The Checks and Balances Laws and the Plessy v. Ferguson Law

Checks and Balances

In my opinion one of the most Important systems written into the constitution has to be checks and balances. Checks and balances is each branch of government the legislative branch, executive branch and judicial branch, each branch has some power over the other branches that way no one branch can become more power than the other branches of government and no branch can work without the approval and assistance of the other branches. But there are some ways to get around that for example when making laws congress votes on all bills that are in the process of trying to be passed after both the House of Representatives and Senate approves a bill it gets sent to the executive branch (the president) if the president agrees with the bill it becomes a law if the president is against the bill and vetoes it that means the bill does not become allowed in this case it means the president (the executive branch) has a check over the legislature.

Due Process

There are a certain individual rights that are recognized as absolute when it comes to our modern society. And one of these fundamental rights is due process, due process basically states that a government must respect a person‘s legal rights before “taking their life liberty or property”. An example of due process is the right to know the charges that are or have been placed against you have the right to go to court for your testimony to be heard and for you to defend yourself. When these civil rights are taken from you or ignored by the government before convicting someone of their crime it institutes that your constitutional rights have been violated. You have the right to be notified for your crimes, conduct a hearing, and have a ruling.

Jim Crow

Jim Crow was a character played by Thomas Dartmouth Rice. Mr. Rice was a white actor that dressed up as black slave and acted as ignorant and clueless character for other whites entertainment. He would paint himself black and sing and dance and try to portray himself as a black slave. And this time obviously slaves didn't have much or any education and that being the case they didn’t exactly speak grammatically correct so I’m pretty sure you know what I’m getting at. He would make fun of black slaves. inspiration of this character came from an elderly African-American man who was a prior slave and he was singing a song that is thought to be called jump Jim Crow which took place in Louisville, Kentucky. during this time the Ku Klux Klan became a major issue and started torturing and killing former slaves they would burn their houses, lynch, etc. The Jim Crow character went on until the 1970s.

Miranda Rule

This rule originated from the Supreme Court case of 1966 Miranda vs. Arizona. In 1963 Ernesto Miranda was accused of kidnapping and rape. He was detained by the police and then later interrogated for countless hours during the interrogation Mr. Miranda chose not to have a lawyer present with him ultimately resulting into him confessing to the crimes he committed. and his ruling to judge sentenced him to two 20 to 30 years sentences later on Ernesto Miranda appealed his conviction stating he was not read his rights upon him being detained to be specific his right to remain silent, so his confession should not be used as evidence against him in his court case. This all refers back to the fifth amendment which also mentions due process.

Electoral College

Interesting fact did you know that the President of the United States and vice president are not chosen by popular vote of the American people, they are chosen by 538 electors of course you did you’re the teacher. this process can be found in the United States Constitution. It makes you wonder why didn't our founding fathers make this process easier and let the presidential candidate with the most votes become president. after a bit more research I found that our founding fathers never wanted us to have a pure democracy because they don’t work. This is how the electoral college is implemented it happens in two phases. Phase 1 is purely democratic When voting you are not directly voting for the presidential candidates you are voting for the electors and which side they choose whether that’s Republican or Democrat. The second phase is held in December in which the 538 electors officially determine who will be president at least 270 votes are needed to win the presidency.

Plessy v. Ferguson

After the Civil War the United States went through an era referred to as reconstruction. The 13th 14th and 15th amendments were added to the constitution giving blacks the same the same “equal” treatment as whites these amendments were sent to outlaw slavery. after these amendments being made there was a lot of resistance towards racial equality which really sparked the organization referred to as the KKK (this all took place in the southern states). The Plessy versus Ferguson supreme court case declared a constitutional for racist to be kept separate. in 1892 a man known as Homer Plessy boarded a train in which he had a first class ticket to he settled in one of the seats in which it was set for whites only to sit. The conductor of the train told Mr. Plessy he had to move but he refused. The repercussion of Plessy’s his actions ended him up in jail, he later told the police you was main white and a little bit black but under the louisiana law he was thought to be black. in all Plessy lost the court case because it didn’t violate the 14th amendment it was “separate but equal “.

Civil Rights

The Civil Rights Started Ruring the 1950s.

What many people fail to realize through is that back people have been fighting for desegregation for years before the 1950s it’s thought to have started somewhere during WWII. One of the major issues that jumped started the civil rights movement is the desegregation of schools to be more specific the court case Mendez v. Westminster in California, The supreme court ruled that Orange County in California had to desegregate their schools because they were discriminating against Latinos. This all took place in 1946. The main purpose of the civil rights movement was to stop segregation and Integrate all races together this led us to knowing the legendary names such as Martin integrate all races together this led us to knowing the legendary names such as Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X.,etc. In my opinion this is one of the most legendary movements of all time.

Six Flags of Texas

Texas had the pleasure of being under six different countries control throughout its lifetime. what does brings to the table is a very distinct history I’ve never heard of another state or country being under six different countries control. The six flags the had control/sovereignty of this Great state are Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate states of America and the United States. Texas is the only state that is known to have been its own republic which is very interesting to me because it shows how different they operate compared to other states even to present day I still they are their own little republic they have their own constitution. Personally have never heard of a state have their own constitution. But that’s what I think makes Texas so great their sense of independence.