So what should people know about their country when they plan to stay there for a longer time? Besides the language, that is? ..for I assume you all agree you should be able to communicate with the other residents in the country’s own language, right? …
In my opinion the form of rule and some minimum knowledge of culture and history should go without saying. And also if you would find the time to get to know the most important laws, it would be helpful in the long run.
I have taken a look at the most important document in the United States, and tried to break it down. In addition to the pledge and the national anthem. For my own benefit, I would like to put it out here for reference; yes, it is already out here on the net, and I have cut and pasted most of this from other places, mostly wikipedia. Feel free to browse through and give me any heads up if I got anything wrong.
So here goes:
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of the United States of America and the federal government of the United States. It provides the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government to the states, to citizens, and to all people within the United States.
The Constitution defines the three main branches of government: a legislature, the bicameral Congress; an executive branch led by the President; and a judicial branch headed by the Supreme Court. The Constitution specifies the powers and duties of each branch. The Constitution reserves all unenumerated powers for the respective states and the people, thereby establishing the federal system of government.
The United States Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787, by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and ratified by conventions in each U.S. state in the name of “The People”. The Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times; the first ten amendments are known as the Bill of Rights.
The United States Constitution is the shortest and oldest written constitution still in use by any nation in the world today.
The Constitution has a central place in United States law and political culture. The handwritten original document penned by Jacob Shallus is on display at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C.
Articles of the Constitution
The Constitution consists of a preamble, seven original articles, twenty-seven amendments, and a paragraph certifying its enactment by the constitutional convention.
Preamble: Statement of purpose
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
—United States Constitution, Preamble
The Preamble does not grant any particular authority to the federal government and it does not prohibit any particular authority. It establishes the fact that the federal government has no authority outside of what follows the preamble, as amended. “We the people”, is one of the most-quoted sections of the Constitution. It was thought by the Federalists during this time that there was no need for a bill of rights as they thought that the preamble explained the people’s rights.
Article One: Legislative power
Article One describes the Congress, the legislative branch of the federal government. The United States Congress is a bicameral body consisting of two co-equal houses: the House of Representatives to represent the people, and the Senate to represent the States.
The article establishes the manner of election and the qualifications of members of each body. Representatives must be at least 25 years old, be a citizen of the United States for seven years, and live in the state they represent. Senators must be at least 30 years old, be a citizen for nine years, and live in the state they represent.
Article Two: Executive power
Section 1 creates the presidency. The section states that the executive power is vested in a President. The presidential term is four years and the Vice President serves the identical term. This section originally set the method of electing the President and Vice President, but this method has been superseded by the Twelfth Amendment.
Section 2 grants substantive powers to the president and grants and limits the president’s appointment powers. He is the Commander in Chief of the armed forces and of the state militias when these are called into federal service. He may require opinions of the principal officers of the federal government. He may grant reprieves and pardons, except in cases of impeachment.
Section 3 opens by describing the president’s relations with Congress. He reports on the state of the union, he may convene either house, or both houses, of Congress. When the two houses of Congress cannot agree on the time of adjournment, the president may adjourn them to some future date.
Section 4 provides for removal of the president and other federal officers. The president is removed on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.
Article Three: Judicial power
Article Three describes the court system (the judicial branch), including the Supreme Court. The article requires that there be one court called the Supreme Court; Congress, at its discretion, can create lower courts, whose judgments and orders are reviewable by the Supreme Court. Article Three also creates the right to trial by jury in all criminal cases, defines the crime of treason, and charges Congress with providing for a punishment for it. This Article also sets the kinds of cases that may be heard by the federal judiciary, which cases the Supreme Court may hear first (called original jurisdiction), and that all other cases heard by the Supreme Court are by appeal under such regulations as the Congress shall make.
Article Four: States’ powers and limits
Article Four describes the relationship between the states and the federal government and amongst the states. For instance, it requires states to give “full faith and credit” to the public acts, records, and court proceedings of the other states. Congress is permitted to regulate the manner in which proof of such acts, records, or proceedings may be admitted. The “privileges and immunities” clause prohibits state governments from discriminating against citizens of other states in favor of resident citizens.
Article Five: Amendments
An amendment may be ratified in three ways:
- The new amendment may be approved by two-thirds of both houses of Congress, and then sent to the states for approval.
- Two-thirds of the state legislatures may apply to Congress for a constitutional convention to consider amendments, which are then sent to the states for approval.
- Congress may require ratification by special convention. The convention method has been used only once, to approve the 21st Amendment (repealing prohibition, 1933).
Regardless of the method of proposing an amendment, final ratification requires approval by three-fourths of the states.
Today Article Five places only one limit on the amending power: no amendment may deprive a state of equal representation in the Senate without that state’s consent. The original Article V included other limits on the amending power regarding slavery and taxation; however, these limits expired in 1808.
Article Six: Federal power
Article Six establishes the Constitution, and the laws and treaties of the United States made according to it, to be the supreme law of the land, and that “the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the laws or constitutions of any state notwithstanding.” It also validates national debt created under the Articles of Confederation and requires that all federal and state legislators, officers, and judges take oaths or affirmations to support the Constitution. This means that the states’ constitutions and laws should not conflict with the laws of the federal constitution and that in case of a conflict, state judges are legally bound to honor the federal laws and constitution over those of any state.
Article Six also states “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
Article Seven: Ratification
Article Seven sets forth the requirements for ratification of the Constitution. The Constitution would not take effect until at least nine states had ratified the Constitution in state conventions specially convened for that purpose, and it would only apply to those states that ratified it.
The Bill of Rights (Amendments 1 to 10)
It is commonly understood that originally the Bill of Rights was not intended to apply to the states; however, there is no such limit in the text itself, except where an amendment refers specifically to the federal government. One example is the First Amendment, which says only that “Congress shall make no law…”, and under which some states in the early years of the nation officially established a religion. A rule of inapplicability to the states remained until 1868, when the Fourteenth Amendment was passed, which stated, in part, that:
“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
The Supreme Court has interpreted this clause to extend most, but not all, parts of the Bill of Rights to the states. Nevertheless, the balance of state and federal power has remained a battle in the Supreme Court.
- First Amendment: freedom of religion, speech, the press, of assembly, and freedom of petition.
- Second Amendment: right of individuals to possess firearms.
- Third Amendment: prohibits the government from using private homes as quarters for soldiers.
- Fourth Amendment: guards against searches, arrests, and seizures of property without a specific warrant or a “probable cause” to believe a crime has been committed.
- Fifth Amendment: forbids trial for a major crime except after indictment by a grand jury; prohibits double jeopardy (repeated trials), except in certain very limited circumstances; forbids punishment without due process of law; and provides that an accused person may not be compelled to testify against himself. It also prohibits government from taking private property for public use without “just compensation,” the basis of eminent domain in the United States.
- Sixth Amendment: guarantees a speedy public trial for criminal offenses. It requires trial by a jury, guarantees the right to legal counsel for the accused, and guarantees that the accused may require witnesses to attend the trial and testify in the presence of the accused. It also guarantees the accused a right to know the charges against him.
- Seventh Amendment: assures trial by jury in civil cases.
- Eighth Amendment: forbids excessive bail or fines, and cruel and unusual punishment.
- Ninth Amendment: declares that the listing of individual rights in the Constitution and Bill of Rights is not meant to be comprehensive; and that the other rights not specifically mentioned are retained by the people.
- Tenth Amendment: reserves to the states respectively, or to the people, any powers the Constitution did not delegate to the United States, nor prohibit the states from exercising.
The Pledge of Allegiance
of the United States is an oath of loyalty to the national flag and the republic of the United States of America, originally composed by Francis Bellamy in 1892. The Pledge has been modified four times since then, with the most recent change adding the words “under God” in 1954.
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,
and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
“The Star-Spangled Banner“
is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from “Defense of Fort McHenry”, a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships in Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812.
The poem was set to the tune of a popular British drinking song, written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a men’s social club in London. “The Anacreontic Song” (or “To Anacreonin Heaven”), with various lyrics, was already popular in the United States. Set to Key’s poem and renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner”, it would soon become a well-known American patriotic song.
Oh say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O! say does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Åh hærrlihet… Blitt student, du da? 😉
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