Significance test for a proportion free response example

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.350 --> 00:00:01.920
- [Instructor] We're told that some boxes

00:00:01.920 --> 00:00:04.910
of a certain brand of breakfast
cereal include a voucher

00:00:04.910 --> 00:00:07.850
for a free video rental inside the box.

00:00:07.850 --> 00:00:09.990
The company that makes the cereal claims

00:00:09.990 --> 00:00:14.220
that a voucher can be
found in 20% of boxes,

00:00:14.220 --> 00:00:16.460
however, based on their experiences

00:00:16.460 --> 00:00:18.160
eating the cereal at home,

00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:20.680
a group of students
believes that the proportion

00:00:20.680 --> 00:00:24.420
of boxes with vouchers is less than 20%.

00:00:24.420 --> 00:00:28.270
This group of students
purchased 65 boxes of the cereal

00:00:28.270 --> 00:00:30.620
to investigate the company's claim.

00:00:30.620 --> 00:00:33.100
The student found a total of 11 vouchers

00:00:33.100 --> 00:00:37.050
for free video rentals in the 65 boxes.

00:00:37.050 --> 00:00:39.150
Suppose it is reasonable to assume

00:00:39.150 --> 00:00:40.940
that the 65 boxes purchased

00:00:40.940 --> 00:00:43.540
by the students are a random sample

00:00:43.540 --> 00:00:46.670
of all boxes of this cereal.

00:00:46.670 --> 00:00:49.230
Based on this sample, is there support

00:00:49.230 --> 00:00:51.530
for the students' belief
that the proportion

00:00:51.530 --> 00:00:54.690
of boxes with vouchers is less than 20%?

00:00:54.690 --> 00:00:57.710
Provide statistical evidence
to support your answer.

00:00:57.710 --> 00:00:59.730
And so, like always, pause this video

00:00:59.730 --> 00:01:01.750
and see if you can answer it by yourself,

00:01:01.750 --> 00:01:06.160
and this actually is a question
from an AP statistics exam.

00:01:06.160 --> 00:01:07.610
Alright, now let's work
through this together

00:01:07.610 --> 00:01:09.160
and I'm going to try to model some

00:01:09.160 --> 00:01:11.060
of what you might wanna do
if you were actually trying

00:01:11.060 --> 00:01:13.400
to answer this on an exam.

00:01:13.400 --> 00:01:14.900
So, the first thing
you might wanna say is,

00:01:14.900 --> 00:01:17.680
well, what's our null and
our alternative hypothesis?

00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:20.330
Well, our null hypothesis would be,

00:01:20.330 --> 00:01:24.080
well, the reality is what
the breakfast brand claims,

00:01:24.080 --> 00:01:27.450
that 20% of the boxes contain a voucher,

00:01:27.450 --> 00:01:29.360
so that would be our null hypothesis,

00:01:29.360 --> 00:01:32.870
and our alternative hypothesis
would be what we suspect,

00:01:32.870 --> 00:01:34.500
that the true proportion of boxes

00:01:34.500 --> 00:01:39.060
that contain a voucher is
actually less than 20%.

00:01:39.060 --> 00:01:41.040
Now, if you're going to
do a significance test,

00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:43.870
it's good practice to set
up your significance level

00:01:43.870 --> 00:01:45.890
that you're going to
eventually compare your p-value

00:01:45.890 --> 00:01:47.430
to ahead of time.

00:01:47.430 --> 00:01:51.270
And so, let's say we would want to assume,

00:01:51.270 --> 00:01:54.120
assume significance level,

00:01:54.120 --> 00:01:57.130
so let me write this, significance,

00:01:57.130 --> 00:01:59.580
significance level

00:02:00.680 --> 00:02:01.690
alpha,

00:02:01.690 --> 00:02:03.450
let's just go with 0.05,

00:02:04.980 --> 00:02:07.570
and then we'll wanna
think about the sample.

00:02:07.570 --> 00:02:08.530
And we're going to figure out,

00:02:08.530 --> 00:02:11.130
if we assume that the
null hypothesis is true,

00:02:11.130 --> 00:02:13.770
what's the probability that we get

00:02:19.468 --> 00:02:21.820
the sample proportion that we do?

00:02:21.820 --> 00:02:24.750
And if that is below
this significance level,

00:02:24.750 --> 00:02:27.210
then we would reject the null hypothesis.

00:02:27.210 --> 00:02:31.260
And so, what we know about the sample,

00:02:31.260 --> 00:02:34.137
we know that we took 65 boxes of cereal,

00:02:34.137 --> 00:02:37.480
n is equal to 65, they tell
us that right over there,

00:02:37.480 --> 00:02:39.540
and from that, we can calculate

00:02:39.540 --> 00:02:41.270
what the sample proportion is.

00:02:41.270 --> 00:02:44.330
It's going to be 11 out of 65

00:02:44.330 --> 00:02:46.220
and we can get our calculator out,

00:02:46.220 --> 00:02:48.890
calculators are allowed
on this part of the exam.

00:02:50.040 --> 00:02:53.060
And so, what is 11

00:02:53.060 --> 00:02:55.200
divided by 65?

00:02:55.200 --> 00:02:57.490
It gives us, and I'll just round

00:02:57.490 --> 00:02:59.400
to the nearest thousandth, 169.

00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:01.100
0.169.

00:03:01.100 --> 00:03:03.740
0.169,

00:03:03.740 --> 00:03:07.110
I'll say approximately
'cause I rounded it there.

00:03:07.110 --> 00:03:08.450
Now, the next thing we wanna do

00:03:08.450 --> 00:03:10.670
before we make an
inference is to make sure

00:03:10.670 --> 00:03:13.000
we're meeting the
conditions for inference,

00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:14.250
so I'll write this down over here.

00:03:14.250 --> 00:03:15.280
Conditions,

00:03:16.260 --> 00:03:20.550
conditions for inference,

00:03:20.550 --> 00:03:21.720
conditions for inference,

00:03:21.720 --> 00:03:23.040
and this is to feel good

00:03:23.040 --> 00:03:26.110
that we have properly
sampling the population,

00:03:26.110 --> 00:03:27.970
that our sampling distribution is going

00:03:27.970 --> 00:03:29.380
to be roughly normal.

00:03:29.380 --> 00:03:32.230
So, the first one is random sample

00:03:32.230 --> 00:03:34.220
that is truly a random sample

00:03:34.220 --> 00:03:35.830
and here they tell us.

00:03:35.830 --> 00:03:40.460
It is reasonable to assume
that the 65 boxes purchased

00:03:40.460 --> 00:03:43.410
by the students are a random sample,

00:03:43.410 --> 00:03:44.700
so that checks that off.

00:03:44.700 --> 00:03:47.520
So, I will just point that
to that right over there,

00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:49.100
so that checks that off.

00:03:49.100 --> 00:03:51.310
The next one is the normal condition,

00:03:52.180 --> 00:03:53.690
that the shape is roughly normal

00:03:53.690 --> 00:03:56.650
and it isn't skewed dramatically
one way or the other

00:03:56.650 --> 00:03:58.540
and in order to meet that condition,

00:03:58.540 --> 00:04:01.800
the sample size times the
true assumed proportion,

00:04:01.800 --> 00:04:04.420
and we're going to assume that
the null hypothesis is true,

00:04:04.420 --> 00:04:06.310
and so, we could say that,

00:04:06.310 --> 00:04:07.890
and we could even say that
this is the proportion

00:04:07.890 --> 00:04:10.230
assumed in the null hypothesis.

00:04:10.230 --> 00:04:11.680
That's what that notation would imply,

00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:13.400
and if you're doing
this on the actual test,

00:04:13.400 --> 00:04:15.720
you should explain your use
of notation a little bit more

00:04:15.720 --> 00:04:18.270
than I might do for the sake of time.

00:04:18.270 --> 00:04:20.960
But this needs to be
greater than or equal to 10

00:04:20.960 --> 00:04:25.030
and n times one minus the
assumed proportion needs

00:04:25.030 --> 00:04:27.200
to be greater than or equal to 10.

00:04:27.200 --> 00:04:29.390
Well, let's see, n is 65,

00:04:29.390 --> 00:04:34.390
so 65 times the assumed proportion is 0.2.

00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:37.560
That is going to be equal to 13.

00:04:37.560 --> 00:04:40.440
13 is indeed greater than or equal to 10,

00:04:40.440 --> 00:04:41.540
so that checks off.

00:04:41.540 --> 00:04:45.210
And then we would take n 65

00:04:45.210 --> 00:04:48.800
times one minus the
assumed proportion, so 0.8,

00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:51.920
and that is going to
be equal to, let's see,

00:04:51.920 --> 00:04:54.370
that would just be 65 minus 13,

00:04:54.370 --> 00:04:56.480
which is going to be equal to 52,

00:04:56.480 --> 00:04:59.950
and that indeed is also
greater than or equal to 10.

00:04:59.950 --> 00:05:03.220
So, we met that condition right over there

00:05:03.220 --> 00:05:05.790
and then the last one is the independence.

00:05:05.790 --> 00:05:07.490
Independence.

00:05:07.490 --> 00:05:10.310
We aren't sampling these
boxes with replacement,

00:05:10.310 --> 00:05:13.080
so we need to feel good
that they are less than 10%

00:05:13.080 --> 00:05:14.960
of the population of boxes,

00:05:14.960 --> 00:05:16.790
and they don't tell us that explicitly,

00:05:16.790 --> 00:05:19.480
but it would be good practice to say going

00:05:21.340 --> 00:05:22.810
to assume,

00:05:23.710 --> 00:05:24.800
assume

00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:26.240
more

00:05:26.240 --> 00:05:27.800
than,

00:05:27.800 --> 00:05:29.210
let's see, 10 times that,

00:05:29.210 --> 00:05:32.410
650 boxes in the population.

00:05:32.410 --> 00:05:35.580
Boxes in population,

00:05:35.580 --> 00:05:37.250
population,

00:05:37.250 --> 00:05:42.250
which would imply that n is less than 10%

00:05:42.940 --> 00:05:46.550
or less than or equal
to 10% of population,

00:05:46.550 --> 00:05:49.250
of population, which would allow us

00:05:49.250 --> 00:05:51.630
to check off the independence condition.

00:05:51.630 --> 00:05:54.880
And so, given that we've met
our conditions for inference,

00:05:54.880 --> 00:05:57.450
now let's think about the
sampling distribution.

00:05:57.450 --> 00:06:01.660
So, the sampling distribution

00:06:01.660 --> 00:06:03.590
of the sample proportions

00:06:03.590 --> 00:06:04.760
because that's what we're going to use

00:06:04.760 --> 00:06:06.790
to calculate a p-value.

00:06:06.790 --> 00:06:09.050
So, we know a few things about
the sampling distribution

00:06:09.050 --> 00:06:10.670
of the sample proportions.

00:06:10.670 --> 00:06:12.840
We know that the mean of
the sampling distribution

00:06:12.840 --> 00:06:14.260
of the sample proportions is just going

00:06:14.260 --> 00:06:16.770
to be the assumed true proportion,

00:06:16.770 --> 00:06:19.180
so that's the proportion
from the null hypothesis,

00:06:19.180 --> 00:06:21.730
and we know that the standard deviation

00:06:21.730 --> 00:06:23.140
of the sampling distribution

00:06:23.140 --> 00:06:24.650
of the sample proportions.

00:06:24.650 --> 00:06:25.750
This is going to be equal to,

00:06:25.750 --> 00:06:27.820
and we've seen this in
multiple videos already,

00:06:27.820 --> 00:06:30.280
this is the assumed
proportion times one minus

00:06:30.280 --> 00:06:32.980
the assumed proportion
from our null hypothesis,

00:06:32.980 --> 00:06:36.070
divided by n, which in this case is going

00:06:36.070 --> 00:06:37.710
to be equal to

00:06:37.710 --> 00:06:39.120
0.2

00:06:39.120 --> 00:06:41.100
times 0.8,

00:06:41.100 --> 00:06:43.430
all of that over at 65.

00:06:43.430 --> 00:06:46.780
Once again, let's get our calculator out.

00:06:46.780 --> 00:06:50.380
So, we're gonna have the square root

00:06:50.380 --> 00:06:52.430
of 0.2

00:06:52.430 --> 00:06:55.470
times 0.8

00:06:55.470 --> 00:06:59.070
divided by 65

00:06:59.070 --> 00:07:01.210
and then close my parentheses.

00:07:01.210 --> 00:07:02.360
I get,

00:07:02.360 --> 00:07:04.070
so 0.0496.

00:07:08.021 --> 00:07:10.710
So, this is approximately 0.0496.

00:07:14.240 --> 00:07:17.560
Now, the next step is to
figure out the p-value

00:07:17.560 --> 00:07:20.550
which we can then compare
to our significance level

00:07:20.550 --> 00:07:23.740
to decide whether or not to
reject the null hypothesis.

00:07:23.740 --> 00:07:26.210
And in order to calculate the p-value,

00:07:26.210 --> 00:07:28.890
let's figure out our z statistic,

00:07:28.890 --> 00:07:32.600
which is, how many
standard deviations above

00:07:32.600 --> 00:07:36.040
or below the mean of the
sampling distribution

00:07:36.040 --> 00:07:38.710
is the sample statistic that we happen

00:07:38.710 --> 00:07:41.310
to get for this sample of 65?

00:07:41.310 --> 00:07:43.890
And we have seen this in previous videos.

00:07:43.890 --> 00:07:46.670
This would be equal to
our sample proportion

00:07:46.670 --> 00:07:48.960
minus the assumed proportion

00:07:48.960 --> 00:07:51.260
for the population in the null hypothesis,

00:07:51.260 --> 00:07:52.800
so the difference between those,

00:07:52.800 --> 00:07:56.170
and then divided by the standard deviation

00:07:56.170 --> 00:07:59.380
of the sampling distribution
of the sample proportions.

00:07:59.380 --> 00:08:02.680
This would tell us how many
standard deviations are we above

00:08:02.680 --> 00:08:06.020
or below the mean of the
sampling distribution.

00:08:06.020 --> 00:08:08.460
So, in this particular situation,

00:08:08.460 --> 00:08:13.460
this is going to be 0.169

00:08:13.470 --> 00:08:15.070
minus

00:08:15.070 --> 00:08:15.903
0.2,

00:08:17.110 --> 00:08:20.300
all of that over this
value right over here,

00:08:20.300 --> 00:08:22.670
which is approximately 0.0496.

00:08:24.880 --> 00:08:27.270
I can get the calculator out again.

00:08:28.870 --> 00:08:33.100
And so, we have 0.169

00:08:33.100 --> 00:08:35.080
minus 0.2,

00:08:36.010 --> 00:08:39.500
so that's how far below
our sample proportion is

00:08:39.500 --> 00:08:41.590
than the mean of the
sampling distribution,

00:08:41.590 --> 00:08:44.100
which is the assumed proportion
from the null hypothesis,

00:08:44.100 --> 00:08:45.900
assumed population proportion,

00:08:45.900 --> 00:08:48.130
and then we divide that.

00:08:48.130 --> 00:08:52.050
We're gonna divide that
by the standard deviation

00:08:52.050 --> 00:08:54.130
of the sampling distribution

00:08:54.130 --> 00:08:55.260
of the sample proportions,

00:08:55.260 --> 00:09:00.000
so divide that by 0.0496

00:09:01.790 --> 00:09:05.890
and we get a z-value of approximately,

00:09:05.890 --> 00:09:07.150
'cause remember, this is using a bunch

00:09:07.150 --> 00:09:08.910
of approximations right over here,

00:09:08.910 --> 00:09:11.300
about negative 0.625.

00:09:13.460 --> 00:09:17.170
So, z is approximately

00:09:17.170 --> 00:09:20.510
negative 0.625

00:09:20.510 --> 00:09:24.030
and so now we can think
about the actual p-value.

00:09:24.030 --> 00:09:26.020
Our p-value,

00:09:27.470 --> 00:09:30.000
which is equal to the probability

00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:33.820
of getting a sample proportion

00:09:33.820 --> 00:09:37.530
that is at least as low
as the one that we got,

00:09:37.530 --> 00:09:40.710
so a sample proportion that is less than

00:09:40.710 --> 00:09:43.590
or equal to the one that we got, 0.169.

00:09:45.230 --> 00:09:48.800
Assuming the null hypothesis is true,

00:09:48.800 --> 00:09:52.130
so we could say assuming
the null hypothesis is true,

00:09:54.410 --> 00:09:56.670
which is equal to the probability

00:09:56.670 --> 00:09:59.800
of getting a z statistic that is less than

00:09:59.800 --> 00:10:04.690
or equal to this value right
over here, negative 0.625.

00:10:04.690 --> 00:10:06.350
And now we can use our calculator

00:10:06.350 --> 00:10:08.120
to actually calculate this.

00:10:09.970 --> 00:10:11.430
So, what we can do is,

00:10:11.430 --> 00:10:15.000
we can go to second distribution.

00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:17.990
We wanna do normative, normalcdf,

00:10:17.990 --> 00:10:20.950
so go to normalcdf,

00:10:20.950 --> 00:10:24.040
and then our lower bound
is actually going to be,

00:10:24.040 --> 00:10:25.300
we could say negative infinity.

00:10:25.300 --> 00:10:29.670
Our upper bound is going to be negative,

00:10:29.670 --> 00:10:31.220
so negative 0.625,

00:10:33.581 --> 00:10:36.010
625.

00:10:37.190 --> 00:10:39.500
This is, you could say a normalized

00:10:39.500 --> 00:10:40.580
normal distribution here,

00:10:40.580 --> 00:10:42.950
so we'll just go with all of this

00:10:42.950 --> 00:10:43.790
'cause we're just thinking about

00:10:43.790 --> 00:10:46.160
the Z statistic right over here,

00:10:46.160 --> 00:10:47.400
click enter,

00:10:47.400 --> 00:10:49.330
and then click enter.

00:10:49.330 --> 00:10:51.750
And then we get, this is going to be,

00:10:51.750 --> 00:10:54.300
lets say, 0.266.

00:10:54.300 --> 00:10:57.580
So, this is approximately 0.266,

00:11:00.100 --> 00:11:02.370
and so let's just make
sure what we just did.

00:11:02.370 --> 00:11:07.370
If this right over here is the
assumed sampling distribution

00:11:07.420 --> 00:11:09.000
of the sample proportions

00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:12.670
where we are assuming that
our null hypothesis is true,

00:11:12.670 --> 00:11:14.820
so the mean of our sampling
distribution is going

00:11:14.820 --> 00:11:16.640
to be our assumed proportion,

00:11:16.640 --> 00:11:19.660
what we're saying is, look,
we got a result over here.

00:11:19.660 --> 00:11:23.030
This is where our p-hat
happened to be right over here.

00:11:23.030 --> 00:11:25.050
What's the probability of getting a result

00:11:25.050 --> 00:11:29.560
that far below the true
proportion or further?

00:11:29.560 --> 00:11:32.580
So, this is what we calculated just now.

00:11:32.580 --> 00:11:36.600
Now when you look at this, this
is almost a 27% probability.

00:11:36.600 --> 00:11:38.660
When you compare our p-value,

00:11:38.660 --> 00:11:40.910
we're gonna compare our p-value

00:11:40.910 --> 00:11:42.410
to our significance level

00:11:42.410 --> 00:11:45.950
and we see that our p-value
is clearly greater than

00:11:45.950 --> 00:11:47.630
our significance level,

00:11:47.630 --> 00:11:49.990
0.266

00:11:49.990 --> 00:11:51.440
is clearly greater

00:11:51.440 --> 00:11:53.870
than our significance level of 0.05.

00:11:54.940 --> 00:11:56.250
What we were saying is,

00:11:56.250 --> 00:11:59.310
if there was less than a 5% chance

00:11:59.310 --> 00:12:02.240
of getting the sample
proportion that we got,

00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:04.460
then we would reject the null hypothesis,

00:12:04.460 --> 00:12:06.160
which would suggest the alternative,

00:12:06.160 --> 00:12:08.040
but here the probability

00:12:08.040 --> 00:12:11.480
of getting the sample
proportion that we got,

00:12:11.480 --> 00:12:14.040
if we assume that the
null hypothesis is true,

00:12:14.040 --> 00:12:16.490
is almost 27%,

00:12:16.490 --> 00:12:19.230
and so that's well above
our significance level,

00:12:19.230 --> 00:12:21.000
so we will fail.

00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:22.850
So, because of this,

00:12:22.850 --> 00:12:26.460
because of this, we fail

00:12:26.460 --> 00:12:28.810
to reject,

00:12:28.810 --> 00:12:32.310
reject our null hypothesis,

00:12:33.690 --> 00:12:38.690
and from that, we can
say not enough evidence

00:12:42.290 --> 00:12:43.870
to suggest

00:12:45.700 --> 00:12:47.700
our alternative hypothesis.

00:12:47.700 --> 00:12:49.550
And if you have time you might wanna say,

00:12:49.550 --> 00:12:51.420
there's not enough evidence to suggest

00:12:51.420 --> 00:12:54.690
that less than 20% of the boxes

00:12:54.690 --> 00:12:57.440
have the free video rental voucher

00:12:57.440 --> 00:13:00.970
that they talked about in the
original problem description.


Calculating a z statistic in a test about a proportion

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.280 --> 00:00:02.220
- [Instructor] The mayor
of a town saw an article

00:00:02.220 --> 00:00:05.250
that claimed the national
unemployment rate is 8%.

00:00:05.250 --> 00:00:08.030
They wondered if this held
true in their own town,

00:00:08.030 --> 00:00:10.370
so they took a sample of 200 residents

00:00:10.370 --> 00:00:13.203
to test the null hypothesis
is that the unemployment rate

00:00:13.203 --> 00:00:15.500
is the same as the national one

00:00:15.500 --> 00:00:17.740
versus the alternative hypothesis which is

00:00:17.740 --> 00:00:20.460
that the unemployment rate is
not the same as the national,

00:00:20.460 --> 00:00:22.940
where p is the proportion
of residents in the town

00:00:22.940 --> 00:00:24.250
that are unemployed.

00:00:24.250 --> 00:00:27.910
The sample included 22
residents who were unemployed.

00:00:27.910 --> 00:00:31.630
Assuming that the conditions
for inference have been met,

00:00:31.630 --> 00:00:34.100
and so that's the random, normal,
and independent conditions

00:00:34.100 --> 00:00:36.480
that we've talked about
in previous videos,

00:00:36.480 --> 00:00:39.140
identify the correct test statistic

00:00:39.140 --> 00:00:41.580
for this significance test.

00:00:41.580 --> 00:00:44.010
So let me just, I like
to rewrite everything

00:00:44.010 --> 00:00:46.900
just to make sure I've
understood what's going on.

00:00:46.900 --> 00:00:49.910
We have a null hypothesis
that the true proportion

00:00:49.910 --> 00:00:51.780
of unemployed people in our town,

00:00:51.780 --> 00:00:53.430
that's what this p represents,

00:00:53.430 --> 00:00:55.860
is the same as the national unemployment.

00:00:55.860 --> 00:00:57.610
And remember, our null
hypothesis tends to be

00:00:57.610 --> 00:01:00.780
the no news here, nothing
to report so to speak,

00:01:00.780 --> 00:01:02.710
and we have our alternative hypothesis

00:01:02.710 --> 00:01:06.460
that no, the true unemployment
in this town is different,

00:01:06.460 --> 00:01:08.810
is different than 8%.

00:01:08.810 --> 00:01:11.750
And so what we would do is we would set

00:01:11.750 --> 00:01:13.470
some type of a significance level,

00:01:13.470 --> 00:01:15.820
we would assume that the
mayor of the town sets it,

00:01:15.820 --> 00:01:20.330
let's say, he sets or she sets
a significance level of 0.5.

00:01:21.310 --> 00:01:25.030
And then, what we wanna do
is conduct the experiment.

00:01:25.030 --> 00:01:27.970
So this is the entire
population of the town.

00:01:27.970 --> 00:01:32.970
They take a sample of 200
people, so this is our sample,

00:01:34.010 --> 00:01:38.650
n is equal to 200, since it
met the independence condition,

00:01:38.650 --> 00:01:41.930
we'll assume that this is less
than 10% of the population,

00:01:41.930 --> 00:01:45.818
and we calculate a sample statistic here,

00:01:45.818 --> 00:01:48.080
and it would be, since we care about

00:01:48.080 --> 00:01:50.950
the true population proportion,
the sample statistic

00:01:50.950 --> 00:01:54.490
we would care about is
the sample proportion

00:01:54.490 --> 00:01:58.440
and we figure out that it
is 22 out of the 200 people

00:01:58.440 --> 00:02:00.480
in the sample are unemployed.

00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:04.190
So this is 0.11.

00:02:04.190 --> 00:02:07.670
Now the next step is
assuming the null hypothesis

00:02:07.670 --> 00:02:11.610
is true, what is the
probability of getting a result

00:02:11.610 --> 00:02:14.330
this far away or further

00:02:14.330 --> 00:02:18.110
from the assumed population proportion?

00:02:18.110 --> 00:02:21.760
And if that probability
is lower than alpha,

00:02:21.760 --> 00:02:24.000
then we would reject the null hypothesis

00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:27.000
which would suggest the alternative.

00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:30.140
But how do you figure
out this probability?

00:02:30.140 --> 00:02:31.560
Well, one way to think about it is

00:02:31.560 --> 00:02:34.419
we could say how many
standard deviations away

00:02:34.419 --> 00:02:38.350
from the true proportion,
the assumed proportion is it?

00:02:38.350 --> 00:02:39.860
And then we could say
what's the probability

00:02:39.860 --> 00:02:42.610
of getting that many standard
deviations or further

00:02:42.610 --> 00:02:43.860
from the true proportion?

00:02:43.860 --> 00:02:45.710
We could use a z-table to do that.

00:02:45.710 --> 00:02:47.010
And so what we wanna do is figure out

00:02:47.010 --> 00:02:48.720
the number of standard deviations,

00:02:48.720 --> 00:02:51.140
and so that would be a z-statistic.

00:02:51.140 --> 00:02:52.860
And so how do we figure it out?

00:02:52.860 --> 00:02:54.430
Well, we can figure out the difference

00:02:54.430 --> 00:02:57.490
between the sample proportion here

00:02:57.490 --> 00:02:59.950
and the assumed population proportion,

00:02:59.950 --> 00:03:04.950
so that would be 0.11 minus 0.08

00:03:05.630 --> 00:03:08.450
divided by the standard deviation

00:03:08.450 --> 00:03:11.480
of the sampling distribution
of the sample proportions.

00:03:11.480 --> 00:03:13.310
And we can figure that out.

00:03:13.310 --> 00:03:17.120
Remember, all that is is,
and sometimes we don't know

00:03:17.120 --> 00:03:18.900
what the population proportion is

00:03:18.900 --> 00:03:21.470
but here we're assuming
a population proportion.

00:03:21.470 --> 00:03:24.860
So we're assuming it is 0.08

00:03:24.860 --> 00:03:28.770
and then we'll multiply
that times one minus 0.08

00:03:28.770 --> 00:03:32.460
so we'll multiply that times 0.92

00:03:32.460 --> 00:03:33.990
and this come straight from we've seen it

00:03:33.990 --> 00:03:36.560
in previous videos, the standard deviation

00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:38.890
of the sampling distribution
of sample proportions

00:03:38.890 --> 00:03:43.410
and then you divide that by n
which is 200 right over here.

00:03:43.410 --> 00:03:45.410
And we can get a calculator
out to figure this out

00:03:45.410 --> 00:03:47.300
but this would give us
some value which it says

00:03:47.300 --> 00:03:52.300
how many standard deviations
away from 0.08 is 0.11?

00:03:52.390 --> 00:03:54.400
And then we could use
a z-table to figure out

00:03:54.400 --> 00:03:56.820
what's the probability of
getting that far or further

00:03:56.820 --> 00:03:59.090
from the true proportion
and then that would give us

00:03:59.090 --> 00:04:02.120
our p-value which we can
compare the significance level.

00:04:02.120 --> 00:04:03.670
Sometimes, you will see a formula

00:04:03.670 --> 00:04:05.570
that looks something
like this that you say,

00:04:05.570 --> 00:04:07.726
hey look, you have your sample proportion,

00:04:07.726 --> 00:04:10.300
you find the difference between that

00:04:10.300 --> 00:04:13.920
and the assumed proportion
in the null hypothesis,

00:04:13.920 --> 00:04:16.040
that's what this little zero says,

00:04:16.040 --> 00:04:18.130
that this is the assumed
population proportion

00:04:18.130 --> 00:04:21.310
from the null hypothesis
and you divide that

00:04:21.310 --> 00:04:24.590
by the standard deviation,
the assumed standard deviation

00:04:24.590 --> 00:04:28.030
of the sampling distribution
of the sample proportions.

00:04:28.030 --> 00:04:32.100
So that would be our assumed
population proportion

00:04:32.100 --> 00:04:35.410
times one minus our assumed
population proportion

00:04:35.410 --> 00:04:38.600
divided by our sample size.

00:04:38.600 --> 00:04:40.690
And in future videos,
we're gonna go all the away

00:04:40.690 --> 00:04:44.150
and calculate this, and
then look it up in a z-table

00:04:44.150 --> 00:04:45.860
and see what's the probability of getting

00:04:45.860 --> 00:04:48.530
that extreme or more extreme of a result

00:04:48.530 --> 00:04:49.990
and compare it to alpha.


Article VI of the Constitution

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.260 --> 00:00:02.350
- [Kim] Hi, this is Kim from Khan Academy.

00:00:02.350 --> 00:00:05.050
And today I'm learning
more about Article VI

00:00:05.050 --> 00:00:07.100
of the US Constitution.

00:00:07.100 --> 00:00:10.150
Article VI is, as we'll soon see, kind of

00:00:10.150 --> 00:00:12.280
a constitutional grab bag.

00:00:12.280 --> 00:00:16.050
It covers debts, religious
tests for office,

00:00:16.050 --> 00:00:18.820
and it establishes the
constitution as the supreme

00:00:18.820 --> 00:00:19.880
law of the land.

00:00:19.880 --> 00:00:24.210
To learn more about what binds
these diverse ideas together

00:00:24.210 --> 00:00:26.310
I sought out the help of two experts.

00:00:26.310 --> 00:00:29.140
Kermit Roosevelt is a
professor of law specializing

00:00:29.140 --> 00:00:32.220
in Constitutional Law and conflict of laws

00:00:32.220 --> 00:00:34.320
at the University of
Pennsylvania Law School.

00:00:34.320 --> 00:00:37.530
And, Michael Ramsey is
professor of law and director

00:00:37.530 --> 00:00:40.270
of International and
Comparative Law programs

00:00:40.270 --> 00:00:43.030
at the University of
San Diego School of Law.

00:00:43.030 --> 00:00:45.740
So, let's start out
talking about the debts

00:00:45.740 --> 00:00:47.700
portion of Article VI.

00:00:47.700 --> 00:00:50.010
Professor Roosevelt, why were the framers

00:00:50.010 --> 00:00:52.150
so interested in debt?

00:00:52.150 --> 00:00:54.600
What was the historical
context that led them

00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:58.154
to explicitly address debt in Article VI?

00:00:58.154 --> 00:01:00.340
- [Kermit] Debt is important
generally because nations

00:01:00.340 --> 00:01:01.850
often need to borrow money.

00:01:01.850 --> 00:01:04.170
And specifically, with
the constitution and

00:01:04.170 --> 00:01:06.630
the Articles of Confederation
the US Government

00:01:06.630 --> 00:01:10.080
had been borrowing money to
pay for the Revolutionary War.

00:01:10.080 --> 00:01:13.300
So, there was a question,
we're moving from a sort of

00:01:13.300 --> 00:01:16.770
loose confederation almost
like a treaty between nations

00:01:16.770 --> 00:01:20.130
under the Articles of
Confederation to a single

00:01:20.130 --> 00:01:22.670
unitary country with a
stronger national government

00:01:22.670 --> 00:01:24.090
under the constitution.

00:01:24.090 --> 00:01:26.350
And, there's a question, is
it still the same country?

00:01:26.350 --> 00:01:28.510
Will the new United States pay the debts

00:01:28.510 --> 00:01:30.390
of the old United States?

00:01:30.390 --> 00:01:31.790
- [Michael] Now, there's
a general principal

00:01:31.790 --> 00:01:35.000
of international law that
a successor government

00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:37.500
undertakes the obligations
of the predecessor.

00:01:37.500 --> 00:01:41.050
So, you wouldn't necessarily
think this would be a problem,

00:01:41.050 --> 00:01:44.060
but I think they were
particularly concerned because

00:01:44.060 --> 00:01:47.050
the idea of a republic
was a somewhat new one,

00:01:47.050 --> 00:01:51.030
at least in the 18th century,
a somewhat unusual one.

00:01:51.030 --> 00:01:55.180
And, the change of a
republican government might

00:01:56.440 --> 00:01:59.380
cause some worries in Europe
where this money was owed.

00:01:59.380 --> 00:02:01.760
So, I think they just
wanted to reassure all

00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:04.220
of the creditors that
even if they were changing

00:02:04.220 --> 00:02:06.980
their method of government
that that wasn't going to

00:02:06.980 --> 00:02:09.170
effect any of the debts.

00:02:09.170 --> 00:02:11.260
- [Kim] What might have
happened if they decided not

00:02:11.260 --> 00:02:12.920
to pay those debts?

00:02:12.920 --> 00:02:15.230
- [Kermit] If they decided
not to pay the debts than

00:02:15.230 --> 00:02:18.040
other countries would probably
have been much less willing

00:02:18.040 --> 00:02:21.440
to lend money to the new United
States because they might

00:02:21.440 --> 00:02:23.100
have thought, "Well,
you know, another change

00:02:23.100 --> 00:02:24.190
"in government could occur."

00:02:24.190 --> 00:02:25.860
- [Michael] There was
substantial question throughout

00:02:25.860 --> 00:02:29.070
the world whether the United
States would be able to survive

00:02:29.070 --> 00:02:31.350
in the face of all the
challenges that they had

00:02:31.350 --> 00:02:33.490
after gaining their independence.

00:02:33.490 --> 00:02:37.790
So, in order to make it
seem that the United States

00:02:37.790 --> 00:02:40.300
was a country that could be
trust, a country that could

00:02:40.300 --> 00:02:43.630
be expected to stick around
and not collapse into chaos

00:02:43.630 --> 00:02:46.300
or revert to colonial status
one of the most important

00:02:46.300 --> 00:02:50.240
things for them was to show
that the debts would be honored

00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:53.180
because a failure to
honor debts would suggest

00:02:53.180 --> 00:02:57.330
that the country did not, in
fact, have a true sovereignty

00:02:57.330 --> 00:02:59.790
and it was not prepared to be an actor on

00:02:59.790 --> 00:03:01.970
the international stage
that could be trusted.

00:03:01.970 --> 00:03:03.770
- [Kermit] Another interesting
thing to contrast this to

00:03:03.770 --> 00:03:06.560
is the treatment of debts
after the Civil War where,

00:03:06.560 --> 00:03:09.200
of course, the United States,
the federal government

00:03:09.200 --> 00:03:11.610
paid its own debts but
there's a provision in

00:03:11.610 --> 00:03:13.840
the 14th Amendment explicitly repudiating

00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:15.070
the Confederate debt.

00:03:15.070 --> 00:03:17.860
So, if you loaned money to the
Confederate States of America

00:03:17.860 --> 00:03:20.840
you're never getting that back
because we didn't treat that

00:03:20.840 --> 00:03:24.540
as a valid government that would
be continued going forward.

00:03:24.540 --> 00:03:26.980
- [Michael] Another thing
that it illustrates is that

00:03:26.980 --> 00:03:30.100
the constitution, in some
respects, was a visionary

00:03:30.100 --> 00:03:32.660
document that was concerned
with a long term future

00:03:32.660 --> 00:03:33.530
of the United States.

00:03:33.530 --> 00:03:37.230
But, in other respects it
responded to very immediate

00:03:37.230 --> 00:03:40.420
practical problems that the
framers faced in their day.

00:03:40.420 --> 00:03:43.060
They were thinking about not
just the future of the country

00:03:43.060 --> 00:03:45.150
for the ages, they were
thinking about that,

00:03:45.150 --> 00:03:47.123
but they weren't thinking just about that.

00:03:47.123 --> 00:03:50.130
They were also thinking about
reassuring France with respect

00:03:50.130 --> 00:03:52.640
to the debts that existed
right at that moment.

00:03:52.640 --> 00:03:56.430
- [Kim] So, there's a lot
going on in Article VI.

00:03:56.430 --> 00:03:59.150
And specifically, it talks
about the constitution

00:03:59.150 --> 00:04:02.070
as the supreme law of the land.

00:04:02.070 --> 00:04:04.530
So, what's important about that statement?

00:04:04.530 --> 00:04:06.330
- [Kermit] What's important
about that is that means

00:04:06.330 --> 00:04:09.160
the Constitution is our highest law.

00:04:09.160 --> 00:04:13.580
It prevails over any other
kind of law in a conflict.

00:04:13.580 --> 00:04:16.740
So, one thing that that
means is the constitution

00:04:16.740 --> 00:04:18.240
is supreme over state law.

00:04:18.240 --> 00:04:20.320
And then, the constitution
actually goes on to

00:04:20.320 --> 00:04:22.550
talk about that a little bit more.

00:04:22.550 --> 00:04:24.270
But, it also means the
constitution is supreme

00:04:24.270 --> 00:04:25.290
over federal law.

00:04:25.290 --> 00:04:27.580
So, everyone is bound by the constitution.

00:04:27.580 --> 00:04:29.110
The states can't go against it.

00:04:29.110 --> 00:04:30.850
Congress can't go past it.

00:04:30.850 --> 00:04:33.550
The president can't violate
constitutional restrictions.

00:04:33.550 --> 00:04:35.600
The constitution is really the last word.

00:04:35.600 --> 00:04:38.890
It's the pinnacle or
the keystone of the arch

00:04:38.890 --> 00:04:40.780
of American democracy.

00:04:40.780 --> 00:04:43.360
- [Michael] And, that's
why we can say that things

00:04:43.360 --> 00:04:46.330
are unconstitutional, that
laws are unconstitutional

00:04:46.330 --> 00:04:48.270
and therefore invalid.

00:04:48.270 --> 00:04:50.930
And, most importantly,
it's why the Supreme Court

00:04:50.930 --> 00:04:55.930
can say that laws are
unconstitutional and invalid.

00:04:56.560 --> 00:05:01.560
It creates a superior
law that limits the laws

00:05:01.580 --> 00:05:04.160
that can be passed by the
other parts of the government.

00:05:04.160 --> 00:05:06.350
It creates a hierarchy of laws.

00:05:06.350 --> 00:05:11.350
And, in doing so, it assures
that we have a single set

00:05:11.640 --> 00:05:15.070
of rules that applies to all the states

00:05:15.070 --> 00:05:16.780
and to the federal government.

00:05:16.780 --> 00:05:19.610
And, it can't be changed
except by an amendment,

00:05:19.610 --> 00:05:21.490
which is relatively difficult to do.

00:05:21.490 --> 00:05:23.180
There's a procedure in
the constitution for how

00:05:23.180 --> 00:05:25.730
you can amend the
constitution, but until amended

00:05:25.730 --> 00:05:30.640
the constitution, as
written, is our superior law.

00:05:30.640 --> 00:05:35.040
And, that was different from the way that

00:05:35.980 --> 00:05:37.580
the rules that the framers were used to

00:05:37.580 --> 00:05:39.810
under the English system
where they didn't have

00:05:39.810 --> 00:05:41.520
a written constitution.

00:05:41.520 --> 00:05:44.070
They had an unwritten
constitution, but that constitution

00:05:44.070 --> 00:05:47.290
was subject to change by parliament.

00:05:47.290 --> 00:05:49.810
- [Kim] So, has the
supremacy of the constitution

00:05:49.810 --> 00:05:51.500
been tested over time?

00:05:52.730 --> 00:05:54.820
- [Kermit] There haven't
been a lot of claims

00:05:54.820 --> 00:05:57.790
that the constitution is not supreme.

00:05:57.790 --> 00:06:00.590
So, generally speaking
everyone gives, at least,

00:06:00.590 --> 00:06:02.980
lip service to this idea.

00:06:02.980 --> 00:06:04.660
What's been tested is more the question of

00:06:04.660 --> 00:06:07.400
who gets to decide what
the constitution means

00:06:07.400 --> 00:06:09.910
and when something conflicts with it.

00:06:09.910 --> 00:06:13.210
So, if you want the
constitution and federal law

00:06:13.210 --> 00:06:16.260
to be supreme, probably
you would want to have

00:06:16.260 --> 00:06:18.870
someone in the federal
government deciding when

00:06:18.870 --> 00:06:21.070
there's a conflict, say with state law.

00:06:21.070 --> 00:06:23.030
And, the forms that
resistance that has taken

00:06:23.030 --> 00:06:26.940
over the years are more states saying not,

00:06:26.940 --> 00:06:28.880
"We can go against the
constitution, we're above

00:06:28.880 --> 00:06:31.750
"the constitution," but
states saying, "We don't think

00:06:31.750 --> 00:06:33.990
"what we're doing violates
the constitution," right,

00:06:33.990 --> 00:06:36.280
"And you at the Supreme
Court, you think it does

00:06:36.280 --> 00:06:37.840
"but you're wrong."

00:06:37.840 --> 00:06:41.460
- [Michael] In the 19th century
just before the Civil War

00:06:41.460 --> 00:06:44.700
the Supreme Court decided
in the Dred Scott case

00:06:44.700 --> 00:06:46.900
that African Americans
could not be citizens to

00:06:46.900 --> 00:06:49.810
the United States, even
if they were freed slaves.

00:06:50.730 --> 00:06:54.930
And, President Lincoln
believed that that was wrong.

00:06:55.830 --> 00:06:58.540
He said that there was
nothing in the constitution

00:06:58.540 --> 00:07:02.030
that denied that, the ability
of them to be citizens.

00:07:02.030 --> 00:07:03.980
And, he said that the Supreme Court had

00:07:05.370 --> 00:07:06.650
misinterpreted the constitution.

00:07:06.650 --> 00:07:09.580
And, he would accept the
Supreme Court's ruling

00:07:09.580 --> 00:07:10.700
in that regard.

00:07:10.700 --> 00:07:13.640
Later, in the 20th
century, the Supreme Court

00:07:13.640 --> 00:07:17.150
held that the constitution
barred segregation,

00:07:17.150 --> 00:07:20.300
particularly in schools
in the Brown versus Board

00:07:20.300 --> 00:07:21.830
of Education case.

00:07:21.830 --> 00:07:25.170
But, many southern governors
and other institutions

00:07:25.170 --> 00:07:27.840
throughout the south thought
that the Supreme Court

00:07:27.840 --> 00:07:29.880
had gotten that one wrong.

00:07:29.880 --> 00:07:33.550
And, they refused to abide
by what the Supreme Court

00:07:33.550 --> 00:07:35.610
had said the constitution means.

00:07:35.610 --> 00:07:37.970
- [Kermit] What they said
was not the constitution

00:07:37.970 --> 00:07:41.010
doesn't bind us, but we know
what the constitution means

00:07:41.010 --> 00:07:43.190
better than you, Supreme
Court, you're wrong.

00:07:43.190 --> 00:07:46.480
You're making this up, it's
political, it's not judging.

00:07:46.480 --> 00:07:48.380
- [Kim] Another thing that
Article VI talks about

00:07:48.380 --> 00:07:50.580
is religious tests.

00:07:50.580 --> 00:07:54.110
Why were the framers so
interested in preventing

00:07:54.110 --> 00:07:55.460
religious tests in government?

00:07:55.460 --> 00:07:58.900
What sort of historical evils
were they trying to prevent?

00:07:59.780 --> 00:08:01.560
- [Kermit] So, this is
connected to the basic idea

00:08:01.560 --> 00:08:03.400
of the separation of church and state.

00:08:03.400 --> 00:08:05.370
And, you separate church
and state really to

00:08:05.370 --> 00:08:07.040
protect both of those things.

00:08:07.040 --> 00:08:09.280
So, you wanna protect
religion from being corrupted

00:08:09.280 --> 00:08:11.860
by political considerations,
but you also want to

00:08:11.860 --> 00:08:15.380
protect your political system
from being a battleground

00:08:15.380 --> 00:08:17.200
between rival religions.

00:08:17.200 --> 00:08:19.610
- [Michael] So, where
this comes from is that

00:08:19.610 --> 00:08:21.860
in England they had had a series of what

00:08:21.860 --> 00:08:23.610
they called Test acts.

00:08:23.610 --> 00:08:27.930
And, what the Test Acts
did was it required

00:08:27.930 --> 00:08:31.040
that for people to be eligible
for government offices

00:08:31.040 --> 00:08:35.300
that the people had to be
members of the Church of England.

00:08:35.300 --> 00:08:39.490
And, that other religious
groups they were barred

00:08:39.490 --> 00:08:43.240
by the Test Act from
holding government office.

00:08:43.240 --> 00:08:48.060
So, actually many of
those minority religions,

00:08:48.060 --> 00:08:50.340
many adherents of those ended up coming to

00:08:50.340 --> 00:08:53.360
the American colonies to gain some measure

00:08:53.360 --> 00:08:55.310
of religious freedom.

00:08:55.310 --> 00:08:57.770
The pilgrims were an example of that.

00:08:57.770 --> 00:09:02.060
There was a Catholic colony in Maryland.

00:09:02.060 --> 00:09:06.040
And, just generally
speaking many of the people,

00:09:06.040 --> 00:09:10.040
many of the colonists
who came over were people

00:09:10.040 --> 00:09:15.000
who were not part of the main
established church in England.

00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:18.630
And so, you can see why they
would not wanna have something

00:09:18.630 --> 00:09:20.030
like the Test Acts.

00:09:20.030 --> 00:09:23.500
And, they wanted to make
clear that in the new

00:09:23.500 --> 00:09:28.500
national government that
any religion or no religion

00:09:28.830 --> 00:09:33.120
would be allowed for
government office holders.

00:09:33.120 --> 00:09:35.210
- [Kim] Do you think it's
true that we don't have

00:09:35.210 --> 00:09:37.730
religious tests or oaths
in the United States?

00:09:37.730 --> 00:09:40.080
How about the practice
of swearing on a Bible

00:09:40.080 --> 00:09:42.740
during the presidential inauguration?

00:09:42.740 --> 00:09:44.340
- [Kermit] Well, the practice
of swearing on a Bible

00:09:44.340 --> 00:09:46.710
is very interesting, as
is the fact that when the

00:09:46.710 --> 00:09:49.960
president recites the oath
of office every president,

00:09:49.960 --> 00:09:52.390
going back to George
Washington, has added on to

00:09:52.390 --> 00:09:54.400
the end of it, "So help me God."

00:09:54.400 --> 00:09:55.890
There's actually an
oath in the constitution

00:09:55.890 --> 00:09:59.430
the president has to swear
to preserve, protect,

00:09:59.430 --> 00:10:00.790
and defend the constitution.

00:10:00.790 --> 00:10:03.340
But, the constitution doesn't
say, "So help me God."

00:10:03.340 --> 00:10:05.750
The presidents just add
that on on their own.

00:10:05.750 --> 00:10:08.100
And actually, that sort
of illustrates the way

00:10:08.100 --> 00:10:12.400
in which the constitution
treats religion, which is

00:10:12.400 --> 00:10:16.150
it can't be part of government
in an official sense,

00:10:16.150 --> 00:10:18.610
but we know that members of
government are also people.

00:10:18.610 --> 00:10:21.380
And, they have religious beliefs
that are important to them.

00:10:21.380 --> 00:10:25.230
And, we don't demand that
they exclude religion

00:10:25.230 --> 00:10:28.370
from their lives, we just
demand that it be separated

00:10:28.370 --> 00:10:30.140
from government authority.

00:10:30.140 --> 00:10:33.710
So, you can swear on a
Bible if you want to.

00:10:33.710 --> 00:10:35.660
You don't have to.

00:10:35.660 --> 00:10:37.480
You can swear on some
other religious book.

00:10:37.480 --> 00:10:39.510
We had a member of congress
take an oath of office

00:10:39.510 --> 00:10:41.060
on a Quran.

00:10:41.060 --> 00:10:45.300
So, individual government
officials are allowed to

00:10:45.300 --> 00:10:49.500
include religion in so far as
it's about them personally.

00:10:49.500 --> 00:10:52.070
What you think is appropriate
to mark this occasion,

00:10:52.070 --> 00:10:56.400
what solemnifies this oath
for you, you can do that.

00:10:56.400 --> 00:10:59.620
But, we can't require
it, and they can't make

00:10:59.620 --> 00:11:01.950
the exercise of their
power religious in nature.

00:11:01.950 --> 00:11:06.780
So, you can't, as a government
official, exercise your power

00:11:06.780 --> 00:11:08.350
on religious grounds.

00:11:08.350 --> 00:11:10.820
- [Kim] Something that
strikes me about Article VI

00:11:10.820 --> 00:11:14.160
is that it addresses so
many different things.

00:11:14.160 --> 00:11:19.150
Do you have a sense of why
debts and constitutional

00:11:19.150 --> 00:11:23.170
supremacy and religious
tests are all in one article.

00:11:24.670 --> 00:11:27.080
- [Michael] Article VI, as
you said, is a little bit

00:11:27.080 --> 00:11:27.913
of a grab bag.

00:11:27.913 --> 00:11:30.650
It's not entirely clear
how these different pieces

00:11:30.650 --> 00:11:32.760
of Article VI relate to each other.

00:11:32.760 --> 00:11:35.270
And, I think they were just
things that the framers

00:11:35.270 --> 00:11:38.710
wanted in the constitution
and didn't know, for sure,

00:11:38.710 --> 00:11:40.100
where else to put them.

00:11:40.100 --> 00:11:42.900
- [Kermit] I'm not exactly
sure why the debts are there.

00:11:43.890 --> 00:11:46.850
If I had to say something about Article VI

00:11:46.850 --> 00:11:49.610
it would be it's sort
of the glue that holds

00:11:49.610 --> 00:11:52.200
the constitutional architecture together.

00:11:52.200 --> 00:11:55.860
So, maybe the debts
are in there to explain

00:11:55.860 --> 00:11:58.810
the continuity between
the US government under

00:11:58.810 --> 00:12:01.000
the Articles of Confederation
and the US government

00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:02.270
under the constitution.

00:12:02.270 --> 00:12:05.830
Then, the supremacy clause
explains how all of the

00:12:05.830 --> 00:12:07.960
different parts of the
federal system are supposed

00:12:07.960 --> 00:12:09.630
to fit together.

00:12:09.630 --> 00:12:13.150
And, what the supremacy clause
is saying the constitution

00:12:13.150 --> 00:12:14.460
is above all of them.

00:12:14.460 --> 00:12:16.130
The constitution connects them all.

00:12:16.130 --> 00:12:18.980
Everyone has to abide by the constitution.

00:12:18.980 --> 00:12:21.600
And, it tells you the
constitution is the highest law,

00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:23.970
then you've got federal
law, and then below that

00:12:23.970 --> 00:12:24.850
is state law.

00:12:24.850 --> 00:12:27.080
So that, if there's a
conflict between federal law

00:12:27.080 --> 00:12:28.770
and state law, the
federal law is gonna win.

00:12:28.770 --> 00:12:31.980
And then, the last part
of Article VI is sort of

00:12:31.980 --> 00:12:33.470
doing the same thing.

00:12:33.470 --> 00:12:35.940
Because, what holds a country together?

00:12:35.940 --> 00:12:39.600
What binds people into a single people?

00:12:39.600 --> 00:12:41.450
In a lot of countries at
the time of the founding

00:12:41.450 --> 00:12:43.930
it was religion, right,
religion was the glue

00:12:43.930 --> 00:12:45.460
that held the society together.

00:12:45.460 --> 00:12:47.440
And, if you weren't a
member of that religion

00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:50.120
you were an outsider or you
were a second class citizen.

00:12:50.120 --> 00:12:54.420
You would be shunned and
not given equal rights

00:12:54.420 --> 00:12:55.340
in some ways.

00:12:55.340 --> 00:12:57.620
The last clause of
Article VI says something

00:12:57.620 --> 00:13:00.460
sort of similar about
America, except it explicitly

00:13:00.460 --> 00:13:03.070
says it's not religion that
binds us together, right?

00:13:03.070 --> 00:13:06.660
No religious tasks can be
required but you do have

00:13:06.660 --> 00:13:07.493
to take an oath.

00:13:07.493 --> 00:13:08.810
What do you have to pledge to support?

00:13:08.810 --> 00:13:10.910
You have to pledge to
support the constitution.

00:13:10.910 --> 00:13:13.150
So, there again, it's
telling you the constitution

00:13:13.150 --> 00:13:14.420
is what we all have in common.

00:13:14.420 --> 00:13:16.040
That's what makes us Americans.

00:13:16.040 --> 00:13:19.670
That really is the glue that
binds our society together.

00:13:19.670 --> 00:13:22.720
- [Kim] So, we've learned
that Article VI is,

00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:25.930
as Professor Roosevelt put
it, the glue that binds

00:13:25.930 --> 00:13:27.240
the country together.

00:13:27.240 --> 00:13:29.720
In assuming the debts from
the era of the Articles

00:13:29.720 --> 00:13:33.680
of Confederation Article VI
established the continuity

00:13:33.680 --> 00:13:35.230
of the U.S. government.

00:13:35.230 --> 00:13:39.150
It also placed the
constitution, not religion,

00:13:39.150 --> 00:13:41.880
as the supreme law of the United States.

00:13:41.880 --> 00:13:44.020
To learn more about Article VI visit the

00:13:44.020 --> 00:13:47.500
National Constitution Center's
interactive constitution

00:13:47.500 --> 00:13:50.970
and Khan Academy's resources
on US government and politics.


Article V of the Constitution

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:02.470
- [Instructor] Hey, this
is Kim from Khan Academy

00:00:02.470 --> 00:00:04.620
and today I'm learning about Article five

00:00:04.620 --> 00:00:06.130
of the U.S. Constitution,

00:00:06.130 --> 00:00:09.700
which describes The
Constitution's amendment process.

00:00:09.700 --> 00:00:12.880
To learn more about Article
five, I talked to two experts,

00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:16.150
professor Michael Rappaport,
who is the Darling Foundation

00:00:16.150 --> 00:00:19.340
professor at the University
of San Diego School of Law,

00:00:19.340 --> 00:00:21.420
where he also serves as the director

00:00:21.420 --> 00:00:24.930
of The Center for the Study
of Constitutional Originalism

00:00:24.930 --> 00:00:27.570
and David Strauss, who's the Gerald Ratner

00:00:27.570 --> 00:00:29.670
distinguished service professor of law

00:00:29.670 --> 00:00:31.730
at the University of Chicago Law School

00:00:31.730 --> 00:00:35.010
and author of The Living Constitution.

00:00:35.010 --> 00:00:39.940
Professor Strauss, Article
five provides this process

00:00:39.940 --> 00:00:42.660
for amending The Constitution,

00:00:42.660 --> 00:00:44.950
can you take us through
that process a little bit?

00:00:44.950 --> 00:00:46.040
How does it work?

00:00:46.981 --> 00:00:48.070
- [Professor Strauss]
Well the quick description

00:00:48.070 --> 00:00:50.680
of the process is it's really hard,

00:00:50.680 --> 00:00:53.370
it's really hard to
amend The Constitution.

00:00:53.370 --> 00:00:56.220
There are actually a couple
of different processes

00:00:56.220 --> 00:00:58.130
that are laid out in Article five

00:00:58.130 --> 00:01:01.510
but only one has ever been used.

00:01:01.510 --> 00:01:03.508
An amendment starts in Congress

00:01:03.508 --> 00:01:06.210
and two thirds of each house of Congress,

00:01:06.210 --> 00:01:08.420
two thirds in House of Representatives

00:01:08.420 --> 00:01:11.900
and two thirds of the Senate
has to approved the amendment

00:01:11.900 --> 00:01:14.090
and then it goes to the states

00:01:14.090 --> 00:01:15.905
and three quarters of the states

00:01:15.905 --> 00:01:18.980
have to approve the
amendment, so you have to have

00:01:18.980 --> 00:01:21.720
a really strong consensus in order

00:01:21.720 --> 00:01:24.180
to get The Constitution changed that way.

00:01:24.180 --> 00:01:25.719
- [Kim] So, Professor Rappaport,

00:01:25.719 --> 00:01:30.100
take us through this process
of amending The Constitution.

00:01:30.100 --> 00:01:33.100
Why did the framers set it up this way?

00:01:33.100 --> 00:01:34.102
- [Professor Rappaport] The framers gave

00:01:34.102 --> 00:01:36.680
a good bit of thought to coming up

00:01:36.680 --> 00:01:39.630
with an amendment process
because they recognized

00:01:39.630 --> 00:01:43.310
that The Constitution might
need to be changed over time

00:01:43.310 --> 00:01:45.900
either 'cause there were problems with it

00:01:45.900 --> 00:01:48.470
that weren't anticipated
or because circumstances

00:01:48.470 --> 00:01:51.380
or values changed, so, there are two steps

00:01:51.380 --> 00:01:53.550
to the amendment process, for an amendment

00:01:53.550 --> 00:01:56.030
to go into The Constitution to become part

00:01:56.030 --> 00:01:59.560
of The Constitution it has to
be both proposed and ratified.

00:01:59.560 --> 00:02:04.560
On the proposal side,
the Congress can propose,

00:02:04.860 --> 00:02:09.860
alternatively, a proposal can come from

00:02:10.210 --> 00:02:12.470
the action of the state legislatures,

00:02:12.470 --> 00:02:14.770
so, two thirds of the
state legislatures say

00:02:14.770 --> 00:02:17.446
we'd like to have a
Constitutional Convention

00:02:17.446 --> 00:02:21.450
propose an amendment, so,
there's two parts to that,

00:02:21.450 --> 00:02:23.510
obviously, the the state legislatures

00:02:23.510 --> 00:02:26.370
have got to want it and
then you get the calling

00:02:26.370 --> 00:02:27.850
of a Constitutional Convention.

00:02:27.850 --> 00:02:30.010
Okay, that's the proposal side,

00:02:30.010 --> 00:02:31.700
there's also the ratification side,

00:02:31.700 --> 00:02:33.181
which is a little bit simpler.

00:02:33.181 --> 00:02:36.147
You need three quarters of the states

00:02:36.147 --> 00:02:39.600
to ratify a Constitutional amendment

00:02:39.600 --> 00:02:41.740
and they can ratify it either

00:02:41.740 --> 00:02:44.280
through the actions of
the state legislatures

00:02:44.280 --> 00:02:48.820
or the actions of state conventions,

00:02:48.820 --> 00:02:53.000
which are special bodies
which would be elected

00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:56.210
in order to decide one
question, whether or not

00:02:56.210 --> 00:03:00.030
to ratify that proposed
Constitutional amendment.

00:03:00.030 --> 00:03:01.300
- [Kim] This is fascinating, so,

00:03:01.300 --> 00:03:04.750
I actually had no idea
about the two thirds

00:03:04.750 --> 00:03:07.440
of the state legislatures being able

00:03:07.440 --> 00:03:09.580
to propose a Constitutional amendment.

00:03:09.580 --> 00:03:11.520
How often does that happen?

00:03:11.520 --> 00:03:13.160
- [Professor Rappaport]
It has never occurred

00:03:13.160 --> 00:03:15.532
throughout our history,
although, a couple of times

00:03:15.532 --> 00:03:19.130
there were actions taken to
sort of move in that direction

00:03:19.130 --> 00:03:23.240
but we've never actually had
a Constitutional Convention

00:03:23.240 --> 00:03:25.630
that has proposed any amendments.

00:03:25.630 --> 00:03:28.230
It's important to go into why the framers

00:03:28.230 --> 00:03:30.400
would have set up the
system the way they did.

00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:33.740
The most usual situation
is for the Congress

00:03:33.740 --> 00:03:37.530
to propose the amendments
and that's happened

00:03:37.530 --> 00:03:41.075
in all of the 27 amendments
which have been ratified

00:03:41.075 --> 00:03:43.040
to become part of our Constitution

00:03:43.040 --> 00:03:46.900
but what happens if the
Congress is the problem?

00:03:46.900 --> 00:03:50.280
What happens if the
Congress is usurping power

00:03:50.280 --> 00:03:52.140
or they're standing in the way of changes

00:03:52.140 --> 00:03:54.410
that are important or
they need to be reformed?

00:03:54.410 --> 00:03:57.460
You can't count on the
Congress to wanna reform itself

00:03:57.460 --> 00:04:00.780
so what they did was to have
this alternative mechanism

00:04:00.780 --> 00:04:03.019
which would bypass the Congress

00:04:03.019 --> 00:04:04.810
and that alternative mechanism

00:04:04.810 --> 00:04:07.120
was the Constitutional Convention,

00:04:07.120 --> 00:04:11.315
so the state legislatures
proposed, applied for,

00:04:11.315 --> 00:04:15.570
and the separate entity, the
Constitutional Convention,

00:04:15.570 --> 00:04:18.160
makes a proposal, so
they were quite explicit

00:04:18.160 --> 00:04:19.630
in discussing this, that they wanted this

00:04:19.630 --> 00:04:21.730
as an alternative to the Congress.

00:04:21.730 --> 00:04:22.563
- [Kim] So was this on purpose

00:04:22.563 --> 00:04:23.970
that they made it very difficult

00:04:23.970 --> 00:04:25.922
to amend The Constitution?

00:04:25.922 --> 00:04:27.410
- [Professor Strauss] Well
it sure seems like it.

00:04:27.410 --> 00:04:29.500
Now, of course, we don't know back then

00:04:29.500 --> 00:04:32.190
what they had in mind,
whether they thought,

00:04:32.190 --> 00:04:35.030
"Well, the House, the Senate, the states,

00:04:35.030 --> 00:04:38.030
"they'll sort of be all run
by the same kind of people

00:04:38.030 --> 00:04:40.080
"and they'll kind of agree on things."

00:04:40.080 --> 00:04:42.440
Maybe they thought
that, we just don't know

00:04:42.440 --> 00:04:44.590
but whatever they were
thinking, what they gave us

00:04:44.590 --> 00:04:47.930
was a very difficult
process to get through.

00:04:47.930 --> 00:04:50.995
- [Kim] So, how long
was it from the period

00:04:50.995 --> 00:04:55.160
when The Constitution was first ratified

00:04:55.160 --> 00:04:58.464
to the first amendment to The Constitution

00:04:58.464 --> 00:05:01.167
beyond the Bill of Rights?

00:05:01.167 --> 00:05:02.133
- [Professor Rappaport] Okay, so,

00:05:02.133 --> 00:05:07.133
the first 10 amendments
were ratified in 1791

00:05:07.556 --> 00:05:12.556
and then, just a mere three years later,

00:05:12.570 --> 00:05:14.370
we had the 11th amendment.

00:05:14.370 --> 00:05:16.630
- [Professor Strauss] There
was an 11th amendment in 1798

00:05:16.630 --> 00:05:19.760
to correct really kind
of a technical problem

00:05:19.760 --> 00:05:21.870
that the Supreme Court did something

00:05:21.870 --> 00:05:25.270
that the framers really
didn't anticipate it would do,

00:05:25.270 --> 00:05:27.960
didn't want it to do,
and the 11th amendment

00:05:27.960 --> 00:05:30.770
was adopted to correct that.

00:05:30.770 --> 00:05:33.590
The 12th amendment was adopted in 1804,

00:05:33.590 --> 00:05:36.940
after the, really, kind of a disaster

00:05:36.940 --> 00:05:39.170
in the election of 1800,
when there was a tie

00:05:39.170 --> 00:05:42.590
in the electoral college,
the framers had not foreseen

00:05:42.590 --> 00:05:44.227
the rise of political parties

00:05:44.227 --> 00:05:46.870
and political parties made the system

00:05:46.870 --> 00:05:49.108
for electing the president
they had given us

00:05:49.108 --> 00:05:52.190
very difficult to work with
but then there was nothing.

00:05:52.190 --> 00:05:53.830
That was 1804, then there was nothing

00:05:53.830 --> 00:05:56.359
until after the Civil War
and after the Civil War

00:05:56.359 --> 00:05:59.240
there were three amendments,
then nothing again,

00:05:59.240 --> 00:06:02.787
really, until the progressive
era in the early 20th century

00:06:02.787 --> 00:06:05.170
when there were, again,
a bunch of amendments

00:06:05.170 --> 00:06:07.360
and then after then, things
have sort of tailed off.

00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:11.620
So, we really see these kind
of waves in our history.

00:06:11.620 --> 00:06:14.180
- [Kim] What do you think
brings those waves on?

00:06:14.180 --> 00:06:16.440
Why are there some eras
where there are lots

00:06:16.440 --> 00:06:18.640
of Constitutional amendments
and then other eras

00:06:18.640 --> 00:06:19.690
when there's nothing?

00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:21.393
- [Professor Strauss] Well, Kim,

00:06:21.393 --> 00:06:23.250
here I'm gonna say something
I think some people

00:06:23.250 --> 00:06:26.240
will disagree with but, you
know, but I think it's right

00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:28.890
and that is that I don't think the process

00:06:28.890 --> 00:06:31.110
of amending The
Constitution has really been

00:06:31.110 --> 00:06:33.410
the way we actually change it.

00:06:33.410 --> 00:06:36.210
I think what happens is just because

00:06:36.210 --> 00:06:38.620
the amendment process is so difficult,

00:06:38.620 --> 00:06:41.257
we've worked out other
ways of changing things

00:06:41.257 --> 00:06:44.470
and so amendments come along, sometimes,

00:06:44.470 --> 00:06:46.010
because a change has already happened

00:06:46.010 --> 00:06:47.900
and people decide, "Well, let's put it

00:06:47.900 --> 00:06:50.620
"in The Constitution
just so we can kinda have

00:06:50.620 --> 00:06:52.690
"official recognition of it."

00:06:52.690 --> 00:06:54.400
But a lot of time changes happen

00:06:54.400 --> 00:06:56.670
and they are a little
bit too controversial

00:06:56.670 --> 00:06:59.810
to get into The Constitution
but they seem pretty solid

00:06:59.810 --> 00:07:02.327
and pretty secure, so, we just don't,

00:07:02.327 --> 00:07:04.990
I guess it's fair to say,
don't bother to amend

00:07:04.990 --> 00:07:07.760
The Constitution or don't
wanna go through the process

00:07:07.760 --> 00:07:08.920
of amending The Constitution.

00:07:08.920 --> 00:07:11.800
- [Professor Rappaport]
Very often peoples' values

00:07:11.800 --> 00:07:15.700
may change or they may differ

00:07:15.700 --> 00:07:18.420
from what's in The Constitution

00:07:18.420 --> 00:07:21.210
and it may take a time or circumstances

00:07:21.210 --> 00:07:26.210
may finally occur that crystallize this

00:07:26.251 --> 00:07:28.940
desire to change The Constitution

00:07:28.940 --> 00:07:31.480
and all of a sudden the
opportunity is there

00:07:31.480 --> 00:07:35.811
and people can suddenly pass
a Constitutional amendment.

00:07:35.811 --> 00:07:39.030
It's only gonna occur
during certain circumstances

00:07:39.030 --> 00:07:42.080
especially when there's
strong support for it.

00:07:42.080 --> 00:07:43.910
- [Kim] Very interesting,
yeah, so it's unlikely

00:07:43.910 --> 00:07:46.390
that we're gonna have a
Constitutional amendment

00:07:46.390 --> 00:07:48.500
anytime in the near future.

00:07:48.500 --> 00:07:50.650
When was the last
Constitutional amendment?

00:07:51.545 --> 00:07:53.190
- [Professor Rappaport] So,
the simple answer to that

00:07:53.190 --> 00:07:57.770
was in 1971 we got the 26th amendment

00:07:57.770 --> 00:08:00.811
that was both proposed
and then, remarkably,

00:08:00.811 --> 00:08:03.056
it's an all time record,

00:08:03.056 --> 00:08:07.720
proposed and ratified in
three months and eight days

00:08:07.720 --> 00:08:11.410
and that was the amendment
that guaranteed the right

00:08:11.410 --> 00:08:13.330
to vote of 18 year olds.

00:08:14.660 --> 00:08:15.787
- [Kim] Ah, right, so
sort of as a response

00:08:15.787 --> 00:08:17.630
to the Vietnam War?

00:08:17.630 --> 00:08:19.040
- [Professor Rappaport] Yes, yes

00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:23.110
but there actually has been
one additional amendment,

00:08:23.110 --> 00:08:24.790
the 27th amendment, right,

00:08:24.790 --> 00:08:27.140
so why isn't that the most recent one?

00:08:27.140 --> 00:08:28.460
Well, here's the funny thing about it,

00:08:28.460 --> 00:08:32.660
the 27th amendment was proposed as part

00:08:32.660 --> 00:08:36.620
of the original Bill of Rights in 1789,

00:08:36.620 --> 00:08:39.940
so this amendment was proposed in 1789,

00:08:39.940 --> 00:08:43.850
ratified in 1992, so it took 202 years.

00:08:43.850 --> 00:08:45.850
- [Kim] What you're saying,
what's the 27th amendment about?

00:08:45.850 --> 00:08:48.830
- [Professor Rappaport]
That has to do with

00:08:48.830 --> 00:08:51.390
congressional salary increases.

00:08:51.390 --> 00:08:55.250
It basically says if Congress
wants to raise its own salary,

00:08:55.250 --> 00:08:59.120
the increase can't take effect
until the next election,

00:08:59.120 --> 00:09:02.340
so it basically give the
voters a chance to say,

00:09:02.340 --> 00:09:03.960
"Hey, we don't like what you did,

00:09:03.960 --> 00:09:05.581
"we're gonna vote you out of office

00:09:05.581 --> 00:09:08.600
"for increasing your salary."

00:09:08.600 --> 00:09:11.634
- [Kim] So, one thing
that strikes me about

00:09:11.634 --> 00:09:15.150
Article five or just the
fact that the founders

00:09:15.150 --> 00:09:18.200
included an amendment process altogether,

00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:21.660
it seems very humble and farsighted

00:09:21.660 --> 00:09:25.235
to include a way for the document itself

00:09:25.235 --> 00:09:28.720
to evolve in a way, do you think

00:09:28.720 --> 00:09:32.100
that the framers
approached The Constitution

00:09:32.100 --> 00:09:34.470
with the idea that there
were things in the future

00:09:34.470 --> 00:09:36.810
that they just wouldn't
be able to anticipate?

00:09:37.716 --> 00:09:39.330
- [Professor Strauss] They had before them

00:09:39.330 --> 00:09:41.960
and were acutely aware of a history

00:09:41.960 --> 00:09:44.920
in which efforts to establish
governments had failed

00:09:44.920 --> 00:09:48.860
and they were really
trying to work with that

00:09:48.860 --> 00:09:51.650
and make sure they
didn't do the same thing

00:09:51.650 --> 00:09:55.987
so they knew what a hard
job they were embarking on

00:09:55.987 --> 00:09:58.660
and they made it clear, I mean,

00:09:58.660 --> 00:10:01.410
there's a famous passage in
which James Madison said,

00:10:01.410 --> 00:10:03.124
"Look, we know a lot of these provisions

00:10:03.124 --> 00:10:05.410
"that we're writing in The Constitution

00:10:05.410 --> 00:10:07.720
"their meaning is
unclear and their meaning

00:10:07.720 --> 00:10:10.120
"will have to be history's liquidated."

00:10:10.120 --> 00:10:12.470
Which is to say, people have to figure out

00:10:12.470 --> 00:10:15.410
what this means because we
know what we're giving you

00:10:15.410 --> 00:10:18.240
is unclear in some
ways, so, yes absolutely

00:10:18.240 --> 00:10:21.460
they knew there were things
they could not anticipate.

00:10:21.460 --> 00:10:24.000
The framers themselves
weren't in agreement

00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:26.000
on what freedom of speech means, you know,

00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:27.990
some of them enacted and voted for

00:10:27.990 --> 00:10:32.180
and got enacted laws
that restricted speech

00:10:32.180 --> 00:10:34.850
in ways that we would
find intolerable today,

00:10:34.850 --> 00:10:36.633
we'd say they violate the first amendment

00:10:36.633 --> 00:10:38.510
but here you have some of the guys

00:10:38.510 --> 00:10:41.010
who drafted the first amendment
voting for those laws.

00:10:41.010 --> 00:10:43.220
- [Kim] So, near the end of Article five,

00:10:43.220 --> 00:10:47.290
there's this kind of
long-winded clause that says,

00:10:47.290 --> 00:10:51.039
"No amendment which may
be made prior to the year

00:10:51.039 --> 00:10:53.460
"one thousand eight hundred and eight

00:10:53.460 --> 00:10:57.795
"shall in any manner affect
the first and fourth clauses

00:10:57.795 --> 00:11:00.680
"in the ninth section
of the first article."

00:11:00.680 --> 00:11:03.350
Now, if I'm cross
referencing this correctly,

00:11:03.350 --> 00:11:05.380
what they're really saying here is,

00:11:05.380 --> 00:11:08.620
you can't make amendments about slavery,

00:11:08.620 --> 00:11:11.300
so why is this here and why are they

00:11:11.300 --> 00:11:13.597
talking around it so obliquely?

00:11:13.597 --> 00:11:14.721
- [Professor Rappaport] The
interesting thing about this

00:11:14.721 --> 00:11:16.630
is what do they do, they basically said,

00:11:16.630 --> 00:11:20.340
for 20 years there's not
going to be any amendments

00:11:20.340 --> 00:11:23.240
that are going to speak to the slave trade

00:11:23.240 --> 00:11:28.240
and The Constitution is
very, let us say shy,

00:11:29.150 --> 00:11:33.640
about using the term slavery
or referring to slavery,

00:11:33.640 --> 00:11:38.170
it actually never refers
to the term slave,

00:11:38.170 --> 00:11:41.290
there's a variety of thoughts
about what was going on

00:11:41.290 --> 00:11:44.990
but one very common view about this is

00:11:44.990 --> 00:11:49.010
that The Constitution was sort
of a little bit embarrassed,

00:11:49.010 --> 00:11:50.340
that the framers were a
little bit embarrassed,

00:11:50.340 --> 00:11:51.250
or at least some of the framers

00:11:51.250 --> 00:11:54.370
were embarrassed about it
and so they didn't wanna

00:11:54.370 --> 00:11:56.480
make reference to it too explicitly.

00:11:56.480 --> 00:11:57.570
- [Professor Strauss] They might've been

00:11:57.570 --> 00:11:59.999
a little bit worried about
what the verdict of history

00:11:59.999 --> 00:12:03.390
would be, so, they knew on some level

00:12:03.390 --> 00:12:04.920
this sort of immorality of slavery

00:12:04.920 --> 00:12:07.660
but there it is, right
there in Article five

00:12:07.660 --> 00:12:09.750
and there are other places
in The Constitution too

00:12:09.750 --> 00:12:12.400
where they don't use the
word but what they're doing

00:12:12.400 --> 00:12:13.830
is protecting slavery.

00:12:13.830 --> 00:12:16.224
And they did add these
amendments to The Constitution

00:12:16.224 --> 00:12:18.854
about slavery and about, as you say,

00:12:18.854 --> 00:12:22.470
equal citizenship and
voting but, you know,

00:12:22.470 --> 00:12:25.250
the 14th amendment
providing equal citizenship,

00:12:25.250 --> 00:12:28.680
that was pretty much
nullified in most respects

00:12:28.680 --> 00:12:30.840
for a large part of our history,

00:12:30.840 --> 00:12:32.832
states found a way to get around that.

00:12:32.832 --> 00:12:35.250
The 15th amendment was also something

00:12:35.250 --> 00:12:36.584
that was just not very effective

00:12:36.584 --> 00:12:38.900
in preventing African Americans

00:12:38.900 --> 00:12:40.960
from being denied the vote

00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:44.140
and, yes, there are
provisions in The Constitution

00:12:44.140 --> 00:12:46.290
that are there and you can evoke them

00:12:46.290 --> 00:12:48.880
and you can rely on them
but if you just look at

00:12:48.880 --> 00:12:50.233
the text of The
Constitution, I think you get

00:12:50.233 --> 00:12:53.236
a misleading impression
about how The Constitution

00:12:53.236 --> 00:12:56.500
in our history has actually worked.

00:12:56.500 --> 00:12:57.860
- [Kim] This is a very good point

00:12:57.860 --> 00:13:00.450
because I think one of the
hardest things for students

00:13:00.450 --> 00:13:02.950
of U.S history to understand is

00:13:02.950 --> 00:13:06.760
how is it possible that
after the 14th amendment

00:13:06.760 --> 00:13:10.650
was passed, things like Jim Crow happened

00:13:10.650 --> 00:13:13.641
and I guess the answer is The Constitution

00:13:13.641 --> 00:13:18.140
is only in force if it's enforced.

00:13:19.110 --> 00:13:20.500
- [Professor Strauss] Yeah,
Kim, that's exactly right.

00:13:20.500 --> 00:13:22.120
It's words on a page, you know,

00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:24.916
the text is fine, it can
say all the right things

00:13:24.916 --> 00:13:28.340
but the institutions and the popular will

00:13:28.340 --> 00:13:32.830
have to be in place to make
something of those fine words.

00:13:32.830 --> 00:13:33.860
- [Kim] Interesting, so how do you think

00:13:33.860 --> 00:13:35.080
our government might be different

00:13:35.080 --> 00:13:36.900
if The Constitution didn't include

00:13:36.900 --> 00:13:38.951
this amendment process?

00:13:38.951 --> 00:13:40.190
- [Professor Strauss] I
don't think it would've been

00:13:40.190 --> 00:13:44.520
that different just because
Article five gives us

00:13:44.520 --> 00:13:46.440
such a hard process to go through

00:13:46.440 --> 00:13:49.890
just because it's so hard
to amend The Constitution,

00:13:49.890 --> 00:13:53.750
we figured out other ways
to change The Constitution

00:13:53.750 --> 00:13:57.350
in practice, even if the
words on the page are the same

00:13:57.350 --> 00:13:59.440
and I think if there were no Article five,

00:13:59.440 --> 00:14:02.160
we would've found a way to get to

00:14:02.160 --> 00:14:04.400
where wanted to get to as a country

00:14:04.400 --> 00:14:06.770
by those needs, by legislation,

00:14:06.770 --> 00:14:10.030
by presidential action,
by Supreme Court decision,

00:14:10.030 --> 00:14:12.240
and just by the people
in their lives saying,

00:14:12.240 --> 00:14:14.810
"You know, we need to
go in this direction,

00:14:14.810 --> 00:14:18.520
"we need to go, say, in the
direction of women's equality."

00:14:18.520 --> 00:14:20.250
And, by the way, there's no amendment

00:14:20.250 --> 00:14:22.220
giving women equal rights either

00:14:22.220 --> 00:14:23.790
but that's where we've gotten to

00:14:23.790 --> 00:14:25.690
and I think that would've been the pattern

00:14:25.690 --> 00:14:28.370
if there were no formal amendment process.

00:14:28.370 --> 00:14:29.203
- [Professor Rappaport]
There's a second way

00:14:29.203 --> 00:14:30.510
in which you can have
Constitutional change,

00:14:30.510 --> 00:14:32.610
which is you could simply say,

00:14:32.610 --> 00:14:36.180
"Alright, this Constitution
was pretty good for awhile,

00:14:36.180 --> 00:14:37.818
"it's now outlived its usefulness,

00:14:37.818 --> 00:14:40.320
"let's have a new Constitution."

00:14:40.320 --> 00:14:42.957
That would seem like a very
radical, big thing to do,

00:14:42.957 --> 00:14:46.440
virtually no on proposes
that at the federal level

00:14:46.440 --> 00:14:49.940
but in the states, lots
of states have changed

00:14:49.940 --> 00:14:51.720
their constitutions, not simply passed

00:14:51.720 --> 00:14:53.930
a Constitutional amendment,
but just gotten rid of

00:14:53.930 --> 00:14:57.210
a whole constitution
and adopted a new one.

00:14:57.210 --> 00:14:59.410
That's happened many times and, so,

00:14:59.410 --> 00:15:01.790
if we didn't have a
Constitutional amendment process,

00:15:01.790 --> 00:15:03.590
it's quite possible that that's exactly

00:15:03.590 --> 00:15:05.940
what we would've seen
at the federal level.

00:15:05.940 --> 00:15:07.750
- [Kim] Wow, this is really fascinating

00:15:07.750 --> 00:15:09.364
because we really think a lot about

00:15:09.364 --> 00:15:12.010
what the framers intended, you know,

00:15:12.010 --> 00:15:15.360
for certain amendments,
for example, you know,

00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:16.940
freedom of speech, freedom of religion,

00:15:16.940 --> 00:15:18.879
what did they really mean by those things

00:15:18.879 --> 00:15:22.880
but if we had just kind of
every now and again said,

00:15:22.880 --> 00:15:25.347
"Okay, we're done with that,
let's do a new Constitution,"

00:15:25.347 --> 00:15:28.010
we wouldn't necessarily have that debate,

00:15:28.010 --> 00:15:30.540
we'd just say, "Okay, this is
what we meant at the time."

00:15:30.540 --> 00:15:33.600
- [Professor Rappaport]
Famously Thomas Jefferson said,

00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:36.340
"Oh, you know, it's
really not right to have

00:15:36.340 --> 00:15:39.023
"a Constitution that's
going to continue over time

00:15:39.023 --> 00:15:43.163
"and bind future generations and, so,

00:15:43.163 --> 00:15:46.930
"we ought to have a new
Constitution every 19 years

00:15:46.930 --> 00:15:49.170
"when there's a new generation."

00:15:49.170 --> 00:15:52.584
And his close friend, James Madison,

00:15:52.584 --> 00:15:55.720
had to disagree with
him and basically said,

00:15:55.720 --> 00:15:58.330
"Look, I understand why you're saying that

00:15:58.330 --> 00:16:02.220
"but you also have to realize
the incredible disruption

00:16:02.220 --> 00:16:04.660
"that would cause every 20 years,

00:16:04.660 --> 00:16:08.250
"people wouldn't be able to
rely on the existing rights

00:16:08.250 --> 00:16:10.520
"that are in The Constitution
'cause they would know

00:16:10.520 --> 00:16:15.520
"in a certain period of time
new ones would be enacted."

00:16:16.540 --> 00:16:18.990
We had that debate,
Madison won in the sense

00:16:18.990 --> 00:16:22.340
that the U.S. Constitution
is supposed to last

00:16:22.340 --> 00:16:27.340
for a long-term period,
there's no 20 year limit on it,

00:16:27.530 --> 00:16:30.200
and one of the things
that's been beneficial

00:16:30.200 --> 00:16:32.563
for the United States as a result of that

00:16:32.563 --> 00:16:35.270
is that we've inherited
these Constitutional rights

00:16:35.270 --> 00:16:38.320
that people have a lot of reverence for.

00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:40.590
- [Kim] So, we've learned
that there are two ways

00:16:40.590 --> 00:16:43.409
to amend The Constitution,
through Congress

00:16:43.409 --> 00:16:46.890
or through a special
Constitutional Convention

00:16:46.890 --> 00:16:49.270
called by the states, either way,

00:16:49.270 --> 00:16:51.000
adding an amendment to The Constitution

00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:53.620
is really difficult to do, so much so,

00:16:53.620 --> 00:16:55.710
that the American people have only

00:16:55.710 --> 00:16:59.240
in special circumstances used
a Constitutional amendment

00:16:59.240 --> 00:17:02.010
to affect social or political change.

00:17:02.010 --> 00:17:03.513
To learn more about Article five,

00:17:03.513 --> 00:17:05.920
visit the National Constitution Center's

00:17:05.920 --> 00:17:08.773
interactive Constitution
and Khan Academy's resources

00:17:08.773 --> 00:17:10.970
on U.S. government and politics.