1. The Constitution Topic 4 Day 4
Change by other Means
The Constitution
Topic 4
Day 4

2. Starter
Identify each statement as true or false and try to explain your answer.
The day-to-day workings of government may lead to governmental change.
The Supreme Court affects governmental change by interpreting cases.
Political parties affect governmental change at all levels of government.

3. Answers
1) True. For example, the Constitution does not provide for political parties, yet parties influence much of the business of government.
2) True. Court decisions determine what actions are or are not permitted by the Constitution.
3) True. Party agendas influence the actions of government officials at all levels.

4. Objective/Standard
Students will be able understand how the Constitution can be changed through informal means.
GC.10 – Describe in order the steps of the process through which the Constitution can be amended.

5. Intro and Question
The Constitution is referred to as “the skeleton for a government” – i.e., a framework that future Presidents, Congresses, and Supreme Courts had to flesh out (provide more details).
Overtime, change has occurred through interpretation and practice.
Hypothesize (try to explain) the effect of a detailed plan rather than a broad outline for government. How would our lives be different today?
We would be governed by the values and way of life of the 18th century. We would be stuck with the meaning as it was in the 18th century; difficult to reinterpret it.

6. Amendments
Remember, the process of constitutional change or modification can happen by
formal amendment, or
by informal means.
Today we are discussing the informal means.

7. General Principles and Broad Language
As the words of the Constitution are reread, reinterpreted, and reapplied, informal changes in the meaning of the Constitution occur b/c of its broad language.
For example, in 1787, “We the People of the United States . . .” meant white males who owned property. Today, those words include all men and women.
As the attitudes and beliefs of the American people have changed, so too has the meaning of the Constitution.

8. Changes to the Constitution by Other Means
Five key ways outside the formal amendment process that the Constitution can be expanded:
basic legislation of Congress;
actions taken by the President;
key decisions of the Supreme Court;
the activities of political parties;
customs and usage.

10. Filing in the Details
The Framers intended that Congress fill in the details that were missing from many sections of the Constitution.
Example: the Elastic Clause states that Congress has the authority to make any laws “which shall be necessary and proper” for carrying out its specific powers. This clause gives Congress a great deal of freedom to define and extend its powers.

11. Basic Legislation by Congress
Example: Article II of the Constitution creates only the President and Vice-President. It does not create anything else in the executive branch of our government. However, laws of Congress have established the departments, agencies, and offices in the now huge executive branch.
Similarly, all the Federal courts, besides the Supreme Court, were created by Congress.

12. Executive Action
Example: The President is commander in chief per the Constitution; but, only Congress can declare war.
On more than 150 occasions, presidents have sent troops into combat abroad w/out congressional declarations of war. [Congress never declared war on Vietnam, but 500,000 plus troops fought in combat.
The words in the Constitution have stayed the same, e.g., “declare war,” but the meaning keeps evolving/changing.
[They need to understand this slide]

13. Executive Action
The Constitution calls for the President to make treaties with the “advice and consent” of the Senate.
Instead of treaties, Presidents will sometimes go at it alone by using executive agreements, which are pacts made by the President directly with the head of a foreign state.
Because these agreements are not formal treaties, they do not have to be approved by the Senate.

14. Political Practices
The Constitution does not mention political parties (but yet they have affected it meaning) nor the nomination of candidates for the presidency. However, major parties have held national conventions to do just that.
The States have also converted the electoral college, the body that makes the formal selection of the nation’s President, from what the Framer’s intended into a “rubber stamp” for each State’s popular vote in the election.

15. The Constitutional requirement that the President report to Congress about the state of the Union establishes a check on executive power by the legislative branch. Makes the executive accountable to the legislature.

16. Courts
No department or branch of government has had as great an influence on the Constitution as the courts.
Through the process of judicial review, the federal courts and the SC decide what the broad language of the Constitution actually means.

17. In Closing
The process of informal constitution change has played a key role in the development of our government.
Although the Framers could not foresee how their descendants would alter the Constitution, they intended all along that it be a living document – one that could evolve to meet society's changing needs.

18. Exit Ticket
B; B

19. Exit Ticket
Identify each of the following changes as coming from legislation, executive action, court decisions, party practices, or custom.
A law supporting segregation in schools is overturned.
The President appoints a conservative judge to please the party’s conservative supporters.
The State of the Union address is given each year at roughly the same time.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 extends protections against discrimination.
The President sends troops on a peacekeeping mission to an area torn by civil war.
1. court decision; 2. party practices; 3. Custom; 4. Legislation; 5. executive action

20. Amendment Exercise
Directions: Individually, each student will draft an amendment of their choosing, amending the U.S. Constitution. This amendment can be on anything you want.
Students will present their amendment to class (i.e., Congress), advocating for a resolution of proposal of the amendment.
Each amendment that passes out of the class by a 2/3 vote will be presented to my other American Government class for ratification.
For any student that successfully has his/her amendment ratified by the other class, he/she will receive extra credit.