Why is the Constitution important and how does it work?

The United States Constitution is the document that set up our entire system of government. It tells us the distribution of power amongst the three branches of government and the distribution of power between the federal government and the state governments. It sets forth the rights and duties of federal government. It also sets forth the ways that Americans are protected from the government. In some ways, it could be thought of as the Bible of American government. It has, in my opinion, created the most successful democracy of all time, recent and current events notwithstanding.

The way the Constitution works is that anyone who thinks that the government is acting in a way that violates it has the right to go to court and seek relief from that violation. Sometimes it is one branch of government accusing another branch of government of violating the Constitution. Sometimes it is a private organization or a private citizen making that claim. The court decides whether or not that is the case, and if someone in government is violating the Constitution, he or she is ordered to stop doing so.

The court must read the Constitution and interpret it to apply to the case at hand. Reading it literally is often of no use. For example, there is nothing in the Constitution that says Congress is supposed to fund interstate highways. There were no interstate highways when it was written. But the Constitution has been interpreted to mean that Congress can do this because it is part of our national defense, which Congress is constitutionally responsible for. In this way, too, the Constitution is like the Bible. For instance, there is nothing in the Bible about cars, yet observant Jews will not drive on the Sabbath because that has been interpreted to be a form of work, which is forbidden on the Sabbath. Any document must be read in accordance with the time and place it is meant to be applied to.

I should also say that the Constitution is to some degree a kind of social contract. The courts do not have soldiers to enforce their orders. We all agree to abide by the Constitution in order to live in a civilized democracy. If that social contract breaks down, for example, if a president refuses to abide by a constitutional ruling by the court, the nation and the Constitution are in a great deal of trouble.

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

nouns - what do you call the person who passes the trophies to the prize giver/presenter?

The person who gives out the trophies to the winners are called award presenters. So what do u call the person who passes the trophies to the presenter? Thanks!

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.

Notes

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