Research Paper on:
Amending the Constitution to Prohibit Tobacco

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
has been conducted concerning the public health consequences of tobacco use are dire. Tobacco has been conclusively show to be one of the "main preventable causes of chronic disease and  death in the developed countries" and it is the "second leading cause of death worldwide" (Warren, et al, 2006, p. 749). Furthermore, estimates indicate that future burden of death and  disability that tobacco use places on society is likely to double in the coming decade (Warren, et al, 2006). Therefore, an Amendment to the Constitution, which addresses this issue,  is clearly needed. The Amendment process Article 5 of the U.S. Constitution describes the mandated process that must be followed in adding Amendments. The process begins with a two-thirds majority  in both Houses of Congress vote that an Amendment is necessary. The process can also begin if two- thirds of the State legislatures indicate that an Amendment is necessary, by  convening a Convention for proposing Amendments ("U.S. Constitution," 2010). As this indicates, the Constitution specifies two methods that can originate an Amendment proposal that is subsequently sent to the  States for ratification: one is for Congress to propose the Amendment by a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate and the other is if the States form a Constitutional  Convention that is called for by two-thirds of the State legislatures (Mount, 2010). The second method has never been used, but, in either case, once an Amendment has been proposed,  it must be approved, that is, ratified, by three-fourths of the State legislatures in order to become an official addition to the Constitution (Mount, 2010). At no point in  the Amendment process is there a designated role for the President. While the current President can certainly make his or her opinion on the Amendment known, the President does not