Purpose of Constitution

                What was the purpose for writing the Constitution?  Chad Kent, author and speaker on the Constitution, reminded his readers that our contracts do not contain any clauses except those whose meanings are important to the contract.  He then argued that it is “ridiculous to argue that a given clause of the Constitution has a meaning that completely defeats the purpose that the document was created to serve.  That is why … we need to keep the purpose of the Constitution as a whole in mind whenever we are interpreting it….

                “The founders of this country were brilliant people.  They wrote a Constitution that was designed to limit the federal government and protect the liberty of the American people.  It is common sense to assume that every clause that they included in our Constitution was intended to achieve those primary goals.  It would be illogical to assume that these brilliant people would approve clauses that completely contradicted the entire reason they were writing a constitution in the first place.

                “In order to get to the proper interpretation of the Constitution – the one that will protect our rights and preserve our liberty – we have to make sure that we don’t lose sight of the purpose of the document as a whole….”

                Mr. Kent then proceeds to discuss four things about the Constitution that we know to be true:  (1) “It was designed to create a limited federal government….”  (2) “It was designed to protect the liberty and individual rights of the American people….”  (3) “The federal government does not have the power to do anything until that power is granted to it….”  (4) “The States were intended to play a critical role in how our country functions….”

                Mr. Kent suggests that any interpretation should be compared to these four known facts.  For more of Mr. Kent’s explanation, check out this site.