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US/VA Government:
Chapter 3: The Constitution
Chapter 3 ActivityCreate a quiz show entitled “Constitutional Jeopardy”.
Set up six categories – the six basic principles of the Constitution as outlined in Section 1. Then write three questions-and-answer sets for each category, such as “The president uses this to reject an act of Congress.” (The question is “What is a veto?”) Write each question-and-answer set on a separate sheet of paper and give them to your teacher. The teacher will rank the questions within each category from easiest to hardest. Teacher will read the answer, and the student will respond with the question. Correct response earns points. Harder questions are worth more points.
Thoughts…
Ask five people to react to this statement: “In the United States, any citizen can do whatever he or she wants to do.”
List three things that might occur if the Constitution no longer met the needs of the people of the United States.
Chapter 3 Vocabulary
1. Popular sovereignty2. Limited government3. Constitutionalism4. Rule of law5. Separation of
powers6. Checks and
balances7. Judicial review
8. Unconstitutional9. Federalism10.Amendment11.Formal amendment12.Bill of Rights13.Executive
agreement
Articles of the ConstitutionPreamble1. Article I – Creates the Legislative Branch2. Article II – Creates the Executive Branch3. Article III – Creates the Judiciary Branch4. Article IV – Relations among the States5. Article V – Amending the Constitution6. Article VI – National debts, supremacy of
national law and oaths of office7. Article VII - Ratifying the Constitution
Chapter 3 Section 1: The Six Basic Principles
What are the six basic principles on which the Constitution of the United States is built?
How does the American system of separation of powers and checks and balances operate?
How did the principle of federalism come to be embodied in the Constitution?
U.S. Constitution
U.S. Constitution is our nation’s fundamental law.
One of its strengths is that it does not go in to great detail about how the government should be run.
It is built on six basic principles: popular sovereignty, limited government, separation of powers, checks and balances, judicial review, and federalism.
In your own words define sovereign
Popular SovereigntyIn the U.S., all political powers belong to the
people. The people are sovereign.Popular sovereignty: people are the only
source of governmental power. The government can only govern with the consent of the people.
This principle is in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
Sovereign people created the federal government and gave it certain powers, and each State government received powers from the people.
Limited GovernmentLimited government: the government is
NOT all powerful, it may only do those things that the people have given it the power to do.
The people are the only source of any and all government authority.
Constitutionalism: government must be conducted according to constitutional principles.
Rule of law: government and its officers are always subject to and never above the law.
Separation of PowersSeparation of powers: basic principle of
American government, the powers of the National Government among Congress are distributed through 3 branches: executive, legislative, and judicial – equally.
Congress is the lawmaking branch.President is the law-executing, law-enforcing,
and law-administering.Federal courts (Supreme Court) interpret and
apply the laws of the United States in cases brought before them.
“In the government of this commonwealth, the legislative
department shall never exercise the executive and judicial powers, or
either of them: The executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them:
the judicial shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them: to the end it may be
a government of laws and not of men”
Checks and BalancesChecks and balances: each branch of the
U.S. government is subject to a number of constitutional checks (restraints) by the other branches.
Each branch has certain powers with which it can check the operations and balance the power of the other two.
Framers intended it to “prevent an unjust combination of the majority.”
Refer to the Diagram on Page 73 for further understanding of checks and balances.
CHECKS AND BALANCESTEXT PAGE 73
Judicial ReviewJudicial review: power to decide whether
what government does is in accord with what the Constitution provides.
Power of a court to determine the constitutionality of a governmental action.
Power held by all federal courts and most state courts.
Power to declare something unconstitutional: declare illegal, null and void, of no force and effect – a governmental action found to violate some provision in the Constitution.
Judicial ReviewSupreme Court established power of judicial
review in the landmark case of Marbury v. Madison in 1803.
Most courts have upheld the rulings of the government to be constitutional.
To date, the Supreme Court has decided more than 130 cases in which it has found an act of Congress to be unconstitutional.
Supreme Court has voided more than 1,000 State laws.
FederalismFederalism: division of power among a
central government and several regional governments.
Powers are distributed on a territorial basis. The National Government holds some of
these powers, and others belong to the 50 States.
In the U.S., federalism was decided by the framers of the Constitution.
Federal Powers Shared Powers State Powers
TEXT PAGE 74
Chapter 3 Section 2:Formally Amending the ConstitutionHow has the Constitution been able to
endure more than 200 years of extraordinary change and growth in the United States?
What is the Bill of Rights and why was it added to the Constitution?
What are the processes by which formal changes can be made in the Constitution?
Federal Amendment ProcessChanges to the Constitution have been made
by formal and informal amendments. Amendment: change in or addition to the
Constitution or law. Informal amendments: changes made to
the Constitution, but they did not change the written words of the Constitution.
4 Methods for formal amendments: changes or additions that become part of the written language of the Constitution itself.
Federal Amendment Process1st Method: amendment may be proposed by Congress by
a 2/3 vote in both houses and must be ratified by the State Legislature in ¾ (38)of the States.26 of the Constitution’s 27 Amendments were adopted in
this manner.
2nd Method: amendment is proposed by Congress by a 2/3 vote in both houses, and ratified by Conventions held in ¾ (38) of the States. Only the 21st Amendment was added this way in 1933.
***When Congress proposes an amendment, it chooses the method of ratification.
Federal Amendment Process3rd Method: amendment is proposed at a
National Convention called by Congress when requested by 2/3 (34) of the State legislatures Would be ratified by the State legislature with ¾
(38) of the States. To date Congress has not called such a
convention.
4th Method: amendment is proposed at a National Convention called by Congress when requested by 2/3 (34) of the State legislaturesWould be ratified by Conventions held in ¾ (38) of
the States.
Federal Amendment ProcessThe Constitution itself was adopted using the 4th
Method. When the Constitution is amended, the action
represents the expression of the people’s sovereign will – the people have spoken.
An amendment is not sent to the President because the amendment is not making a new law.
More than 100,000 resolutions, and 15,000 joint resolutions have been called for amendments to the Constitution, since 1789.
Only 33 of them have been sent to the States, and of those only 27 have been ratified.
Federal Amendment ProcessShort list of un-ratified amendments:
1810: Void citizenship to those accepting any foreign title or honor.
1924: Give Congress the power to regulate child labor.
1972: ERA – Equal Rights of Women
1978: Give District of Columbia seats in Congress
The 27 AmendmentsCongress proposed all of the first 10
Amendments in 1789. All arose from the ratification of the Constitution itself.
First 10 Amendments were ratified in 1791, and became known as The Bill Of Rights.
Civil War Amendments – 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.
27th Amendment took more than 200 years to ratify.
Pages C16-C23 show the full text of the U.S. Constitution and all of its amendments.
Chapter 3 Section 3: Informal Amendment
For what reasons is the informal amendment process the real key to two centuries of constitutional change and development in the United States?
What are the means of informal change?
Informal Amendments
Informal amendments take place in 5 basic ways: passage of basic legislation by Congress, actions taken by the President, decisions of the Supreme Court, the activities of political parties, and custom.
Informal amendments are the result of day-to-day, year-to-year experiences of government under the Constitution.
Basic LegislationTwo Ways:
1. Congress passed a number of laws to clarify several of the Constitution’s brief provisions.
1. Ex) Judiciary Act of 1789: Congress created all of the courts, with the exception of the Supreme Court.
2. Ex) Departments, agencies, and offices in the executive branch have been created by acts of Congress. Constitution only had offices for the President and Vice President.
Basic LegislationTwo Ways:
2. Congress has added to the Constitution by the way in which it has used many of its powers.
1. Ex) Expressed power to regulate foreign and interstate commerce: Congress created 1,000’s of laws in relation to the Commerce Clause, and in a very real sense expanded the Constitution.
Executive ActionManner is which presidents have used their
powers has produced a number of important informal amendments.
The Constitution makes the President the Commander in Chief of the nation’s armed forces. Declaring war: Presidents have used armed
forces abroad in combat on 100’s of occasions in US history without a declaration from Congress.
Executive ActionExecutive Power: more power used by the
President than is given in Article II. Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase: Presidents do
not have the power to acquire territory.
Executive agreement: pact made by the President directly with the head of a foreign state.As legally binding as treaties, but the executive
agreement does NOT need approval from the Senate.
Recent presidents have used them often when dealing with foreign countries because they are less cumbersome.
Court DecisionsThe nation’s courts interpret and apply the
Constitution in many court cases.
Many more examples, besides Marbury v. Madison.
Marbury v. Madison established the power of judicial review which is not mentioned in the Constitution.
Woodrow Wilson said, “the Supreme Court is a constitutional convention in continuous sessions.”
Party PracticesPolitical parties have been major agents of
change, and have played a major role in the shaping of our government.
The Constitution makes no mention of political parties.
Many of the Framers were opposed to political parties because they believed it would divide the nation.
Congress conducts much of their business on the basis of political parties.
Party PracticesEx) Neither the Constitution nor any law
provides for the nomination of candidates for the presidency. However, since the 1830’s, major parties have
held national conventions to nominate presidential candidates.
The parties have converted the Electoral College for the popular vote in presidential elections.
Electoral College: body that makes the formal selection of the nation’s president.
Party Practices
Both houses of Congress are organized and conduct much of their business on the basis of party.
Government in the U.S. is in many ways government through party.
Custom and UsageUnwritten customs may be as strong as
written laws, and many customs have developed in our governmental system.
Unwritten customs have become informal amendments.
Ex) Cabinet: advisory body to the President composed of 15 executive department heads.
Custom and UsageEx) Presidential succession: until the passage
of the 25th Amendment in 1967. Constitution only stated the powers and duties, not the office itself.
Ex) No third term tradition: until the passage of the 22nd Amendment in 1951.
Senatorial courtesy: custom that the Senate will approve only those presidential appointees, (federal judge, US marshal), who are acceptable to the senator or senators of the President’s party from the State involved.
