THE PHYSICAL CONSTITUTION:
A PRESENTATION THAT INCLUDES :
ARTICLES TWO AND THREE ,
CHECKS AND BALANCES,
ARTICLES FOUR, FIVE, SIX, AND SEVEN,
AND THE RATIFICATION OF THE CONSTITUTION
Article Two: The Executive Branch
* The executive branch is charged with the enforcement of laws
* The chief executive is the President of the United States
* The powers of the President include
• Commander and Chief of the Armed Forces
• Chief Law Enforcement Officer
• Chief Diplomat
• Chief Presider over national ceremony
• Appointment of offices in the Executive and Judicial Branches
(with the advice and consent of the Senate)
* The requirements to be President are:
• Be a natural born citizen
• Be 35 years of age
• Been a resident within the United States for 14 consecutive years
Article Two: The Executive Branch
* How a President is elected
• Each state is given a specific number of electoral votes
• Electoral Votes are calculated based on the total number of representatives and
Senators allocated to the state
• To be elected President requires a majority of electoral votes
Article Three: The Judicial Branch
* The judicial branch is charged with the interpretation of laws
* The Constitution establishes a Supreme Court, led by a Chief Justice
* The President appoints the member of the Court, with the advice and consent of the
Senate
* Congress sets the number of justices sitting on the Court by law
* Congress makes appellate courts, inferior to the Supreme Court, in order to manage
legal business throughout the country more effectively
* Federal judges have no requirement to hold office beyond being selected by the
President and approved by a majority of the Senate to be a judge
* Federal judges are appointed for life terms
* In the instance where one state sues another, the Constitution makes it so the case
is heard by the Supreme Court
Checks and Balances
* Though not specifically written into the Constitution, the principle of checks and
balances was intended by the founding father’s and is a principle inherent to the
Constitution
* Its main purpose is to prevent one branch of government from becoming so
powerful that it overwhelms the others
* The Constitution establishes three main branches of government:
* The Legislative, responsible for making laws, known as Congress
* The Executive, responsible for enforcing laws, known as the President
* The Judicial, responsible for interpreting laws, led by the Supreme Court
* Each of these branches has a power that it can use to limit the power of the other
two branches
Checks and Balances
• Congress checks the executive branch by having the power to approve, or
disapprove of Presidential appointments to offices, with a majority vote of the
Senate
• In addition, they can also override a Presidential veto with a 2/3rd’s vote of the
entire Congress
• Congress checks the judicial branch by approving or disapproving of appointments
to the Supreme Court, thereby affecting its philosophical leanings
Checks and Balances
• The President checks Congress by having the power to veto laws that Congress
passes, if he does not agree with them
• The President checks the Supreme Court by having the power to appoint members
to it that see things in the same philosophical perspective as him
Checks and Balances
• The Supreme Court checks both the Congress and the President by being able to
declare a law unconstitutional, if a majority of the court does not feel it to be in
line with the guarantees or rules laid out in our Constitution and subsequent
amendments.
Article Four
• “Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and
judicial Proceedings of every other state.”
• This is known as the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the Constitution, and basically
means that the laws, court rulings, legal contracts and official documents of one
State will be good in another.
• Article Four also allows for the protection of your rights as a citizen of the United
States, so you cannot be treated differently in any other State because you are not
a resident of it.
Article Five
• Article Five describes how changes to the United States Constitution can occur
• A change to the United States Constitution is called an Amendment
• Amendments can be suggested in the following manners:
1.) When 2/3rd’s of Congress shall vote to do so
2.) When 2/3rd’s of all State legislatures request Congress call a national
convention to consider amendments to the Constitution
• Amendments can then be ratified in the following manners:
1.) ¾’s of all State legislatures pass the proposed amendment
2.) ¾’s of all Conventions called in each state pass the proposed amendment
Article Six
• In Article Six you will find The Supremacy Clause
• The Supremacy Clause states that three items should be considered “The Supreme
Law of the Land,” and that all courts and States must adhere to these things in
determining court cases, and establishing law.
1.) The Constitution itself
2.) Federal Law, and;
3.) Foreign Treaties
Article Seven
• The final clause of the United States Constitution states that it will only take the
ratification of the conventions of nine states to establish this Constitution as the
foundational document of our national government.
RATIFICATION?
• There was a lot of heated debate in the thirteen states over the proposed new
Constitution, and there was doubt as to whether it would be ratified by even
nine states
• The man most responsible for the drafting of the Constitution, known today as The
Father of the Constitution, James Madison, along with John Jay and Alexander
Hamilton, wrote a series of articles supporting and defending the new Constitution,
known as The Federalist Papers.
• The Anti-Federalists argued that this new Constitution, by creating a strong
national government with a singular executive, and a supreme judiciary, would
grow too powerful, and force the people to give away basic rights such as freedom
of speech and religion, or even force them to give up their weapons, quarter
soldiers, and even be tried without a jury, or be held against their will for long
periods of time. All things they had experienced under the strong national
government of Britain when they were colonies.
RATIFICATION?
• The Anti Federalists demanded that changes be made to the Constitution to
protect these rights.
• At first Madison was opposed to this, because he did not want to limit the
Constitutional government’s abilities to deal with whatever may come, but as
time wore on he began to see their point of view, and wrote 12 Amendments
referred to as The Bill of Rights to add to the Constitution once it was ratified.
• This convinced most Anti-Federalists to finally support the Constitution, and
the required nine states eventually passed it, putting our new government
into effect.
• At the meeting of the very first Congress of the United States of America,
Madison proposed the Constitution be amended with the Bill of Rights, and
the issue was sent to the thirteen states for approval.
• Only ten of the amendments he suggested were approved at that time, and
they became what today we call the Bill of Rights