Bellwork

• Name the three branches of government. What does each branch do?

• Be prepared to discuss this at the beginning of class.

American History

Section 7, Unit 4The Constitution

Objectives• Identify what the Constitution did early on in

American History• Read and analyze the first 7 Articles• Define the power delegated in to the three

branches of government that are included (or not included) in the Constitution.

• Discuss the beliefs in Democracy held by the Framers of the Constitution

Quick Review

• In the last lesson, who were the two groups that fought over ratification of the constitution? What did each one argue?

Reading the Constitution

• Please grab a Constitution Pamphlet from the back of the class and open it to the 1st Article. We are going to briefly read through the 7 Articles.

• We will go through 7 slides, each one discussing each of the 7 Articles.

Article 1• Is the longest of the 7 articles• Covers the powers and responsibilities of

Congress• Defines the requirements for being a

Congressperson• Defines veto power and it’s relation to the

executive branch

Article 2• Defines the role of the President• States the requirements to be President• Covers the powers of the executive branch• States how a President and Vice-president are

elected **changed by the 12th Amendment

Article 3• Defines the role of the

Judicial branch– primarily the supreme court

• Defines the jurisdiction of the supreme court

• Who can be a Supreme court justice

• Does not:– Define true limits to Judicial

power– Say how many justices are on

the Supreme Court

Article 4

• Defines the relationship between the states• Full Faith and Credit Clause– Requires one state to give full faith to the laws of

another states• Defines the relationship between the federal

government and the states, including how new states are born and how the national government is supposed to protect the states

Article 5

• Short and simple• Defines how to Amend the Constitution. There are four ways

to do this:– Congress proposes Amendment- passed by 2/3 majority in both

houses. Amendment ratified by ¾ of the state legislatures. – Congress proposes Amendment- passed by 2/3 majority in both

houses. Amendment ratified special conventions in ¾ of the states. – Two thirds of the state legislatures ask congress to call a national

convention. Convention proposes amendment, which is then passed by ¾ of the states.

– Two thirds of the state legislatures ask congress to call a national convention. Convention proposes amendment, which passed by special convention in ¾ of the states.

Article 6

• Article 6 includes the Supremacy Clause, which makes the Constitution the supreme law of the land and any law counter to it, null.

Article 7

• Article 7 is simply stating that the Constitution was ratified.

Other Powers

• Now that you have been briefed over the 7 Articles, lets look into other powers granted in the Constitution that we may have read, but did not really discuss.

Federalism

• The delegates of the Constitutional Convention worked to form a strong federal government.

• They worked to frame a constitution that would provide for a strong central government while protecting states rights. – In this system- Federalism– states had the powers to

operate on their own and were autonomous, but gave some of their powers to the federal government.

Powers

• The delegates, once settle on a federal system, defined the powers of the federal and states governments:– Delegated Powers– Reserved Powers– Concurrent Powers

Delegated Powers

• Delegated powers are those strictly reserved to the federal government– these are powers that concern all people.– Right to coin money– Regulate trade– Admit new states– Declare war– maintain a military– Make national laws– Set a standard of weight and measures

Reserved Powers

• The Constitution, by 1791, gave the states the power to regulate themselves with the onset of the 10th Amendment. These powers, called reserved powers, are:– Establishing and maintaining schools– Regulate intrastate business– Establish local governments– Conduct elections– Regulate businesses

Concurrent Powers

• Concurrent powers are those that are shared between the federal and state governments. – Maintain law and order– Levy taxes– Charter banks– Establish courts– Provide for the public welfare

Supremacy Clause

• In the 6th Article, the clause, “This Constitution, and the laws… of the United states shall be supreme law of the land”.

• This clause is called the “Supremacy Clause”, and defines that no law, federal or state, conflict with the Constitution.

Separation of Powers

• Because the Framers feared a government that could abuse it’s power, they separated the government into three branches: executive, judicial, and legislative.

• Each branch– generally speaking– has powers that the other branches cannot claim.

• The Legislative branch makes the laws, the executive executes them, and the judicial interprets them. – The separation of powers prevents any part of the federal

government from becoming too powerful.

Checks and Balances• The separation of power is held together by a

system of checks and balances, in which each branch can restrain the power of the other two. For example:– The House can impeach (charge) a president with

misconduct and the Senate (with the ruling of the Supreme court) can find the President guilty and remove them from office.

Checks and Balances

• Other examples of Checks and Balances include:– The President can veto any law made by Congress

just as Congress can override a presidential veto. Congress can also approve of any choices the President makes towards who is part of their cabinet or the supreme court.

– The Supreme Court can check on both branches by ensuring that any laws passed are constitutional.

Drawbacks of Checks and Balances

• The system was designed by people who were, admittedly, quite naïve.

• They put the system in place to ensure that no branch becomes too powerful, but in doing so, allowed one branch to stop or overpower another branch.

• In many cases, such political disputes slow down government action, rather than allow the government to work smoothly.

QuestionWhat is “unconstitutional”? What does that word mean?

Who says whether or not something is unconstitutional? What group is responsible for doing that?

The Supreme Court?

Let’s check again. Read Article 3 again. Does it say anything about them deciding unconstitutionality?

Judicial Branch

• When a law defies the Constitution, the Framers never actually wrote into the system who should decide if a law is unconstitutional.

• Despite what most people think, the Judicial Branch of the federal government was never given the power to decide if a law is unconstitutional.

Judicial Review

• Judicial Review is the term for the Supreme Court’s ability to declare a law void if it is unconstitutional.

• Historically, Judicial Review came about during the Supreme Court case Marbury v. Madison, when the Supreme Court Justice, John Marshall, gave the ability to the court.

Judicial Review (cont.)• Judicial Review has had it’s skeptics.– They argue that the supreme court should not have had the

ability to give itself such power– even Thomas Jefferson did not believe the power to be just.

– Arguably, the power of judicial review makes it so that the Judicial branch is the most powerful of the three.

• However, many modern scholars agree that, regardless of what the constitution says, judicial review has allowed the court to be able to make the decisions no other group can.– Think of it this way: if the Supreme Court couldn’t void a

unconstitutional law, who could?

We will talk more about Judicial Review in a future lesson.

Living Document

• The Constitution, despite being almost 200 years old, has been able to adapt to almost any changes that society has experienced.

• In it, the Constitution owes this to it’s ability to (1) be amended and (2) be interpreted to mean different things.– This, in and of itself, most likely allowed the U.S.

Constitution to exist for so long and become the longest lasting constitution in modern history.

Questions

• If you have any questions, please ask now.

Review1. Briefly describe what each Article of the

Constitution covers (i.e., you need 7 answers).2. What is Judicial Review? What is the issue

regarding Judicial Review?3. What is the system of check and balances?4. Why can the Constitution be a flexible, living

document?5. Why do you think the Federal governments

powers were defined in the constitution? Consider the issues Americans had with previous governments.

Next Lesson

• In the next lesson, we will be discussing the establishment of the federal government under the constitution.