AMERICAN CONSTITUTION

by M Vernica Brain
Citizenship
A first concept that has evolved significantly is the We, firstly founded in the
Preamble of the Constitution. This concept refers to citizenship as one that has
undergone major changes during these 200 years.
At the time the Constitution was ordained, this We referred only to free men.
Nowhere in the written Constitution is it stated in that way. However, slaves were not
citizens and therefore they were not entitled to vote. Women, even though they were
considered citizens - if they were white - also had no right to vote.

The first change to the concept occurred as a result of the Treaty of 1848 that
ended the war between the USA and Mexico, which also included the granting of
citizenship to all Mexican settlers who inhabited the territory of California, under the
protection of the written Constitution, which says nothing against this.
Then in 1857, the Dred Scott decision, which held that a black person could
not be a citizen, even if very negative at the time, paved the way for the Fourteenth
Amendment in 1868, which included blacks as citizens, but did not rule on other
minorities.
A big step came 1898 when the children of foreigners born in the United States
were declared citizens, by being born on American soil.
1996 was the year a million people were sworn as citizens of the United States,
of all races and from all over the world.
The Fourteenth Amendment exalted the Constitution, so every inclusive decision of
the Supreme Court has enriched and complemented the unwritten Constitution, and
therefore the Constitution as a whole.
The Right to Vote
A second concept closely related to citizenship is the right to vote as a
reflection of republican democracy.
As I have stated, in 1788 only white men had the right to vote, though there
had been some exceptions in a few states, admitting the vote of men from other races.
The written Constitution said nothing about it being forbidden for black men or
women to vote.

However, the interpretation of the unwritten Constitution was

verified; all states had laws in this regard.

Eighty years passed since the end of the civil war, and because of this, the vote
for black men was authorized. The Amendments together granted freedom and
recognized their citizenship through the written Constitution.

On this matter, the post-war period after the First World War, then the war in
Vietnam, are the milestones that led first to the inclusion of women, then equating
rights with obligations.
It was understood by the people of the United States that if they had
contributed to the war effort, first women, then young people who had been called to
war at the age of 18, therefore making them responsible to fight for the United States,
then necessarily at the same time they should have the right to vote in all elections for
representatives and senators, i.e. rights must be proportionate to the obligations, with
a sense of equality between them.
However, these required paths Amendments, which had the support of the
majority of citizens, who believed that the obligations should correspond to the rights.
Equality
The last concept that I discuss, the richest, from my point of view, its
contribution coming from the unwritten Constitution, is the concept of equality.
The written Constitution has no restrictions and no limits to equal application.
However, this concept that comes to life with the birth of democracy, the Declaration
of Independence of 1776, in the early days of constitutional validity, was a concept
also quite restricted by race and gender in its application.
The Supreme Court of the United States, recognizing it as an old and accepted
legal concept brought by settlers from England, has empowered this concept.
It has been, in my view, an empowerment of the court, along with assuming the
role that the Constitution recognizes in this third branch of government, which has
made a series of judgments over a hundred years that have expanded and deepened
the concept of equality. These were major success and accomplishments during the
decades of 1950 to 1970.
Now, with the possibility of universal health care, a new era of openness and
complexity of this rich concept looms, which affects notably the life of every single
citizen of the United States of America.