EsHealth Care Project Management and Innovation hcmt-5 PDF

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Health Care Project Management and Innovation hcmt-5Objectives: -Describe the common characteristics of organizational culture -Compare the functional and dysfunctional effects of organizational culture on people and the organization -Identify the factors that create and sustain an organization’s cu...

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Introduction Perhaps no clause in the U.S. constitution has been so misconstrued and debated as the Second Amendment. In fact, even the Supreme Court could not make up their mind as to the true meaning of “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed”. A decisive interpretation to this clause has been quite elusive. Since its ratification, only a few cases have found its way to the Supreme Court while the court’s decision has not helped clarify the matter more than being obscure. As observed by Brooks, the first Supreme Court ruling regarding the Second Amendment was made in 1876 in U.S. v. Cruikshank. In this case, the Supreme Court ruled that the second amendment does not guarantee an individual’s right to bear arms and ten years later, in Presser v. Illinois, added that the Federal Government has limited jurisdiction on gun control as compared to the States. This ruling implies that there are only certain individuals that are allowed to bear arms as the constitution permits as well as it is the burden of the states to create and impose their own gun control legislation. In 1894, the issue about gun control and the right to bear arms was raised again in the case of Miller v. Texas. Miller challenged the state of Texas’s legislation that bans the possession of concealed weapons citing his constitutional right in the Second Amendment. Again, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Texas and stated that the Second Amendment does not apply to state laws citing Texas’ gun control as an example. On a different note, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Dick Heller in District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008 stating that the Second Amendment upholds the individual’s right to bear arms even though he is unconnected to the state militia as long as it is used for purposes of self-defense. In McDonald v. City of Chicago in 2010, the Supreme Court contradicted its

previous rulings about the limitation of the Second Amendment between the federal government and the state by saying that the law “applies equally to the federal government and the states”. It seems that America’s highest judicial body could not quite decide on its stand over the right of the people to bear arms and gun control which raises much ambiguity in the interpretation of the Second Amendment. As simple as this clause in the Second Amendment may seem, the terminology used such as ‘A well-regulated militia’, could not be fully established. The ‘well regulated militia’ clause raises questions such as, what was James Madison thinking when he drafted this clause of the constitution? Does the term ‘wellregulated militia’ refers to all legal citizens of the United States or is it only addressed to a chosen few? But there is a funny side to this story. As observed by Blumenthal, was Madison drunk when he wrote the second amendment? But seriously, was he?

English Roots of the Second Amendment The American constitution is somehow patterned and heavily influenced by the British. Even the founding fathers of the constitution have been inspired by English legislative philosophers such as Coke, Hobbes, Locke, Blackstone, etc.. Understandably so, since the settlers of the new world were once British citizens and the U.S. have been under the colony of England until its independence in the late 1700’s. The Second Amendment can be considered as an American version of the English traditional law which requires its citizens to be armed. The English evolution of this law can be traced back to the rule of King Alfred between 871 and 901 A.D

when England was under constant threat of invasion from nearby kingdoms. In order to defend the realm, the king orders his subjects to provide themselves with weapons. In 1181, King...