October 11th-17th

The Constitution of the United States of America
*The US Constitution is the oldest written constitution in the world. It was written in 1787, and was ratified by all 13 original States and in effect by 1789.

-The Constitution has three main sections: the preamble, the articles, and the amendments.

*The Preamble: This is a statement of goals for the nation. The framers of the constitution hoped that the document would fulfill the goals set forth for it in the opening statement: to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure peace within our borders, be ready to defend our nation, promote the well being of all citizens, and to secure freedom for all Americans for all time.

*The Articles: There are seven articles in the constitution. The Articles basically outlines the structure of American government. Each branch of government and their powers and limitations are clearly defined, the amending process and the concept of federalism are explained.

*The Amendments: Many people believe that the best thing about our constitution is that it can be changed. Since 1789 the constitution has been changed only 27 times. The first 10 Amendments, the Bill of Rights, were all ratified by 1791, so in essence there are have only been 17 changes made over the past 215+ years. Amendments have been added for many different reasons: to insure civil rights, voting rights, and to further define the role of government is America.

-The Constitution has within it, six major principles: the concept of popular sovereignty, federalism, separation of powers, a system of checks and balances, the idea of judicial review, and the principle of limited government.
*Popular Sovereignty: The concept of popular sovereignty insures that the government is ultimately ruled by the people.

*Federalism: The constitution outlines a system in which the powers of government are divided between the national government, and the government of the states.

-Separation of Powers: The constitution insures that the powers of government are separated and distributed among the three branches. This is to insure that no one branch hold the power.

-Checks & Balances: In order to keep each branch honest, and to insure that each branch is carrying out its duties and responsibilities, each branch has certain powers, or checks over the other branches. This is to insure a balance of power within the federal government.

-Judicial Review: The most important check that any branch has belongs to the judicial branch. It is the responsibility of the judicial branch to insure that all the laws passed, and actions taken by the executive, and legislative branches are legal and within the boundaries of the Constitution.

-Limited Government: The Constitution lists the powers that the federal government has, and also describes powers that it doesn’t have, that may belong to the States, or to the individual.

Article I The Legislative Branch
*Article I of the US Constitution creates and defines the legislative branch of government. Article I is broken into 10 sections.

Section 1: This section establishes the creation of a bicameral legislature called Congress. The upper house of Congress is called the Senate, and the lower house is called the House of Representatives. Section 1 gives Congress the power to make laws.

Section 2: The House of Representatives.

-Representatives are elected directly by the people every 2 years.

-Members of the House must be at least 25 years old and must be a citizen of the US for no less than 7 years.

-Each House member must be a resident of the state he or she represents.

-Representation in the House is proportional to the population of the state.

-Each State must have at least 1 Representative.

-Congress decides the size of the House; currently there are 435 members of the House of Representatives.

-If a vacancy occurs in the House, the governor of the state calls a special election to fill the open seat.

-The House makes its own rules, elects its own officers, and has the power to remove members from office through impeachment proceedings.

-The House has the sole power to impeach members of Congress, the executive branch, the legislative branch, and all people who are appointed to federal offices.
Section 3: The Senate

-Each state is guaranteed to have 2 Senators represent it in Congress. Currently there are 100 Senators. Each Senator has 1 vote in the Senate.

-Senators were originally chosen by state legislatures until the 17th Amendment was passed. Now, Senators are elected directly by the people.

-Members of the Senate are elected to serve a term that lasts 6 years.

-One must be at least 30 years old to be a Senator, be a US citizen for no less than 9 years, and must be a citizen of the State that he or she represents.

-The presiding officer of the US Senate is the Vice-President of the United States. The Vice-President is only allowed a vote in the Senate when there is a tie.

-In the absence of the Vice President, a member of the Senate, who is elected by the other Senators, serves as the presiding officer. The title of this Senator is president pro tempore of the Senate.

-The Senate makes its own rules, and elects its own officers.

-The Senate has the power to try all impeachment cases; in the event that person being impeached is the President of the United States, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides over the trial.

Section 4: Elections and Meetings

-Congressional elections are held the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even numbered years. During congressional elections all 435 seats in the House are up for grabs, and one-third of all Senate seats are up for grabs.

-Section 4 of Article I also states that Congress must meet at least once every year. The 20th Amendment states that the date Congress is to meet will January 3rd.

Section 5: Organization and Rules of Congress

-Each house of Congress decides if its members are qualified to serve, and if the members were all properly elected. Both houses have the power to refuse to seat new members.

-In order to carry out congressional business, each house must have a majority present. Absent members can be forced to attend meetings of Congress.

-Each house sets its own rules. Can punish members for disorderly conduct, and can expel a member by a 2/3rds vote.

-Each house must keep an official record or journal of its meetings which must be published and made available to the public on a regular basis. The way that members of Congress vote on issues must be published and made public as well.

-Neither house of Congress may adjourn or relocate for more than 3 days without the approval of the other house.

Section 6: Privileges and Restrictions

-Members of Congress are to paid for their duties by the federal government, not by the state they represent.

-No member of Congress can be sued or persecuted for anything they say on the floor of either house or in an official written publication.

-No member of Congress can be arrested while Congress is in session unless they are being charged with treason or other very serious crimes.

-Members of Congress can not hold any other government office while serving in Congress.

Section 7: Passing Laws

-Any bill that deals with money or taxes must originate in the House of Representatives.

-In order for a law to pass Congress, a simple majority in each House must vote for its approval.

-Once a bill passes Congress it is sent to the President. The President has a few options on what he can do with the bill:
1. The President can sign the bill into law.
2. The President can formally disapprove of the bill by vetoing it.
3. The President can do nothing. If the President does nothing the bill automatically becomes law after 10 days, excluding Sundays. If Congress adjourns before those 10 days are up the bill is automatically vetoed. This is called a pocket veto.

-If the President vetoes a bill it gets sent back to Congress. Congress then has the option to override the veto. In order to override a Presidential veto, both houses of Congress must approve the bill by a 2/3rds majority.

Section 8: Powers of Congress
*The US Constitution gives the Congress the following powers:

-Congress has the power to tax in order to raise funds for public purposes. Federal tax rates must be the same in every state.

-Congress has the power to borrow money by selling government bonds.

-Congress has the power to regulate interstate commerce.

-Congress has the power to determine and define the process of naturalization that immigrants must go through in order to become US citizens.

-Congress has the power to regulate the procedures people must go through to declare bankruptcy.

-Congress has the power to coin and mint currency.

-Congress has the power to set the standards of weights and measures.

-Congress has the power to define the punishments for counterfeiting US currency, stamps, bonds, and federal documents.

-Congress has the power to create a postal system.

-Congress has the power to set copyright, and patent rules.

-Congress has the power to create federal courts lower than the US Supreme Court.

-Congress has the power to define punishments for pirates.

-Congress, only congress, not the President or any other branch or department of the US government, has the power to declare war.

-Congress has the power to raise, support, and regulate the armed forces.

-Congress has the power to give the states the authority to raise, support, and regulate a National Guard in order to suppress insurrections, and repel invasions.

-Congress has the power to set a location for the national capitol. The national capitol shall not be a state, or be a part of a state. The capitol shall be a district under complete federal control.

-Congress has the power to create laws that the constitution does not directly give it the power to create. The powers that are listed in the Constitution are called expressed powers because they are expressed directly in the constitution. In order to carry out the expressed powers, the congress has other, implied powers that will help it carry out the expressed powers. This is called the elastic clause.