Mr. McCormack

American Government

CentralDauphinSchool District

Chapter Three – Essential Study Guide

• The Framers organized the Constitution into seven sections known as articles. The Constitution also contains an introductory paragraph known as the Preamble.

• The first and longest article describes the Legislative Branch (Congress), while Article II describes the Executive (President) and Article III describes the Judicial (Supreme Court).

• The Constitution contains six basic principles:

Principle / Explanation/Definition / Example of Principle in Practice
Popular Sovereignty / All power comes from the people / The people govern themselves by picking representatives at periodic elections
Limited Government / Government only has certain, specific powers and cannot violate the rights of the people / The people have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, etc.
Separation of Powers / By dividing the powers of government among three branches, no one can control all of the governments’ powers at one time / We have Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches
Checks and Balances / Each branch of government has some influence over the other branches / The president may veto an act of Congress, but Congress can override a presidential veto
Judicial Review / The government cannot exceed the authority given to it in the Constitution, so if an act of government violates the Constitution, courts can declare that act unconstitutional, null, and void / This power was first exercised by the Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison
Federalism / The powers of government are split between a strong national and weaker state governments / Only the national government can declare war or form treaties

• Constitutional amendments can be proposed by either of two methods: by a 2/3 vote in both houses of Congress, or by a national convention called by Congress at the request of 2/3 of the states. Every successful amendment has been proposed by Congress (we’ve never even had a national convention to propose amendments). Congress has also proposed six amendments that were never ratified.

• Constitutional amendments can be ratified by either of two methods: by votes in 3/4 of the state legislatures or by votes in 3/4 of special conventions called in each state. All but one amendment (the 21st) have been approved by state legislatures. Congress can also impose a time limit on proposals, and recently seven years has been considered appropriate. If no time limit is imposed, a proposal may linger forever (in fact, the 27th Amendment was originally proposed as part of the Bill of Rights but wasn’t ratified until the 1990s!).

• By requiring action at both the national and state levels, the amendment process reflects the federal nature of our system.

• The Constitution has been amended a total of 27 times. The first 10 amendments are known as the Bill of Rights.

• The meaning of the Constitution can change over time, even if its language is not formally amended. This informal change can occur in five ways:

Source of Change / Explanation/Definition / Example of Change in Practice
Basic Legislation / Congress can, by legislation, fill in some of the gaps in the Constitution
Congress’ interpretation of its own powers influences our understanding of them / Congress created the federal courts under the Supreme Court
Congress has stretched the meaning of the Commerce Clause
Executive Action / Presidents set precedents that become accepted as part of our system of government / Presidents send troops into combat without seeking a Declaration of War
Court Decisions / The Supreme Court interprets the Constitution when hearing challenges under its power of judicial review / Segregation, first ruled Constitutional as “separate but equal,” was later ruled unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause
Party Practices / Parties were never mentioned in the Constitution but play a major role in every branch of government / Our systems of selecting a President and organizing Congress now wholly depend on political parties
Custom / People become accustomed to doing things in certain ways and expect them to continue / There are nine justices on the Supreme Court even though the Constitution does not require it