The Three Branches of
Government
The Legislative Branch
• Article 1 of the Constitution
▫ House: two-year terms, elected directly by the people
▫ Senate: six-year terms (staggered so that only one-third
of the Senate changes in any given election), appointed
by state legislature (changed in 1913 to direct elections)
▫ Expressed powers of the national government: collect
taxes, borrowing money, regulating commerce, declaring
war, and maintaining an army and a navy; all other
power belongs to the states, unless deemed otherwise by
the elastic clause (necessary and proper) clause
▫ Exclusive powers of the national government: states are
expressly forbidden to issue their own paper money, tax
imports and exports, regulate trade outside their own
borders, and impair the obligation of contracts; these
powers are the exclusive domain of the national
government
Article 2: The Executive Branch
• Presidency: four-year terms (limited in 1951 to a
maximum of two terms), elected indirectly by
the electoral college.
• Powers: can recognize other countries, negotiate
treaties, grant reprieves and pardons, convene
Congress in special sessions, and veto
congressional enactment
Article 3: The Judicial Branch
• Supreme Court: lifetime terms, appointed by the
President with the approval of the Senate.
• Powers: include resolving conflicts between
federal and state laws, determining whether
power belongs to the national government or the
states, and settling controversies between
citizens of different states
Article 4: National Unity and Power
• Reciprocity among states: establishes that each
state must give “full faith and credit” to official
acts of other states, and guarantees citizens of
any state the “privileges and immunities” of
every other state.
Article 5: Amending the Constitution
• Procedure: requires approval by two-thirds of
Congress and adoption by three-fourths of the
states.
Article 6: National Supremacy
• The Constitution and national law are the
supreme law of the land and cannot be overruled
by state law.
Article 7: Ratification
• The Constitution became effective when
approved by nine states.
Separation of Powers
Legislative
• Passes federal laws
• Controls federal
appropriations
• Approves treaties and
Presidential
appointments
• Regulates interstate
commerce
• Establishes lower court
systems
Executive
Judicial
• Enforces laws
• Reviews lower court
• Commander in chief of
decisions
armed forces
• Decided
• Makes foreign treaties
constitutionality of
• Proposes laws
laws
• Appoints Supreme
• Decides cases
Court justices and
involving disputes
federal court judges
between states
• Pardons those
convicted in federal
court
Checks and Balances
• Federalism
▫ The definition of federalism has changed radically in
the last two centuries. The federal government has
done far more since the 1930s than it did during the
“traditional system” from 1789 to the 1930s.
▫ The “New Federalism” of recent years has turned
more power back to the states.
▫ Federalism comes from the constitution through the
implied powers that enable Congress “to make all
Laws which shall be necessary and proper for
carrying into Execution the forgoing powers and
reserved powers” the Tenth Amendment aims to
reserve powers to the states.
• State Obligations to one Another
▫ Article IV Section I establishes the full faith and
credit clause
⚫Meaning that each state is normally expected to honor
the “public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings” that
take place in another state
⚫For example marriage
• FDR’s New Deal Remade the Government
▫ Use of grants-in-aid, programs through which
Congress provided money to state and local
governments on the condition the funds would be
used for the purpose defined by the federal
government.
• Congress
▫ The United States Congress is a bicameral
legislature, meaning that it is made up of two houses
▫ Membership in the House of Representatives
⚫435 members
⚫At least 25 years old
⚫US citizen for at least 7 years
⚫Legal resident of the state that elects them
⚫Members are elected for two-year terms
▫ Representation and Reapportionment
⚫Assigned based on the most recent census, or
population count, taken every 10 years
⚫Gerrymandering: the political party controlling the
state government draws a district’s boundaries to gain
an advantage in elections
Congressional Apportionment Map
• Memberships of the Senate
▫
▫
▫
▫
Must be at least 30 years old
Citizens of the United States for 9 years before the election
Legal residents of the state they represent
6-year terms
⚫If a senator dies or resigns before the end of the term, the
state legislature may authorize the governor to appoint
someone to fill the vacancy
• The House of Representatives
▫ Lawmaking
⚫Complex Rules
⚫Committee Work
⚫Party Affiliation
▫ House Leadership Purpose
1. Organizing and unifying party members
2. Scheduling the work of the House
3. Making certain that lawmakers are present for key
floor votes
4. Distributing and collecting information
5. Keeping the House in touch with the president
6. Influencing lawmakers to support the policies of
their political party
• Speaker of the House
▫ The presiding officer of the
House and is its most
powerful leader
▫ A caucus, or closed meeting
of the majority party
chooses the House Speaker
▫ Decides which member to
recognize first
▫ Appoints members of some
committees
▫ Schedules bills for action
▫ Follows the vice president
in the line of succession
Speaker Boehner receiving the
gavel from outgoing Speaker
Pelosi
• House Floor Leaders
▫ Majority leader
⚫Helps plan the party’s legislative program
⚫Steer important bills through the House
⚫Oversee chairpersons
⚫Floor leader of his or her political party
⚫Has help from the majority whip and deputy whips
⚫Whips: serve as assistant floor leaders in the House
• Lawmaking in the House
▫ Bills are scheduled on a calendar for consideration
▫ Rules Committee; “traffic officers” direct the flow of major
legislation
▫ Quorum: minimum number of members who must be
present to permit a legislative body to take official action
⚫House-218 members for a regular session
▫ Using Roberts Rules of Order
⚫How to make a motion, how to close or extend debate, how
to raise a question, what duties and powers the presiding
officer has
• Informal Atmosphere
▫ Rules are more flexible than in the House
⚫They may debate a proposal on and off for weeks or
even months before taking action on an issue
▫ Senate Leaders
⚫Vice president presides in the Senate but may not vote
except to break a tie
⚫In his absence the president pro tempore (president prop
tem) presides from the ruling majority party
▫ Senate bills are scheduled by the senate leaders
▫ Filibuster: to stall the legislative
process and prevent a vote
⚫Senator Strom Thurmond of South
Carolina set the record when he
spoke against the Civil Rights Act
of 1957 for 24 hours and 18
minutes
⚫A filibuster by a group of senators
could go on for weeks or even
months
⚫Can be stopped by a three-fifths
vote (60 members) for cloture
which only allows a Senator to
speak for 1 hour
• Congressional Committees
▫ House and Senate depend upon committees to
effectively consider the thousands of bills that are
proposed each session
▫ Lawmakers can become specialists on the issues in
their committees
▫ Kinds of Committees
1. Standing committees
⚫Permanent groups
⚫Majority party in each house controls these committees
2. Select committee
⚫Temporary committee to study one specific issue and report
their findings to the Senate or the House
3. Joint committees
⚫Members from both houses, can be permanent or temporary
4. Conference committees
⚫Temporary committee created when both houses have passed
different versions of the same bill
• The Executive Branch
▫ Qualification
⚫A natural-born citizen of the United States
⚫At least 35 years old
⚫A resident of the United States for at least 14 years
before taking office
⚫The same requirements apply to the vice president
▫ Expressed Powers defined by Section 2 and 3 of
Article II
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Military
Judicial
Diplomatic
Executive
Legislative
⚫ Military: “Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the
United States, and of the Militia of several States, when
called into the actual Service of the United States.”
▫ 1973 Congress responded to presidential
unilateralism by passing the War Powers Resolution
over President Nixon’s veto
⚫Law states that the president can send troops into action
abroad only by authorization of Congress or is American
troops are already under attack or serious threat
⚫Forced withdraw within 60 days in the absence of a
specific congressional authorization for their continued
deployment
⚫ Judicial: power to “grant Reprieves and Pardons for
Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of
Impeachment
⚫ For example President Ford pardoned Nixon in 1974 “for all
offenses against the United States which he …has committed
or may have committed.”
⚫ Diplomatic: power “by and with the Advice and Consent of
the Senate, to make Treaties.” And power to “receive
Ambassadors and other public Ministers.”
▫ Executive agreement: exactly like a treaty because it
is a contract between two countries that has the
force of a treaty but does not require the Senate’s
“advice and consent”
⚫ Executive: authorized to see to it that all laws are faithfully
executed and gives the chief executive the power to
appoint, remove, and supervise all executive officers and to
appoint all federal judges
⚫ Legislative, the power to participate authoritatively in the
legislative process
1. The president “shall from time to time give to the Congress
Information of the state of the Union, and recommend to
their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge
necessary and expedient.”
2. Veto Power
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▫
▫
This power alone makes the President the single most
important legislator
House and Senate can override by a two-thirds vote (only
about 7% of all veto are overridden)
Pocket Veto, Congress does not have the option of overriding
the veto and must reintroduce the bill in the next session
▫
Happens automatically if the president does not act on a given
piece of legislation passed during the final ten days of a
legislative session if Congress, by its adjournment, prevents
the bill from being returned to Congress.
• The role of the President and the
Cuban Missile Crisis
▫ Closest the world every came to
nuclear war
▫ Soviet Union was placing intermediate
range missiles in Cuba
▫ U.S. reconnaissance photos revealed
the missiles under construction
▫ Kennedy warned the world that any
missiles launched from Cuba would be
regarded as an attack from the Soviets
▫ Tensions built as the Soviet
approached Cuba with the missile
delivery system
▫ Khruschev agreed to remove the
missiles with the trust that the U.S.
would never invade Cuba
▫ President was seen to have avoided
nuclear war and had the power to start
a large scale war
Institutional Presidency
The President
The White House
Staff
Executive Office of the President
White House Staff
Office of Management and Budget
Council of Economic Advisors
National Security Council
Office of National Drug Control
Office
the U.S. Trade Representative
TheofCabinet
Council
on Environmental
Department
of Justice Quality
D of Defense
D of State
Office
Science and
Technology Policy
D ofof
Homeland
Security
Office of Policy Development
Office of Administration
Vice President
Independent Establishments and Government
D of Housing and Urban
Corporations
Development
• Line of Presidential Succession
▫ Ratified in 1967, the Twenty-fifth Amendment established the
order of the succession to the presidency
1. Vice President
2. Speaker of the House
3. President pro tempore of the Senate
4. Secretary of State
5. Secretary of the Treasury
6. Secretary of Defense
7. Attorney General
8. Secretary of the Interior
9. Secretary of Agriculture
10. Secretary of Commerce
11. Secretary of Labor
12. Secretary of Health and Human Services
13. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
14. Secretary of Transportation
15. Secretary of Energy
16. Secretary of Education
17. Secretary of Veterans Affairs
18. Secretary of Homeland Security
• Major Supreme Court Decisions
▫ Marbury V. Madison
⚫Power of judicial review was established in this 1803
case
⚫Constitutional scholars regard Marbury as the most
important case the Court has ever decided
⚫Justice Marshall ruled that the Judiciary Act of 1789,
which expanded the Court’s original jurisdiction, was
impermissible-therefore the Court couldn’t rule in this
case because it didn’t have jurisdiction
⚫Defined that the Supreme Court interpreted the
Constitution and its role couldn’t be expanded by
Congress
▫ Plessy v. Ferguson 1896
⚫Court first allowed racial
segregation of railroad
cars
▫ Miranda v. Arizona
1964
⚫Before a suspect in
custody can be
questioned, he must he
informed “that he has
the right to remain
silent…that anything said
can and will be used
against the individual in
court…”
⚫In some cases, failure of
the police to adhere to its
requirements leads to
the exclusion of
confessions from
evidence