Was the Constitution Democratic?

Help? Does the Constitution guarantee...?

• Does the Constitution guarantee you the right to an abortion? No Does the Constitution guarantee us the right to happiness? No Does the Constitution guarantee us the right to medical care? No Does the Constitution guarantee us the right to a job? No Does the Constitution guarantee us the right to a house? No YES OR NO Does the Constitution protect a minority group (not necessarily defined by race or ethnicity – it may simply be just a few people who believe contrary to the majority) from the majority? Yes Does the Constitution grant you the right to say anything at anytime and anyplace? Yes Does the Constitution protect you from your neighbor who prevents you from speaking on some controversial issue? Yes Does the Constitution protect you from your employer if (s)he prevents you from discussing politics on your break? Yes Would your rights be infringed upon if you spoke on a controversial issue in a public space and someone who opposed your view persuaded most of the people in the public space to leave and boycott you, your business, your friends business, and anything connected to you? Yes Scenario: An instructor informs her class she opposes a proposition on the election ballot. That proposition would (if agreed to by the majority of voters) provide $200 million dollars to the university (a state university) to build new classrooms. The university put out a memo several months before the election informing faculty to not oppose the proposition. The instructor did oppose it. A student in the class informed his math instructor that his geography instructor opposed the proposition and told the class she would not vote for it. The math instructor filed a complaint against the geography instructor. The Vice President of the university called the department chair for Geography and told him to fire the geography instructor for violating university policy. If the department chair does not fire the professor, in any constitutional manner were the professors rights violated? YES or NO Yes If the professor is fired, is there a violation of her rights? YES or NO No What is the primary source of authority invoked for the granting of rights to the people? Would it be the Constitution What is the secondary source of authority from which we now derive our basic rights? Declaration of Independence From whom or what does the Constitution protect us? People/Countries who infringe on us. Thank you in advanced!

• Answer:

  Kind of a lot of material to deal with, but I have a few comments. Roe v. Wade was decided as a matter of 'privacy'. And no, the Constitution doesn't use the word 'privacy' because in that time 'privacy' was what you had in the bathroom. But the Supreme Court in 1973 decided a persons 'security' in his/her person, papers, home, etc., was -privacy- and that a woman's right to her own body came under this provision. Freedom of speech does not include the right to say just anything anytime anyplace. People have always agreed that there are limits to constitutional free speech. Treasonous speech, for instance. Fraudulent speech. Slander and libel. 'Fighting words' and 'hate speech' (and those have very specific legal definitions). Boycotts are totall constitutional. Being boycotted because of something you said is not a violation of your free speech. The primary source of authority in the Constitution is We, the People. (Several delegates were unhappy with this wording. They felt the Constitution was an agreement of the states, not of people.) The Constitution protects us from OURSELVES. It lays out the purpose of government, and the structure. It limits the powers of various parts of govenrment with the object of keeping government honest and accountable. And in a democratic republic the government is US, it represents the will of the people. At least that's the idea, in practice it doesn't always work so great.