Constitution thoughts, part 2

I have thought before that it is nice of Congress to admit how they vote on each bill, but apparently it is required. In Section 7, Paragraph 2, it reads: “But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for or against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively.” Now we just need to convince them to put the full text of all Legislation on the internet, so the citizens can keep track of what is being done to them.

There are a few interesting things in Section 8 which describes some of the powers given to Congress. One of them is “To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin.” I think the last part means Congress could set the value of the dollar to be in relation to another country, I believe China sets their currency based on the value of the dollar. In The 5000 Year Leap the author argues that this sentence means that our current system of determining the value of money is wrong and should be left up to Congress. It is explicitly stated, but I think a better approach is to have the free market determine the value through trading of currency with other countries.

Another part reads: “To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years.” This actually surprised me because most of the wars in the 20th century and now the 21st century have been longer than two years. It is also possible that Congress is allowed to hold a new vote on the issue every two years in order to extend a war for as long as necessary.

Part of the Second Amendment mentions militias and Section 8 gives more details on what that means. It also mentions that the District of Columbia should not exceed "ten Miles square", which means 100 square miles. The current size is 68.3 square miles. The beginning of Section 9 reads: “The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight.” Importation of slaves was allowed until Congress prohibited it on January 1, 1808, the first day it was permitted to do so. Until then, the Constitution had permitted Congress to levy a maximum duty of ten dollars per slave imported into the United States.

Section 9 also reads: “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.” Abraham Lincoln suspended some rights during the Civil War and I have heard that President Bush has also. Apparently it is okay if only temporarily done during an emergency. Section 9 later reads: “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.”