Amendments 24-27

Amendments 24-27 are the last amendments of the Constitution, and are very important because they give us some of the most important rights, such as the right to vote and it lays down the guidelines for the president temporarily giving up his position and the order of succession, in case the president is killed or temporarily not able to fulfill his duties. The 24th amendment is the Right to vote in Federal elections-tax payments; it states that a United States citizen can not be denied, or limited in their right to vote just because they can not pay the poll tax, so basically this amendment outlawed the poll tax and any other form of tax when voting.This amendment also gave Congress the power to enforce this amendment by means of appropriate legislation.

The 25th amendment is the Presidential Succession, Vice Presidential Vacancy, Presidential Inability; it states that if the president is removed from office or is killed or resigns, that the Vice president is next in line to assume the rest of the presidency until the original presidents term is up. The 25th amendment also states that if the Vice presidency spot is vacant than the President shall nominate a Vice president, but before the newly elected Vice President takes office he must be confirmed by a majority vote in both houses of Congress. This amendment also states the process that the President must go through in order to temporarily step down as President, it states "the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President."(McClenaghan)So basically it is saying that the President must sign a letter staing his inability to perform his job and once he steps down, in order to resume the Presidency he must present another letter stating he is okay now. The last thing that the 25th amendment talks about is if in the case the President is unable to do his job, but does not present a letter to the president pro tempore of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, than the Vice president and a majority of either principal officers of the executive departments or other bodies authorized by Congress may submit the letters to Congress and the same process will happen even if the President does not submit any, but all the president has to do to regain office is end a letter to the president pro tempore, and the Speaker of the House stating he is okay and able to resume the role as President, and it would happen.

The 26th amendment is the Right to Vote -Age, it states that "The Twenty-sixth Amendment lowered the voting age to eighteen. It was a continuation of a movement toward democratization that began with the efforts to remove property qualifications for voting, and expanded to include African Americans and women." (Ritchie)So basically the 26th amendment made it a law that no state can put it age limit beyond 18, but depending on the State it can go less than 18. The 27th amendment states that no Congresional raise in salary can be made until the voters vote on it and vote for it to be raised, otherwise, their slary may not be raised.These are the last of the Constitutional amendments. I would have to say that this particular blog project was interesting because it gave me a better insight of the Constitution, because before this I did not know nearly enough about my rights as a citizen, so this was a very helpful blog project.

Work Cited entry

McClenaghan, A., William. Magruder’s American Government. Department of Political Science Oregon State University Prentice Hall Needham, Massachusetts 1989.

Peltason, J.W. Understanding The Constitution. Copyright (c) 1982 by CBS College Publishing 383 Madison Avenue New York, N.Y. 10017

Ritchie, A. Donald. Our Constitution. (c) 2006 by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016

The Constitution Of The United States Of America. U.S. Government Printing Office Washington : 1976