1 / 21

The Constitution

The Constitution. There are 3 parts to the Constitution:. Preamble – introduction paragraph that tells why the Const’n was written and lists the purposes of government. Articles (7)– explain how the government is to work. Amendments (27) – changes in the Constitution. ARTICLE I.

tavia
Download Presentation

The Constitution

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Constitution

  2. There are 3 parts to the Constitution: Preamble– introduction paragraph that tells why the Const’n was written and lists the purposes of government. Articles (7)– explain how the government is to work. Amendments (27) – changes in the Constitution.

  3. ARTICLE I Legislative Branch Lawmakers Tells - 2 Houses - how rep’s are chosen - how a bill becomes a law - Congress’s powers - what Congress can NOT do.

  4. ARTICLE II Executive Branch Law Enforcers! President Vice-President Cabinet

  5. ARTICLE III Judicial Branch Interpret the law Supreme Court – national court that only takes cases that involve the Constitution, federal laws, treaties, and disputes between states.

  6. ARTICLE IV States Respect each others laws, court decisions, and records. Process for creating new states

  7. ARTICLE V Specifies how amendments (changes) to the Constitution are made – Framers looked to the future. ARTICLE VI Claims that the Constitution is the “law of the land” and outweighs state laws and court decisions.

  8. ARTICLE VII Specifies that 9 states have to ratify a new constitution. NO! Do you think this is gonna stay the same???? In fact, remember the deal between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists? There are more changes in the constitution already in the making…

  9. Amendments Changes in the Constitution!! Since the Constitution was ratified in 1789, there have been 27 changes – amendments. The first 10 amendments satisfied the “deal” between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. These first 10 amendments ARE the promised….

  10. BILL OF RIGHTS These first ten amendments – the Bill of Rights – was added in completion in 1791. They safeguard the individual citizen’s rights and liberties.

  11. Other amendments improve the way our government works – like allowing Congress to collect income tax - a tax on people’s earnings. This provides our government with a source of making money so the government can pay for services it provides to citizens.

  12. Judicial Branch’s job is to interpret laws. The amendments (changes) to the Constitution occurred due to interpretation! Article I – gives Congress the power to “make all laws that are necessary and proper”. Which means Congress has powers not necessarily listed in the Constitution.

  13. These powers that aren’t listed in the Constitution are known as … implied powers. (powers not listed in the Constitution) {Open book to p.88 and do map skills} End of Sec. 3

  14. Chapter 3 Section 4 Principles Underlying the Constitution The delegates to the Constitutional Convention determined that the government should represent the people and should have some limits.

  15. They also determined that the power should be divided among different levels of government. • To achieve this, the Framers • embraced 5 fundamental principles: • popular sovereignty • the rule of law • separation of powers • checks and balances • federalism

  16. Article IV guarantees the American people “a Republican Form of Government.” Today, a “republic” any representative government headed by a president or similar leader. During the Framers time, it meant a representative democracy with supreme power belonging to the people.

  17. Popular Sovereignty – power lies with the people! The Declaration expressed strong support for popular sovereignty. The Constitution limited the government by the “rule of law.” The law applies to EVERYONE! To further protect against abuse of power and the possibility of one person or group gaining too much power the power, or authority, was split among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. This is called SEPARATION OF POWERS.

  18. To keep any one branch from becoming too powerful, the Constitution includes a system of CHECKS AND BALANCES – each branch is able to check up on the others which balances the power. Veto Impeachment

  19. Further limits on government arise in a federal system. Under federalism power is shared by the national and state governments. Each level of government has independent authority over people at the same time. Americans must obey both federal and state laws.

  20. Federalism – powers shared by federal and state governments Fed. Gov’t BOTH State Gov’t Implied powers Expressed powers concurrent powers Reserved powers Trade w/ other countries Foreign affairs Army Coin & print $ Post offices Trade w/ other states Est. local govt’s elections Public schools Enforce laws Estab. courts taxes Borrow money Expressed – (implied) powers given to the federal (national ) gov’t Reserved – powers given to the state gov’t Concurrent – powers shared by the federal and state governments

  21. Because the federal and state governments share powers in America, there might one day be a conflict between the two. So, the Framers included the supremacy clause in Article VI. Article VI declares that the Constitution is the “supreme laws of the land”. States may do nothing that goes against the Constitution or the federal laws. The United States Constitution stands as a powerful symbol of American values and a source of pride and unity.

More Related