The Constitution of the United States is a carefully balanced document. It is designed to provide for a national government sufficiently strong and flexible to meet the needs of the Republic, yet sufficiently limited and just to protect the guaranteed rights of citizens; it permits a balance between society's need for order and the individual's right to freedom. It has been more than two hundred years since our country's founding fathers wrote the constitution MW, and since then much has changed. Much has changed in relation to our country, our citizens, and our demands. And there has been much argument on behalf of our constitution and how it should be interpreted. .
The United States is a government of enumerated powers. Congress, and the other two branches of the federal government, can only exercise those powers given in the Constitution. The powers of Congress are enumerated in several places in the Constitution. The most important listing of congressional powers appears in Article I, Section 8 (see left) which identifies in seventeen paragraphs many important powers of Congress. The last paragraph of Article I, Section 8 grants to Congress the power "to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers"--the "Necessary and Proper Clause." The proper interpretation of the Necessary and Proper Clause was the subject of a heated debate between such important figures as Alexander Hamilton (who argued that the clause should be read broadly to authorize the exercise of many implied powers) and Thomas Jefferson (who argued that "necessary" really meant necessary). Hamilton's more flexible interpretation makes possible a strong central government, whereas Jefferson's narrower interpretation strengthens states' rights. Amendment ten to the United States constitution is known as the residual clause, it states that the powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor prohibited to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
