The Constitution of the United States

Essential Questions What are the six goals of the Constitution? Evaluate the four principles of the Constitution.  Generalize the goal of each Article.   How does the Constitution promote the idea of limited government?

Essential Questions How does the Constitution define the framework of the three branches of government? How do the three branches work together to provide leadership?  How does the Constitution provide for leadership within each branch?

Set up of the Constitution Preamble Articles ( 7 in the body ) Sections ( explanations ) Amendments ( 27 : 17 since 1791 )

Preamble What is the Preamble? It is the opening declaration of the Constitution. It tells us what are the main goals for our Constitution.

What are the goals listed in the Preamble? “To form a more perfect union” A more perfect union? “To Establish Justice” “To insure domestic tranquility” What is domestic tranquility?

What are the goals listed in the Preamble? “To provide for the common defense” “To promote the general welfare” “To secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity”

Article I: The Legislative BranchCongress(US Legislative Branch) Main job is to make laws Bicameral Legislation Senate = 2 per state or 100 senators Senators: Richard Burr(r) and Thom Tillis(D) House of Representatives= 1per 700,000 people or 435 representatives. District 4 Representative: David Price or 13 Brad Miller

                                     

Article II: The Executive Branch President of the United States Vice President of the United States Main job is to enforce laws

Article III: The Judicial Branch Sets up a Supreme Court Allows congress to set up a court system Supreme Court= 9 Justices ( includes 1 Chief Justice: John Roberts ) Main Job: To interpret Laws

Article IV: Relationship among states Sets up that states must respect each others laws and court decisions. Sets up procedures to add more states

Article V: The Amendment Process How can the constitution be changed? This article gives the two ways in which the constitution can be changed.

Article VI: Supremacy Clause It states that the constitution is the supreme law of the land. If any law or person comes against the Constitution then the law or person is wrong. Know it as the Supremacy Clause It says if state law or court decisions conflict with federal law then federal law is supreme. The state law would be unconstitutional.

Article VII: Ratification Process It states what must happen for the Constitution to be approved. 9 of the 13 states must approve the constitution for it to become the new government.

The Amendment Process: The only way you can change the Constitution Proposal or Proposal Ratification or Ratification Vote of 2/3s of members from both houses National Convention: Called by 2/3 of states Approved by ¾ of 50 state legislatures Approved by ¾ of ratifying conventions in each state

5 Principles Popular sovereignty Rule of law Separation of Powers Checks and balances Types of Powers Lead them into the constitution with something like “Based the founders experience with England and forming a self government the people of the United States also wanted to establish principles that the nation would live by.” At this point have them take out their constitutional principles chart.

Government gets their power from the consent of the people Popular Sovereignty The Right to Rule Government gets their power from the consent of the people

Rule of Law Everyone is under the law! No one can break the law and not be punished.

Separation of Powers To divide powers so no one person or group could be too powerful. Power was divided between the three branches of Government (Legislative, Executive, and Judicial

Checks & Balances Out of fear that 1 branch of government would still dominate the others the framers included a system of checks and balances.

Principle of Federalism Federal Government State Government Concurrent Powers Reserved Powers Expressed Powers Levels of Government

Major Themes: Federalism- Powers are split between The federal government The state government The local government

Major Themes: Separation of Powers between Legislative branch Executive branch Judicial branch

Checks and Balances In separation of powers: How each branch can check on each other. A major function to make sure one group does not get to powerful. Page 91: Describe the ways the each branch checks on the other branches.

Major Themes Popular Sovereignty- The government gets the power from the consent of the people. Rule of Law