What Article 7 Means
Popular In Constitution
Purpose Of Lifetime Appointment And Pros And Cons Enumerated Powers Bicameral Legislature Background We The People Article 3 Of The Constitution 1st Amendment Who Wrote The Constitution Judicial Review Three Fifths Compromise 10th Amendment 5th Amendment Equal Protection Clause
What the Article 7 essentially means is that the very existence of the American Constitution, while predicated upon empowering the central government and diminishing the sovereignty of individual states, was sure to not diminish the core role all states play in mandating the dominant laws of the land. In many respects, Article 7 represents a continuation of Article 5, which mandated that all changes to the Constitution had to be ratified by the states before becoming Constitutional law.
In specifying that a majority of the existing states, specifically nine out of thirteen, had to ratify the Constitution for it to even exist, Article 7 showed that the State governments still played a vital role in the document that was, in essence, restricting their power.
At the time the Constitution was signed by the delegates of the Constitutional Convention on September 17,1787 (which is today observed as Constitution Day), the majority of the country's power was in the hands of the states due to the Articles of Confederation.
NEXT: First Amendment
