Chapter 20 Section 2 Organization Pages

Objectives 1. Explain how state legislatures are structured. 2. Identify the responsibilities of a state’s executive branch. 3. Describe the way in which state courts are organized.

Discussion Jay Nixon

1. When was the governor elected? 2. When will the next election be held? 3. Has the governor been in the news recently? If so, why?

State Legislative Branches Federal and state governments divide power among legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Terms: Senators: serve four year terms. House of Representatives: serve two year terms. Sessions: 30 years ago, 20 legislatures met every year, 30 met every two years. Making state law only a part time job, which allowed for legislators to run other businesses. Today a number of legislatures meet annually has increased to 43. Being a legislator is a full time job in nine states. ( California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin).

Qualifications: Members of state legislators must be U.S. citizens. Live in the district they represent. Senators must be at least 30 years of age. House of Representatives must be at least 24 years of age. Salaries: state legislators salaries were low for many decades. As a legislator’s job has grown and changed their salaries have continued to increase.

Leadership: State Legislators’ are bicameral, or two houses. Nebraska, has a nonpartisan, one house legislature. In each house there is a presiding officer with leadership powers. Leaders, assign bills to committees, make committee assignments, and control floor debates.

Committees: legislative committees and report on proposed bills. Bills: First: member of the state legislator introduces the bill. Second: assigned to and discussed in committee. If approved, full senate and house debate it and vote on it. When different versions of the bill are passed in both houses, Joint Committee (Conference) will draft a compromise version. The compromise bill is voted on in both houses, if passed, sent on to the governor for signing or to be vetoed.

State Executive Branches Governor: elected Chief executive. Governor’s Qualifications and Terms: State constitutions list the requirements for becoming governor. Governors must be U.S. citizens, Age requirements, live in the state they represent. Governors usually serve 4 year terms. Many states such as Missouri have two term limits.

Governors’ Salaries: Governors’ receive salaries and they vary from state to state. Most states provide a governor’s mansion or official residence for the governors and his/her family. Also, governor’s receive an allowance for travel and other related expenses. Governors’ Roles: Governor’s take active roles in preparing budgets, and setting an agenda for the state. Many have taken the lead in education and welfare reform. Governor’s today have taken on the role of promoting their states to attract factories, technologies, companies, and travel overseas to attract foreign investors to the state.

Governors’ Powers: governor’s powers are limited and in the majority of states other officials are elected. One power that the governor’s do have is the power of line-item veto – is used to void specific parts of legislation or budget appropriations while signing the rest of the bill into law. Line-item veto is unconstitutional at the Presidential level. Declared so in 1998.

State Judicial Branches Most legal rules that affect people everyday lives are passed not by the federal government, but by the states. States have two basic types of courts: trial and appeals. Trial Courts: organization starts at the county level. The public prosecuting attorney is in charge of investigating and prosecuting state criminal cases. Grand Jury: a panel of citizens who determine if the government has enough evidence to put a person on trial. In almost every state a trial-or petit jury hears the case and juries in criminal cases have a jury of 12. Jury Selection: potential jurors are chosen from a pool of registered voters. Jury Pool: a group of people who might be chosen to serve in a trial.

Appeals Courts: cases under state law are appealed within the state courts. Highest court of appeals in a state is known as the state supreme court. To appeal to a federal court the case involves a possible violation of the U.S. Constitution or another federal law. Special Courts: Associate Circuit: family courts, handle divorces and child custody and support Probate courts: which handle the estates of deceased people. Juvenile courts: which handle offenses committed by people legally too young to appear in adult court. Traffic courts: which handle cases involving traffic violations.

The Judges: County trial court judges are elected. State supreme court judges are elected in Missouri. Missouri Plan: Introduced in Missouri in 1940 the plan empowers a nonpartisan commission led by the state bar association to develop a list of candidates qualified to serve as judges. The governor then selects judges from among those candidates, and voters decide at a regularly scheduled election. Many judges are often re-elected at end of their terms, allowing many to keep their positions.