The 150 anniversary of the United States Constitution didn’t go unrecognized at UMPI. Professor Brent Anderson put together a lecture dedicated to the day. He emphasized on the importance of the 13th and 14th Amendments. These are both considered to have helped change the constitution. The hour-long lecture left the audience with a new understanding of the very things the U.S. was built upon.
Anderson explained how the constitution worked for the people. He quoted Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. who said “even a dog knows the difference between being kicked and being stumbled over.” Holmes meant people know the difference between being intentionally targeted and being punished for doing something wrong.
The point of a constitution is to make sure that every person’s rights are protected. If people are targeted then their rights have not been protected. Anderson explained “the Constitution creates a relationship between government and us.” It is also what prevents “dirty tricks” from happening, such as ex post facto laws. These occur when something is done by someone, so a law is made against it, which would result in the individual who committed the offense to be punished by law. The constitution also restricts a great deal of government intrusion as well. The lecture helped the audience to understand that the Constitution had some mistakes, such as advocating the issue of slavery. But these concepts are no longer considered valid, because everyone is equal and therefore should have the same rights.
The 13th Amendment, created in 1865, is essentially what abolished slavery. It is also one of the reasons why the constitution was forever changed. It was the starting point of what made people equal in the U.S. A real world example that Anderson gave was an interracial couple named Joseph Lee and Barbara Jones. Public authority did not allow them to be discriminated by. But there were private acts of discrimination made against them when they wanted to buy a home. The 13th Amendment is what won them their case. It is essentially what prohibited private acts of discrimination to occur.
The 14th Amendment, established in 1868, made it so that all citizens of the United States would have the same rights. In later years, it was used to fight against acts of discrimination against gay people and women who would not have been treated fairly otherwise. A real world example would be in the military. For a long time, soldiers who were discovered to be gay were thrown in jail. But this was considered unconstitutional because they were being specifically targeted. Eventually it was recognized that they had a right to their own privacy.
When asked what she thought about the lecture, Rachel Rice said “Dr. Anderson did a wonderful job of explaining how the 13th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. constitution have impacted equal rights issues in the last century and a half.” Overall, the audience was well engaged and many even put in their two cents at times. It was extremely informative and it was clear that everyone left with a better understanding of the U.S. Constitution and just how much it means for this country as a whole.
