The initiative and referendum system is part of the American legal landscape in 24 states. In these states, citizens may write initiatives to amend the state Constitution or propose new statutes, and in some cases repeal laws with referendums. In…
Virtual representation is the concept by which a group of people are theoretically spoken for in a government body. Essentially, the idea involves using representatives from other locations to legislate for the constituency of a particular region. Throughout history, this…
The Ninth Amendment of the United States Constitution protects all of the rights of the people that are not mentioned specifically elsewhere in the Constitution. It was a part of the original Bill of Rights drafted in 1787 and ratified…
The Identity Theft Act is a legislative mandate passed in the United States designed to offer identity theft protection for individuals and businesses. Fully entitled the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act, it was passed by the US Congress and…
The First Amendment is the first addition to the US Constitution, and the beginning of the ten amendments that make up the Bill of Rights. The rights included in the amendment are freedom of speech, the right to a free…
The equal protection clause is a section of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution that says that states cannot, “deny to any person within [their] jurisdiction the equal protection of [their] laws.” This clause is designed to prevent…
During a national presidential election, each state sends representatives, members of the Electoral College to vote on behalf of the state's population. Our Constitution provides for the electors as a way of sharing power between the Federal and State governments…
The amendment process for the US Constitution is the means by which the people can change the basic charter of their government. The process itself is described in Article V, and it seems very simple. In the time since the…
Dual federalism is the political theory that two different governments share sovereign power over a certain region or people. Generally this is the concept of balancing the scales of power between a large, sweeping government and a more local, centralized…
You may hear the phrase in the US that “it’s a free country,” and to an extent this is true. As a US citizen, you have many rights clearly defined in the Bill of Rights, which has been amended to…