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 4
The 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.
Question
What 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.
Review
1. 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.