The Bill of Rights and Later Amendments - Essay Example

Due to the continuing reluctance of the Southern states in abolishing slavery, the federal government had found justification in going against state’s rights us protected by the Tenth Amendment by introducing the Fourteenth Amendment and establishing further federal authority to protect human rights. (Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas [1954]. The right to vote by each citizen is not based on federal constitutional right but based on state’s right as protected by the Tenth Amendment and further explained in the Latin maxim Expressio unius est exclusio alterius (the express mention of one thing excludes all others) that applies to the federal governments powers (Calabresi and Prakash 1994).

The powers of the federal government are limited to what is provided by the Constitution and all other powers are hence given to the state, giving them more independence and local autonomy. As an old rule, the federal government cpuld not interfere with state acts and must keep its interaction in arms length, avoiding any form of violation of each state’s rights. . Furthermore, aside from the Equal protection clause that is also provided in the Fourteenth Amendment, the federal constitution does not guaranty political representation or right to vote.

It was held in Alexander v. Daley (2000) that "The Equal Protection Clause does not protect the right of all citizens to vote, but rather the right of all qualified citizens to vote". Qualification to vote depends on state laws and so is the right to vote. The interpretation of the Tenth Amendment provides that it is the state who has the authority to provide for the voting rights of its citizens. The Constitution again has given respect to local state’s independence and autonomy. In the case of Bush v.

Gore (2000), Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Associate Justice Antonin Scalia provided that "the individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States.". It is the state legislature who has vested power to choose presidential electors, the right is rooted from the Constitution that provides that “Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature therefore may direct, a number of Electors…” (Article II, § 1, cl. 2).

Individual citizens participate in the Presidential elections by voting a representative of their state (elector), who in turn would vote for the nominated and pledged candidate by the given state. State election is won by plurality of votes in each state as they chose for a senator or state representative that will represent them in Congress and in the Presidential elections (Patterson 8). A candidate must obtain an absolute majority in the Electoral College that is followed by most states except Maine and Nebraska whose votes are in proportion to the popular