Constitution

The Constitution

• Sets up the Six basic principles

• Lays out the framework and procedures

• Sets limits for the government

Characteristics of the Constitution

• 7,000 words• Introduction: Preamble • 7 articles

– 1-3 deal with three branches of National Government

– 4: place of states in the Union – 5: Adding amendments – 6: Declares Constitution Supreme Law– 7: Ratification of the Constitution

Section Subject Preamble States the purpose of the Constitution

Article I Legislative branch

Article II Executive branch

Article III Judicial branch

Article IV Relations among the States and with the National Government

Article V Amending the Constitution

Article VI National debts, supremacy of national law, and oaths of office

Article VII Ratifying the Constitution

Six Basic Principles

• Popular Sovereignty

• Limited Government

• Separation of Powers

• Checks and Balances

• Judicial Review

• Federalism

Popular Sovereignty

• All political power resides in the People

• Source of any and ALL power

• Govern with the Consent of the people

• Present in Preamble

–WE the PEOPLE of the United States of America

Limited Government

• No Government is ALL-Powerful – May only do those thing the people have given the

power to do

• Government MUST OBEY the LAW– Constitutionalism: government must be conducted

according to constitutional principles

• Rule of Law: always subject too – never above – the law

• 1st Amendment

Separation of Powers

• Presidential system• Legislature

– Congress– Law Making Branch

• Executive – President – Law-executing, enforcing,

administering Branch

• Judicial – Courts – Interpret and apply the

laws

Separation of POWERS

Checks and Balances

• Although Separate…..they are TIED together

• Subjected to Constitutional CHECKS by other branches

Checks and Balances

• Worked as the Framers planned– Prevented an unjust combination of the

majority

• Has created some gridlock between Congress and President

• Today: Democratic President but Democrats are losing ground in Congress (republican majority in Senate)

Judicial Review

• Power of courts to determine whether what the government does is in accord with what the Constitution provides

• Power of the Courts to determine constitutionality of a governmental action – Unconstitutional = illegal,

null and void, violated some provision in the Constitution

Judicial Review

• Intended for Supreme Court to have the power • Federalist no. 78:

– Alexander Hamilton – Independent judges would proved to be “an essential safeguard

against the effects of occasional ill humors in society.” • Federalist no. 51

– James Madison – Judicial power one of the “auxiliary precautions” against the

possible dominance of one branch of government over another • Judicial Review established:

– Marbury v. Madison (1803)• Most cases: the action of government are found to be

constitutional•

Federalism

• The division of power among central government and regional governments

• How to build a new, stronger national government while preserving States and the concept of local self government

• Colonists had fought for the right to manage local affairs

• Used as a compromise