Existing comment:
Refining Powers
What do we want our government to do for us?
The Constitution authorizes many powers for the Federal Government, but Americans have continued to try to add to or subtract from that list. Frequently, the powers in proposed amendments to the Constitution are responses to specific events at certain points in time. They fail because they don't achieve a sustained consensus over time.
Refining Powers explores:
Business of Government: How the government works has been a popular subject of many amendments.
Identity: In a diverse nation, some amendments to our founding charter have aimed to define what it means to be American.
Morality: Codifying "proper" behavior through amendments has been unsuccessful, but it hasn't stopped every generation from trying.
By the Numbers:
13 years that Prohibition was in effect
106 Number of fewer days it took to repeal Prohibition than to ratify it
14 Years before the proposed Child Labor amendment became moot because of legislation passed to protect children
1914 Year that income tax was first required |