#Constitution

94 entries

Branches (9)

Article I vs. Article III Courts

Why some federal judges serve for life and others for fixed terms, and which cases each kind may decide

The Cabinet

The heads of the fifteen executive departments and other senior officials the President chooses to include

The Federal Judiciary

The third branch: one Supreme Court, thirteen circuits, ninety-four districts, and judges who serve for life

The House of Representatives

The lower chamber of Congress: 435 members, two-year terms, and the sole power to originate taxes and impeach

The Office of the Vice President

The only office with a foot in two branches: president of the Senate and first in line for the presidency

The Presidency

The office that heads the executive branch, commands the armed forces, and sets the national agenda

The Supreme Court of the United States

The highest court in the country: nine justices, life tenure, and the last word on the Constitution

The United States Congress

The bicameral legislature that writes the laws, controls the money, and checks the other two branches

The United States Senate

The upper chamber: two senators per state, six-year terms, and the power to confirm, ratify, and try impeachments

Departments (3)

Office of the Pardon Attorney

The Justice Department office that reviews clemency petitions and advises the President on pardons and commutations

The Census Bureau

The agency that counts every resident every ten years and decides how 435 House seats and trillions in funding are divided

The Patent and Trademark Office

The agency that grants the exclusive rights behind inventions and brands, funded entirely by the people who apply

Agencies (2)

The National Archives and Records Administration

Keeper of the Constitution and the government's permanent records, publisher of the Federal Register, and steward of presidential records

The United States Postal Service

The self-funded government corporation that delivers to every address in the country six days a week

Offices & Roles (4)

President of the United States

The office itself: who can hold it, how it is filled, what it pays, and how it ends

President pro tempore of the Senate

The Senate's constitutional presiding officer in the Vice President's absence, by custom its most senior majority member, and third in line to the presidency

Speaker of the House

The presiding officer and leader of the House of Representatives, second in line to the presidency

Vice President of the United States

The role itself: qualifications, election, duties, and the path from second place to the presidency

Processes (8)

Advice and Consent

The Senate's constitutional role in approving the President's treaties and senior appointments

Appropriations

The laws that actually let the government spend money, and the constitutional rule that nothing can be spent without one

How a Bill Becomes Law

From introduction to committee to the floor to the President's desk, and the many places a bill can die along the way

Impeachment

How Congress can remove a President, judge, or other civil officer: a House accusation and a Senate trial

Judicial Review

The power of courts to strike down laws and government actions that violate the Constitution

Presidential Succession

Who becomes President if the office falls vacant, and what happens when a President is temporarily unable to serve

The Electoral College

How Americans actually choose a President: 538 electors, 270 to win, and the state-by-state rules behind them

The Presidential Veto and Override

The President's power to reject bills, the pocket veto, and the two-thirds vote Congress needs to override

Principles (27)

Bicameralism

Why Congress has two chambers, one based on population and one on equal state representation

Checks and Balances

The specific tools each branch has to restrain the others, and why the system depends on each branch using them

Consent of the Governed

The idea, stated in the Declaration of Independence, that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the people they govern

Due Process

The constitutional guarantee, in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law

Enumerated and Implied Powers

A federal government of limited, listed powers, and the clauses that have allowed those powers to grow

Federalism

How power is divided between the national government and the states, and how that balance has shifted

Full Faith and Credit

The Article IV requirement that each state respect the public acts, records, and court judgments of every other state

Inherent Executive Power

The claim that the Vesting Clause gives the President powers beyond those listed in Article II, and the long debate over how far such unwritten authority extends

Inherent Powers

Powers the national government holds because it is a sovereign nation, especially in foreign affairs and immigration, even where the Constitution does not list them

Limited Government

The principle that government has only the powers the people grant it, bounded by a written constitution, enumerated powers, and protected rights

Majority Rule and Minority Rights

The balance in American government between letting majorities decide and protecting individuals and minorities from majority overreach

Nullification

The theory that a state may declare a federal law unconstitutional and void within its borders, tested in the 1832 crisis and consistently rejected by the courts

Originalism and the Living Constitution

The two leading approaches to interpreting the Constitution: reading it by its meaning when adopted, or as a document whose application evolves with society

Popular Sovereignty

The principle that government's authority comes from the people, and how the circle of "the people" has widened

Republicanism

The founding principle that government should rest on elected representatives accountable to the people, rather than on a monarch or on direct rule by the majority

Reserved and Concurrent Powers

How the Constitution divides authority: powers delegated to the national government, powers reserved to the states by the Tenth Amendment, and powers both may exercise

Separation of Powers

Why the Constitution divides federal power among three branches, and how courts police the lines between them

States' Rights

The political and constitutional argument that states hold powers the federal government may not override, invoked across American history for very different causes

The Appointments Clause

The Article II provision dividing appointment power between the President and the Senate, and letting Congress assign inferior officers to the President, the courts, or department heads

The Commerce Clause

Congress's power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, among the states, and with Indian tribes, the basis for much of modern federal law

The Fourth Estate

The press as an informal check on government, protected by the First Amendment and shaped by landmark cases, investigative reporting, and changes in the news business

The Guarantee Clause

The Article IV promise that the United States will guarantee every state a republican form of government and protect each against invasion and domestic violence

The Necessary and Proper Clause

The final clause of Congress's enumerated powers, which lets Congress pass all laws necessary and proper for carrying out its other powers, the source of most implied federal power

The Rule of Law

The principle that government acts only through law, that law binds those who govern, and that it applies equally to all

The Supremacy Clause

The provision of Article VI making the Constitution, federal laws, and treaties the supreme law of the land, binding on state judges and overriding conflicting state law

The Take Care Clause

The Article II duty of the President to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, a source of both presidential authority and presidential obligation

The Taxing and Spending Power

Congress's power under Article I to lay taxes and spend for the common defense and general welfare, including the authority to attach conditions to federal funds

Documents & Cases (39)

Article I: The Legislative Branch

The longest article of the Constitution, creating Congress, listing its powers, and limiting both Congress and the states

Article II: The Executive Branch

The article that creates the presidency in four sections, leaving much of the office's power to interpretation

Article III: The Judicial Branch

Three short sections that create the Supreme Court, protect judges, define federal jurisdiction, and define treason

Article IV: The States

The article that governs relations among the states and between the states and the national government, from full faith and credit to new states and territories

Article V: The Amendment Process

The article that sets the two-step process for amending the Constitution, requiring supermajorities in Congress or the states and ratification by three-fourths of the states

Article VI: Supremacy, Oaths, and Debts

The article that honors the nation's prior debts, makes federal law supreme, binds officials by oath to the Constitution, and forbids religious tests for office

Article VII: Ratification

The final article, which made the Constitution effective once conventions in nine states approved it, bypassing the Articles of Confederation's unanimity rule

The Articles of Confederation Dissolved

The first national constitution, in force from 1781 to 1789, which created a league of sovereign states with a weak Congress and no executive or national courts

The Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the Constitution, ratified in 1791, which limit government power and protect individual liberties, now applied to the states as well

The Constitution of the United States

The supreme law of the land: seven articles and twenty-seven amendments that structure the federal government

The Eighteenth Amendment Dissolved

The 1919 amendment that established national Prohibition of alcoholic beverages, the only amendment ever repealed

The Eighth Amendment

The 1791 amendment prohibiting excessive bail, excessive fines, and cruel and unusual punishments

The Eleventh Amendment

The 1795 amendment limiting federal court lawsuits against states, the foundation of modern state sovereign immunity

The Federalist Papers

The 85 essays by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, published as Publius in 1787 and 1788, that explain and defend the Constitution's structure

The Fifteenth Amendment

The 1870 amendment barring federal and state governments from denying the right to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude

The Fifth Amendment

The 1791 amendment guaranteeing grand juries, protection against double jeopardy and self-incrimination, due process, and just compensation for taken property

The First Amendment

The 1791 amendment protecting freedom of religion, speech, the press, assembly, and petition from government interference

The Fourteenth Amendment

The 1868 amendment defining citizenship and guaranteeing due process and equal protection of the laws against the states

The Fourth Amendment

The 1791 amendment protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures and requiring warrants based on probable cause

The Nineteenth Amendment

The 1920 amendment barring federal and state governments from denying the right to vote on account of sex

The Ninth Amendment

The 1791 amendment declaring that listing certain rights in the Constitution does not deny or disparage other rights retained by the people

The Preamble

The Constitution's 52-word opening: who ordains it and the six purposes it serves

The Second Amendment

The 1791 amendment protecting the right of the people to keep and bear arms, linked in its text to a well regulated militia

The Seventeenth Amendment

The 1913 amendment providing for the direct election of senators by the voters of each state, replacing election by state legislatures

The Seventh Amendment

The 1791 amendment preserving the right to a jury trial in federal civil cases and limiting judges' power to overturn jury findings

The Sixteenth Amendment

The 1913 amendment allowing Congress to tax incomes without apportioning the tax among the states by population

The Sixth Amendment

The 1791 amendment guaranteeing criminal defendants a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury, the right to confront witnesses, and the assistance of counsel

The Third Amendment

The 1791 amendment barring the government from quartering soldiers in private homes in peacetime without the owner's consent

The Thirteenth Amendment

The 1865 amendment abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States, except as punishment for a crime

The Twelfth Amendment

The 1804 amendment requiring electors to cast separate votes for President and Vice President, adopted after the deadlocked election of 1800

The Twentieth Amendment

The 1933 Lame Duck Amendment, which moved Inauguration Day to January 20 and the start of Congress to January 3, and set rules for a President-elect's death

The Twenty-fifth Amendment

The 1967 amendment that clarifies presidential succession, provides for filling a vice presidential vacancy, and sets procedures for presidential disability

The Twenty-first Amendment

The 1933 amendment that repealed Prohibition and gave states broad power to regulate alcohol within their borders

The Twenty-fourth Amendment

The 1964 amendment banning poll taxes and other taxes as a condition of voting in federal elections

The Twenty-second Amendment

The 1951 amendment limiting a President to two elected terms, written into the Constitution after Franklin Roosevelt won four

The Twenty-seventh Amendment

The amendment barring a congressional pay change from taking effect until after the next House election, proposed in 1789 and ratified in 1992

The Twenty-sixth Amendment

The 1971 amendment lowering the voting age to 18 in all federal, state, and local elections

The Twenty-third Amendment

The 1961 amendment giving the District of Columbia electors in presidential elections

Trump v. Anderson (2024)

The case holding that states cannot disqualify federal candidates under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, reversing Colorado's removal of Donald Trump from its ballot

States & Local (2)

State Constitutions

The fundamental laws of the fifty states, generally longer, more detailed, and far more often amended than the U.S. Constitution, and an independent source of rights

The Insular Cases

A series of Supreme Court decisions beginning in 1901 that created the doctrine of unincorporated territories, where the Constitution applies only in part

All Tags

Executive Branch 148 Legislative Branch 110 Separation of Powers 110 Economy 108 Cabinet Department 105 Constitution 94 Budget 80 Supreme Court 77 Elections 76 Federalism 75 States 70 Judicial Branch 65 National Security 62 Law Enforcement 59 Administrative State 58 Oversight 49 Military 45 Foreign Policy 40 Health 39 Environment 36 Independent Agency 35 Statute 31 Civil Service 30 Data & Statistics 29 Regulatory Commission 28 Former Agency 24 Emergency Management 24 Transportation 24 Intelligence 22 Education 22 Immigration 22 Taxation 21 Government Corporation 15 Territories 12 Veterans 9 Tribal 8