also said, "It is by this tribunal that statesmen [are tried] not upon the niceties of a narrow jurisprudence but upon the enlarged and solid principles of morality."

I could go on, but I think I made my point. Behavior doesn't have to violate criminal law to be a "high crime or misdemeanor" and be impeachable.

 

[JakeStarkey]

fluffy got one right. Yes, actual criminality will fit the bill, but impeachment is a political tool as well. Jefferson tried it with Associate Justice Samuel Chase and got his butt kicked up his ass by his own party members in the Senate. I think fluffy wants to use it as a Star Chamber device, if the fluffyites ever take over, which would coincide with the Bickertonites actually rising up to meet a descending Jesus. Didn't happen then, won't happen now. You are outta luck, fluffy.

 

[jillian]

Constitutional quiz: What is the only time in US history, the US Supreme Court held a criminal trial themselves.

U.S. v Shipp...

because Tennessee wouldn't convict for lynching black people.

Yes, it was Sheriff Joseph Shipp et al. Not for the above reason though!

Shipp and his henchmen defied a SC stay of execution for Ed Johnson and hung him anyway. In a rare move, the SC assumed jurisdiction and held a Contempt of court trial themselves, first and only time in history.

In today's jurisprudence, such a defiant move would charged as Murder.

I learned about the Shipp case many years ago from this link:


Famous Trials - UMKC School of Law - Prof. Douglas Linder

Well, contempt charges were certainly the basis for getting it to court. But the Court said clearly that Shipp "aided and abetted" the lynch mob.

from your site:

The Court concluded otherwise: "Shipp not only made the work of the mob easy, but in effect aided and abetted it." Shipp was found guilty of criminal contempt. The Court also declared jailer Jeremiah Gibson and four members of the lynch mob--Nick Nolan, William Mayes, Henry Padgett, and Luther Williams guilty. Evidence was found insufficient to convict Deputy Matthew Galloway and two members of the lynch mob. Justices Holmes, Harlan, Brewer, and Day joined Chief Justice Fuller's decision. Three dissenting justices voted to acquit all defendants.

The Trial of Sheriff Joseph F. Shipp et al.: Transcript Excerpts

Great site. Thanks.

 

[lawbuff]

The Trial of Sheriff Joseph F. Shipp et al.: Transcript Excerpts

Great site. Thanks.

You are welcome. Yes it is a great site, it includes the Scopes Monkey trial, one of the most curious trails of all time. That trial has always piqued my curiousity.