The Constitution

• The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It was made effective in 1789
• The Bill of Rights comprises the first 10 amendments of the US constitution which were ratified in 1791. The Bill of Rights amendments add to the Constitution specific guarantees of personal freedoms and rights, clear limitations on the government's power in judicial and other proceedings, and explicit declarations that all powers not specifically granted to the federal government by the Constitution are reserved to the states or the people.
• According to the principle of checks and balances, each of the branches of the state should have the power to limit or check the other two, creating a balance between the three separate powers of the state. Each branch's efforts to prevent either of the other branches from becoming supreme form part of an eternal conflict, which leaves the people free from government abuses.
• The power of the purse plays a critical role in the relationship of the United States Congress and the President of the United States, and has been the main historic tool by which Congress has limited executive power. One of the most prominent examples is the Foreign Assistance Act of 1974, which eliminated all military funding for the government of South Vietnam and thereby ended the Vietnam War.
• In the United States, federalism is the constitutional division of power between U.S. state governments and the federal government of the United States. Since the founding of the country, and particularly with the end of the American Civil War, power shifted away from the states and toward the national government.
• The origins of the constitution were the Articles of Confederation. This was ratified in 1781 and gave Congress (the only legislature at the time) power to govern foreign affairs, conduct war and regulate currnecy. However, these powers were limited as Congress had no authority to enforce its requests to the states for money or troops.
• The US constitution is codified meaning it is entirely contained in one document that specifically outlines everything.
• The benefits of codification are that it firmly protects fundamental rights through entrenchment, such as the first amendment which protects the right to freedom of religion, expression and peaceful assembly. These can only be altered through a supermajority (2/3) vote in both houses.
• The disadvantages of codification are that it makes change difficult because any changes must go through congress and then be approved by the president and then signed into law. It also means that there is less flexibility when dealing with new issues that may arise over time. For example, gun laws remain mainly unchanged because of their entrenchment in the constitution, despite over 630 mass shootings across the US in 2023 and many calls for change.
• There are 4 methods for making constitutional amendments. 2 of them (which have been used 0 times) are proposed by legislatures in two-thirds of the states calling for a national constitutional convention, and can be ratified by either 3/4 of the state legislatures or ratifying conventions in 3/4 of the states. The other 2 methods are proposed by 2/3 of house and senate. These can either be ratified by 3/4 of the state legislatures (used 26 times) or ratifying conventions in 3/4 of the states (used once in 21st amendment).
• 11000 amendments have been put before Congress but only 27 have ever made it through. That is 0.0025%.
• The advantages of the USA amendment process are:

  -a supermajority avoids a small majority imposing its will onto a large minority

  -the lengthy process avoids amendments made on a temporary issue

  -it ensures both state and federal govts. favour a proposal

  -it gives a voice to smaller population states

  -provision for conventions called by states avoids veto from congress
• The disadvantages of the USA amendment process are:

  -difficulty in making amendments perpetuates outdated provisions such as the electoral college

  -it makes it possible for the a possibly unrepresentative minority to thwart the will of the majority

  -the lengthy process still allowed the prohibition amendment (1919) to pass

  -the difficultly enhances the power of the SC (unelected) to make interprative amendments

  -the voice of smaller population states is over-represented
• A PERSON IN WYOMING HAS 68 TIMES MORE INFLUENCE IN THE U.S. SENATE THAN A PERSON IN CALIFORNIA.
• In 2016, Trump won the election even though he lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes. This was due to the Electoral College system which gave him more than enough electors to win the presidency. In fact, since 1824, five presidents were elected without winning the popular vote.
• The Electoral College has not always existed - it was created by the Founding Fathers who wanted to ensure that the President would represent all Americans rather than just those living in densely populated areas. However, this system has become increasingly problematic in recent years, particularly given the rise of partisan gerrymandering and voter suppression efforts aimed at disenfranchising certain groups of people.
• Checks and Balances: The Executive (the president) has power over the Judiciary to pardon people. Bill Clinton used over 140 pardons which was termed 'pardongate'. They also have power over the Legislature to veto laws and nominate (with advice and consent of the senate) Supreme Court judges.
• Checks and Balances: The Legislature has power over the Executive to amend, delay or reject legislative proposals, override vetos, power of the purse and to declare war (last used in 1941 for Pearl Harbour). The Senate can refuse to approve executive appointments or ratify treaties and the House can call for investigations, e.g. the 2012 Benghzi attacks on U.S. govt. facilities in Libya by ansar al-sharia. The House can also impeach presidents, e.g. Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 for a supposed sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky but was aquitted and remained in office.
• Checks and Balances: The Judiciary has power over both the Executive and Legislature through judicial review where they interpret the Constitution and decide whether legislation or presidential actions violate its principles. For example, in 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that same sex marriage was legal across the country. Another example is Washington vs. Trump in 2017 when the Judicary filed a suit against Trump's so-called "Muslim ban" which restricted the number of refugees from majority Muslim countries because this violate the 1st and 5th amendments.
• Partisanship can weaken checks and balances if all 3 branches of US government are controlled by the same party.
• Some argue that partisanship causes Congress to be overly acquiescent to executive demands
• The Supreme Court is not actually balanced, as evidenced by the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, a legislative initiative proposed by U.S President Franklin D Roosevelt to add more justices to the U.S Supreme Court in order to obtain favorable rulings regarding New Deal legislation that the Court had ruled unconstitutional.
• The central provision of the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937 would have granted the president power to appoint an additional justice to the U.S Supreme Court, up to a maximum of six, for every member of the court over the age of 70 years.
• The political consequences of the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937 were wide-reaching, extending beyond the narrow question of judicial reform to implicate the political future of the New Deal itself.
• Not only did bipartisan support for Roosevelt's agenda largely dissipate due to the struggle over the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, the overall loss of political capital in the arena of public opinion was also significant.
• After the events of 1937 the Democratic Party lost a net of eight seats in the U.S Senate and a net 81 seats in the U.S House in the subsequent 1938 midterm elections.
• Federalism is one of the key principles of the US Constitution. It is the dispersal of power between the national government of the USA (the ‘federal government’) on the one hand, and the governments of the individual 50 states on the other. It is a tricky principle to locate within the Constitution. The powers of Congress and the president can be found in Articles I and II. The amendment process is in Article V. Individual rights are in the Amendments. There is no single section that covers federalism.
• The movement for federalism was greatly strengthened by the reaction to Shays' Rebellion of 1786–1787, which was an armed uprising of yeoman farmers in western Massachusetts. The rebellion was fueled by a poor economy that was created, in part, by the inability of the confederal government to deal effectively with the debt from the American Revolutionary War. Moreover, the confederal government had proven incapable of raising an army to quell the rebellion, so that Massachusetts had been forced to raise its own.
• Popular sovereignty is the principle that the leaders of a state and its government are created and sustained by the consent of its people.
• Because of the division of power, a "double security arises to the rights of the people. The governments will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself by the use of checks and balances" - James Madison.
• Strengths of federalism:

  • it permits diversity
  • it creates more access points in government
  • it provides double security for rights and liberties
  • it allows states to experiment with new solutions to old problems
  • it is suited to a diverse nation
• Weaknesses of federalism:

  • it can mask economic and racial inequalities
  • it makes problem solving more complicated
  • the relationship between state and federal governments can become a source of conflict and controversy
  • it is overly beaurocratic and therefore difficult to govern