Jeremy Keeshin

Constitution Test – Part 2 – Themes/Characteristics

Does the Constitution do a better job of limiting the government’s power or guaranteeing
the individual’s freedom?

Relevant Sections

Bill of Rights: The first ten amendments to the Constitution protect the individual in
many respects. The Anti Federalist legacy, it protected the people from the wrath of the
central government by giving them freedom to speak their mind and protect them in court
and from government, among other things.

Article 1, Section 8: The Enumerated Powers section of the Constitution lists

specifically powers given to Congress such as controlling the flow of money and a navy
among other things.

Article 1, Section 9: This section details the limits on legislative power such as that they
cannot act autonomously from the government by making their own money and taxing
and signing into alliances among other things.

The Constitution does a better job protecting the freedoms of the individual than
limiting the government’s power because the specific wording on individuals freedoms in
stronger than the vague and general wording about the limitation of government. In the
Bill of Rights, specific liberties given to the individual are listed to protect them from an
overpowering central government. The important first amendment protects the freedom
of speech, press, petition, religion, and assembly, allowing the individual to speak his
mind. The second amendment gives the individual the right to bear arms. The individual
is also protected from quartering of troops, unfair search and seizure, self-incrimination,
cruel and unusual punishment, and given the right to a fair trial. These specific measures
laid on by the framers guarantee that the individual has certain rights no inherent to them
as US citizens and citizens of the world. The precise wording of the Bill of Rights and
explicit listing of individual freedoms makes it strongly guarantee the rights of the
individual. The Enumerated Powers section of the Constitution is a problem with the
limitation of governmental power. Although Article 1, Section 9 attempts to limit the
power of Congress, certain aspects of Section 8 outweigh it. An example of this is the
Elastic Clause that says that all measures deemed “necessary and proper” to execute the
government are allowed. This can be interpreted to override specific limitations set on the
government. This demonstrates the ambiguous nature with which the framers wrote
about the limitation of government. They may limit it in Section 9 by not allowing a state
to act autonomously from the country, etc., but giving the Elastic Clause in the
Enumerated Powers takes away from that limitation. The limitations in Section 9 are on
very general and almost treasonous actions, which does not limit them in a sense of
creating laws. The limitations are also very few to limit the power of the legislature
effectively. Because the Constitution is exact in its references to the powers of the people
it is stronger than the indefinite way with which it limits the power of Congress. The
 Jeremy Keeshin

people are also given an elastic clause of a sort by the 9th and 10th amendments, but this
would strengthen the protection of individual freedom, not weaken it. This exemplifies
the manner of which the individual is protected more by the Constitution than the
limitation of government is.