The Constitutional Theory Of The Constitution - 1735 Words

Evan Oberhausen Professor Tasha Lavey POLS 313 20 April 2015 Constitutional Theory Constitutional theory is an area of Constitutional law that focuses on the underpinnings of a constitutional government. It goes into the foundations of the Constitution and focuses on the meaning of it as well. It is a way to try and justify the rights and laws that the founders set down for us to interpret and to follow within the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Amidst the completion of the U.S. Constitution in 1788, when it had come time to ratify it, there was a general divide amongst the framers and the people. It seemed to split into two groups; the Federalists who favored the ratification and supported the expansion to a stronger and more†¦show more content†¦But despite the separation of powers, the Anti-Federalists were still wary of the federal government having too much power. There were only a few individual rights protections included in the original writing of the Constitution; whether it was out of fear that providing a list of p rotected rights might end up being incomplete and later interpreted to deny not listed rights, or because they had believed that they were creating a central government with limited powers that couldn’t possibly have the authority to violate the individual rights the people deserved. Among the few that were included were ones such as, the Writ of Habeas Corpus not being suspended, unless in case of rebellion or invasion, then the prohibition of ex post facto laws and bills of attainder to prevent the punishment of crimes that occurred before they were illegal and singling out groups and individuals for certain punishments. The privileges and immunities clause essentially protects from states being able to discriminate against out of state citizens in regards to certain individual rights. The privileges and immunities clause however only extended to fundamental rights. The framers identified the protection from the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus except in cases of rebellion and invasion in order to protect citizens from being taken and held prisoner with no legal