For more than 200 years there has been a supreme law of the land, the constitution. But it seems that throughout history various government bodies have usurped the Constitution for their own personal or political needs. With laws like the patriot act, precedents like Judicial Review, and the general course of action taken by the Presidential Office since the 1950's, the validity of the Constitution to be appealed to as a standard has been uniquely challenged in unimaginable ways. Its status as a normative base for law is also being undermined by each branch of government in the course of action they pursue on a daily basis in the face of the electorate. .
References.
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Paul L. Murphy CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, (Grolier Encyclopedia 2002).
Louis Fisher Presidential War Power, (2000 University Press of Kansas).
Gene Franchini Patriot Act is assault on Bill of Rights (El Defensor Chieftain ).
http://www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/charters_of_freedom_8.html.
Bill of Rights.
US Constitution.
"The Constitution of the United States is the fundamental law of the United States of America. Drafted by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pa., between May 25 and Sept. 17, 1787, it is the world's oldest written constitution still in effect. The document presents a set of general principles out of which implementing statutes and codes have emerged. As such, it embodies the essence of constitutionality--that government must be confined by the rule of law." (Murphy 2002).
Those were some exceptional comments stated by Murphy. Is the Constitution the fundamental law of the United States? Is it really? Let us take a few things into consideration. One doesn't need to reach into the annals of history to find the Constitution overlooked, misused, and violated. We can look right at the current Presidential term to find all that and more. This is a paper that is about War Powers and how War Powers have been misappropriated or better yet, violated by the highest elected officials in the United States.
