A constitution is the set of laws and principles by which a country, state or organization is governed. It is a written document, with the authority of supremacy over ordinary statutory law (though in some states this is not always the case). The term comes from Latin constitutus, from the root word constituere (“to establish”).
The Constitution is divided into three parts: The Preamble describes the purpose and system of the Government; the seven Articles describe how it functions; and the Amendments list changes to the Constitution. The first 10 Amendments, together called the Bill of Rights, are considered fundamental to American freedoms.
Section 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records and judicial proceedings of every other State; and any Person charged with Treason, Felony, or other Crime committed within one state, who flees into another, shall on demand of the Executive Power of the State from which he fled, be delivered up to be removed to that State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.
The Constitution’s framers successfully separated and balanced governmental powers to safeguard the interests of majority rule and minority rights, of liberty and equality. It also lays the legal foundation for interstate commerce and prevents states from discriminating in many ways against citizens of other states. This is accomplished through the Constitution’s bicameral structure, separation of powers and judicial review, among other things. The Constitution has stood the test of time, though it has been amended 27 times to reflect a changing world that was profoundly different from that of eighteenth-century America.