Unit 2 Study Guide
1. Explain why the Articles of Confederation failed:
Federal government was too weak. (Couldn’t collect taxes from states)
2. Compare the Federalists and Anti-Federalists:
Federalists wanted a strong national government; Anti-Federalists wanted states’ rights.
3. What year was the Constitution ratified? 1788
4. The introduction to the Constitution that identifies the goals of the American government is
called the Preamble. The next 7 sections that the Constitution is divided into are called the
articles. Finally, there are 27 amendments that have been made to the Constitution. The first
10 are called the Bill of Rights .
5. List the 6 basic principles of the Constitution:
Popular Sovereignty
Limited Govt
Separation of Powers
Checks and Balances
Judicial Review
Federalism
The idea that government must be based on the will of the people is called_______D___________
Division of power among different branches of government __________A____________
System designed to prevent a single branch of government from becoming too powerful
__________________C_________
The sharing of power between the national and state governments ______B______________
a. separation of powers
b. federalism
c. checks and balances
d. popular sovereignty
Article I: The Legislative Branch
1. The 2 houses of Congress are the ___Senate________ and the __House of Representatives.___.
2. Senators serve _6__ years. Representatives serve __2__ years.
3. What are the qualifications to be a Senator? A representative?
Senator - 30 Years Old
Rep- 25 years old
9 yrs citizenship
7 yrs citizenship
Live in the state in which you are elected
live in state elected
4. How many in the Senate? How many in the House of Representatives?
100
435
5. Explain what the numbers for each are based on.
The # of senators is equal for every state. (50x2)
The # of representatives is based on population.
Unit 2 Study Guide
Article II: The Executive Branch
1. List the 3 formal qualifications to become President.
-Must be 35 years old
-Must be a natural born citizen
-Must have lived in the US for 14 years
2. Choose any 3 roles of the President and describe them:
Chief diplomat – establishes relationships and treaties with foreign nations
Chief legislator – asks Congress to pass laws/ signs legislation (bills) into law.
Chief of State – symbolic head of the nation
3. Presidents serve _4___ year terms. The 22nd Amendment now limits a President to _2__ terms
(usually 8 years), or a maximum of _10____ years.
4. The President is elected by the _Electoral College_. In order to win, he/she must get _270_ of
the 538 possible votes.
5. The total number of electors (538) is based on:
6. The President’s annual salary is: __$400,000__
7. List the first and second positions in the order of presidential succession:
a. ___Vice President_________ b. ______Speaker of the House________
8. How many executive departments are there? _15_ The heads of these departments make up
the President’s ___Cabinet____.
9. Name 3 of the executive departments.
Department of State, Dept. of Treasury, Dept. of Justice
Others: Defense, Agriculture, etc…
Article III: The Judicial Branch
1. Which court or courts was/were directly established by the Constitution? Supreme Court
2. _Congress__________ has the power to establish other inferior courts.
3. What “level” of federal courts falls between the 94 US district trial courts and the US Supreme
Court? Appellate Courts or Courts of Appeals
4. Marbury v. Madison (1804) established the Court’s power of: ___judicial review _______.
5. Define judicial review: the power of the Court to determine if any law or act by any branch is
constitutional.
6. The ___President_____________ appoints Supreme Court justices and the
____Senate___________ votes on their confirmation.
7. The ruling of the Supreme Court is called the ___majority_____ opinion. When some justices
disagree with the ruling, that is called the __dissenting_____ opinion.
8. The __Chief Justice_____ assigns who will write both opinions.
Unit 2 Study Guide
9.
10.
11.
12.
How many justices sit on the Supreme Court? 9
Supreme Court justices serve ___life____ terms.
Name the current Chief Justice: ___John Roberts_____
What term refers to a judicial decision or ruling that is used as a standard in later cases? (We
haven’t really covered this, but I want you to know it!) precedent
Articles 4-7
1. Article IV deals with relations among the _____states____________.
a. Article IV guarantees each state a ___republican________ form of government.
b. It provides a way for new states to be admitted to the union.
c. It says that states are obligated to return_criminals__ if they flee the state where the
crime was committed. This is known as __extradition____.
d. It also says that states are to recognize the legal records of other states, known as the
__Full Faith and Credit___ Clause.
2. Article V deals with amending or __changing___ the Constitution. For the Constitution to be
amended, _2/3___ of Congress or the state legislatures must agree to propose it, and then
_3/4__ of the states must pass it.
3. Article VI includes the Supremacy Clause, which declares the supremacy of __federal___ law
over any state laws. (The __Constitution____ is the “supreme law of the land.”)
4. Article VII provided for the ___ratification_______ of the Constitution. _9__ out of the 13
states had to approve it.