Vital Protection for Individual Liberties

The genius of the Constitution in organizing the federal government has given the United States extraor­dinary stability over the course of two centuries. And the Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments have placed fundamental human rights at the center of the U.S. legal system.

In moments of national crisis, it has been tempting for governments to attempt to suspend these rights in the interest of national security, but in the United States such steps have always been taken reluctantly and under the most scrupulous safeguards. During wartime, for exam­ple, military authorities censored mail between the United States and foreign countries, and especially from the battlefronts to families back home. But not even in wartime has the constitutional right to a fair trial been abrogated. Persons accused of crimes—and these include enemy nationals accused of spying, subver­sion, and other dangerous activi­ties—are given the right to defend themselves and, under the American system, are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Amendments to the Constitution subsequent to the Bill of Rights cover a wide range of subjects. One of the most far-reaching is the fourteenth, ratified in 1868, which establishes a clear and simple definition of citi­zenship and guarantees equal treat­ment under the law. In essence, the Fourteenth Amendment required the states to abide by the protections of the Bill of Rights. Other amend­ments have limited the judicial power of the national government; changed the method of electing the president, forbidden slavery, pro­tected the right to vote against denial because of race, color, sex, or previous condition of servitude, extended the congressional power to levy taxes to individual incomes, and instituted the election of U.S. sena­tors by popular vote. The most recent amendments include the twenty-second, limiting the president to two terms in office; the twenty-third, granting citizens of the District of Columbia the right to vote; the twenty-fourth, giving citizens the right to vote regardless of failure to pay a poll tax; the twenty-fifth, providing for filling the office of vice president when it becomes vacant in midterm; the twenty-sixth, lowering the voting age to 18; and the twenty-seventh, concerning the compensation of U.S. senators and representatives.

It is of significance that a majority of the 27 amendments stem from continued efforts to expand individual civil or political liberties, while only a few are concerned with amplifying the basic governmental structure drafted in Philadelphia in 1787.