The U.s. Constitution s National Government And...

The U.S. Constitution was created to establish America s national government and fundamental laws in order to guarantee the citizen s rights. It was signed on September 17, 1787 at the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia. Before the Constitution was written, the Articles of Confederation is what America was governed by. Under the Articles of Confederation, the nation was weak and the states were run like they were independent countries. At the Philadelphia Convention, delegates formulated a plan to have a stronger government by having three branches and a system of checks and balances. This would ensure that no single branch would obtain too much power. Many people today have different views on The Supreme Court is a very†¦show more content†¦This simply means that he believes that the constitution should be interpreted literally. Throughout the course of this paper, I will explain the similarities and the differences that are presented with each of these different views and what my opinions of these views are at the end. Stephen Breyer s viewpoint is strictly democratic. â€Å"Literalism has a tendency to undermine the Constitution’s efforts to create a framework for democratic government† (510) is a quote that explains Breyer s view very well. Breyer looks at the constitutional purposes and consequences saying that they need to first look at what the original law was intended to do and prevent. On the other side of that, they also want to look at the punishments that went along with each policy. Breyer argues that any question you have about the original text can be answered by looking at what the original law was intended for. He said this, â€Å" A focus on purpose seeks to promote active liberty by insisting on interpretations, statutory as well as constitutional, that are consistent with the people s will (514).† If you are going to resolve the problems that arise in a governmental setting, you must have a better grasp on democratic objective. You need to understand original democracy and why the laws were put in place, in order to understand the textual meeting of the original constitution. He believes that the original text is not enough to go off of if you do not have an understanding of the context