Chapter 3
The Constitution
How has the Constitution lasted
through changing times?
Section 1:
Basic Principles
• Objectives:
– Understand the basic outline of the Constitution.
– Understand the six basic principles of the
Constitution: popular sovereignty, limited
government, separation of powers, checks and
balances, judicial review, and federalism.
The Constitution of the United States
• Written in 1787, it took effect in 1789
• Is the nation’s fundamental law.
• “The supreme Law of the Land”
– The highest form of law in the United States
An Outline of the Constitution
• The Constitution sets out the basic principles
upon which government in the United States
was built and operates today.
– Framework of government
– People are sovereign and government is limited
– Distributes powers among three branches of
government
– Each branch has the power to check the other
branches
• Basic rules of American politics
– Who wins and loses in the political arena
– Deals largely with matters of basic principle
– Not weighted down with detailed and
cumbersome provisions
Organization
• Preamble-introduction
• Seven sections-articles
• 27 amendments
– Printed in the order in which each provision was
adopted
The Seven Articles
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Preamble-states the purpose of the Constitution
Article I-Creates the Legislative branch
Article II-Creates the Executive Branch
Article III-Creates the Judicial branch
Article IV-relations among the States
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
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Popular sovereignty
Limited government
Separation of powers
checks and balances
Judicial Review
Federalism
Popular Sovereignty
• All political power resides in the people
• The people are the only source for any and all
governmental power
– Elected leaders
– Chosen by the people
– Represent the people
Limited Government
• No government is all-powerful
• Government may do only
those things that the people
have given it the power to do
• Government must obey the
law
– Constitutionalism-government
must be conducted according
to constitutional principles
– Rule of law-government and its
officers, in all that they do, are
always subject to the law
Separation of Powers
• Basic powers are distributed-separated-among
three distinct and independent branches of the
government
– Congress-legislative branch
• Lawmaking branch
– President-executive branch
• Law executing, law enforcing, and law-administering powers
of the National government
– Courts-the judicial branch
• Supreme Court, interpret and apply the laws of the US in
cases brought before them.
Checks and Balances
• Three branches are tied together by checks
and balances.
– Each branch is subject to a number of
constitutional checks, or restraints, by the other
branches
– Each branch has certain powers with which it can
check the operations of the other two
• Example: Congress makes law, President may veto,
Congress can override veto by a two-thirds vote
Judicial Review
• The power of a court to
determine the constitutionality
of a governmental action
– Judicial review is the power to
declare unconstitutional
– to declare illegal, null and void, of
no force and effect
– Governmental action found to
violate some provision in the
Constitution
Federalism
• Division of power among a central
government and several regional governs
Section 2:
Formal Amendment
• Objectives
– Identify the four different ways by which the
Constitution may be formally changed
– Explain how the formal amendment process
illustrates the principles of federalism and popular
sovereignty
– Understand that several amendments have been
proposed, but not ratified
– Outline the 27 amendments that have been added
to the Constitution.
Formal Amendment Process
• Changes or additions that become part of the
written language of the Constitution
– Article V sets out two methods for the proposal
and two methods for the ratification of
amendments
– Four possible methods
• 1st– amendment may be proposed by a two-thirds
vote in each house of Congress and ratified by
three fourths of the State Legislature
• Today @ least 38 State legislatures must approve an
amendment to make it a part of the Constitution
• 2nd– amendment may be proposed by Congress and
ratified by conventions called for that purpose, in
three fourths of the States
• Only the 21st Amendment was adopted in this way
• 3rd– an amendment may be proposed by a national
convention, called by Congress at the request of
two thirds of the State legislatures
• 34 votes today
• Then it must be ratified by three fourths of the State
legislatures
• 4th– an amendment may be proposed by a national
convention and then ratified by conventions in
three fourths of the States
Federalism and Popular
Sovereignty
• Proposal takes place at the national level and
ratification is a State-by-State matter.
• When Constitution is amended, that action
represents the expression of the people’s
sovereign will.
Proposed Amendments
• *Constitution places only one restriction on
the subjects with which a proposed
amendment may deal.
– Article V: declares that “no State, without its
Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in
the Senate.”
The 27 Amendments
• Bill of Rights:
– First 10 Amendments
• Added less than 3 years after it became effective
• The Later Amendments
– Added to the Constitution over the last 200 years
Section 3:
Change by Other Means
• Objectives:
– Identify how basic legislation has added to our
understanding of the Constitution over time.
– Describe the ways in which the executive and
judicial branches have interpreted the
Constitution.
– Analyze the role of party practices and custom in
interpreting the Constitution.
Basic Legislation
• Congress-agent of constitutional change
– 1st:passed a number of laws to clarify several of
the Constitution’s brief provisions
– 2nd:added to the Constitution by the way in which
it has used many of its powers.
• Example: Regulate foreign and interstate commerce
Executive Action
• Presidents using their power
– Example: Only Congress can declare war. But the
Constitution also makes the President the
commander in chief of the nation’s armed forces.
• Several Presidents have declared war without Congress
– Executive agreement-a pact made by the
President directly with the head of a foreign state
• Do not need approved by Senate
– Treaty-a formal agreement between two or more
sovereign states
Court Decisions
• United States Supreme court
– Interpret and apply the Constitution in many of
the cases they hear
– Court established Judicial Review
• Not specifically mentioned in the Constitution
Party Practices
• No mention in the Constitution
• Most of the framers were against political
parties
• 1830s
– Major parties held national conventions to elect
presidential candidates
• Electoral College-body that makes the formal
selection of the nation’s President
Custom and Usage
• Unwritten customs
– Constitution does not say so
– Examples
• Not because the constitution says so, the heads of the
15 executive departments make up the Cabinet, an
advisory body to the President
• On each of the 8 occasions when a President died in
office, the Vice President succeeded to that office. Yet,
the written words of the Constitution did not provide
for this practice until the adoption of the 25th
Amendment in 1967. Until then the Constitution said
only that he powers and duties of the presidency, but
not the office itself, “shall devolve on” the Vice
President.