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
Preamble
Subject
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
Amending the Constitution
Article V
Article VI
Article VII
National debts, supremacy of national law, and oaths of
office
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