Ch. 2 3 Magruders The Constitution Assign.

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Ch. 2 (3 Magruders) The Constitution Assign. 2
Answers

• 1. What were the five fundamental principles
  established by the U.S. Constitution?

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• Popular sovereignty, or control by the people.
• A republican govt. in which the people choose
  representatives to make decisions for them.
• Limited govt. with written laws.
• Separation of powers, with checks and balances
  between braches.
• A federal system that allowed for states rights.

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• How did the federal system work? Why was it
  invented?

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• Sovereign powers (ruling powers) are divided
  between the states and the national govt.
• It was invented by the founders as a compromise
  solution to the controversy over whether the
  states or the central govt. should have ultimate
  sovereignty.

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• How many states were needed to ratify the
  Constitution before it became the law of the
  land?

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• Nine

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• How did the founding fathers get around the fact
  that many state legislatures would not ratify the
  Constitution?

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• The delegates agreed that each state should hold
  a special convention. Elected delegates to
  these conventions would discuss and vote on the
  Constitution. It would only require 9 of the 13
  states to ratify.

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• What advantages did the Federalists have? The
  Anti-Federalists?

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• The Federalists had assumed a positive name.
• The Federalists had attended the Constitutional
  Convention and knew of all the deliberations that
  had taken place.
• The Federalists had time, power, and money on
  their side.
• The Federalists had the best communication.

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• The Anti-Federalists had the advantage of
  standing for the status quo.

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• 6. What were the Federalists Papers? Who were
  the three authors?

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• The Federalist Papers were a series of 85 essays
  in defense of the Constitution and of a
  republican form of government.
• The authors were Alexander Hamilton, John Jay,
  and James Madison

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• 7. Which of the Federalist Papers is the classic
  in political theory? What did these papers deal
  with?

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• Madisons Federalists Paper No. 10 is considered
  a classic in political theory.
• It deals with the nature of groups or factions as
  he called them. They would be called interest
  groups today.

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• 8. What were the problems with the Constitution
  listed by the Anti-Federalists?

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• To the Anti-Federalist, it was a document written
  by aristocrats and would lead to aristocratic
  tyranny.
• It would create an overbearing and overburdening
  central govt. hostile to personal liberty.

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• 9. What view was argued by Patrick Henry and
  Samuel Adams? From whom did they get this view?

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• They believed that liberty was safe only in
  relatively small societies governed by direct
  democracy or by a large legislature with small
  districts.
• The French political philosopher Montesquieu.

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• 10. Why was Madison more convincing than Henry
  and Adams?

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• Madison was convincing because citizens were
  already persuaded that a strong national govt.
  was necessary to combat foreign enemies and to
  prevent domestic insurrections.

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• 11. Which two large states barely ratified the
  Constitution?

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• Virginia with 89 for and 79 against.
• New York with 30 for and 27 against.

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• 12. What was Charles Beards thesis? Was he
  probably right or wrong?

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• His thesis was that the Constitution had been
  produced primarily by wealthy property owners who
  desired a stronger govt. able to protect their
  property rights. The Constitution had been
  imposed by undemocratic methods to prevent
  democratic majorities from exercising real power.

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• He was right that it was done by wealthy property
  owners who did use some devious tactics.
  However, considering democracy was an experiment
  of the time, it was fairly liberal for the
  period. It certainly set up a system that
  brought about democratic principles over time.

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• 13. Why is the Bill of Rights really a bill of
  limits?

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• It was a bill of limits because the amendments
  limited the powers of the national govt. in
  regard to the rights and liberties of individuals.

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• 14. Did the Bill of Rights include the right to
  privacy?

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• For several decades the liberal courts have held
  that the guarantees set forth in the Bill of
  Rights imply the right to privacy. However, many
  conservative justices like Antonin Scalia and
  Clarence Thomas do not believe that the
  Constitution or Bill of Rights guarantees the
  right to privacy.

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• 15. How many state recommendations did Madison
  have to cull through to come up with the Bill of
  Rights? Which important right did he leave out
  and when was it finally added?

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• Madison had to cull through more than 200 state
  recommendations.
• He left out equal protection under the laws.
• The 14th Amendment was added in 1868 to guarantee
  equal protection under the laws.

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• 16. What happened to the proposed amendment that
  Madison characterized as the most valuable
  amendment in the whole lot? Why was this
  significant?

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• The amendment which would have prohibited the
  states from infringing on the freedoms of
  conscience, press, and jury trial had been
  eliminated by the Senate.
• This was significant because the Bill of Rights
  as adopted did not limit STATE power, and
  individual citizens had to rely on the guarantees
  contained in the particular state constitution or
  state bill of rights.

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• 17. Why is the Constitution shorter than most
  state constitutions?

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• It is shorter because the founders intended it to
  be only a framework for governing, to be
  interpreted by succeeding generations. It has
  remained short because it is difficult to change
  the Constitution.

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• 18. Under Article V, what are the two formal
  methods of proposing an amendment to the
  Constitution?

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• A two-thirds vote in each chamber of Congress or
• A national convention that is called by Congress
  at the request of two-thirds of the state
  legislatures (this method has never been used)

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• 19. Under Article V, what are the two methods of
  ratification? What was the only time that the
  second method was used?

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• 1) By a positive vote in three-fourths of the
  legislatures of the various states or
• 2) By special conventions called in the states
  for the specific purpose of ratifying the
  proposed amendment and a positive vote in
  three-fourths of them.
• The second method was used only once to repeal
  Prohibition.

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• 20. How many amendments have been considered by
  Congress? Of those, how many were submitted to
  the states for ratification? And of those, how
  many were ratified? Why so few?

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• Congress has considered more that 11,000
  amendments to the Constitution.
• Only 33 have been submitted to the states
• Only 27 have been ratified
• The requirements for ratification are very
  stringent and only those amendments that have
  wide popular support across parties and in all
  regions of the country are likely to be approved.

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• 21. Why was the amendment process made so
  difficult? Were the founding fathers right?

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• The framers feared that a simple amendment
  process could lead to a tyranny of the majority,
  which could pass amendments to oppress disfavored
  individuals and groups.
• Yes, just look at California and Florida

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• 22. What are the time limits on ratification of
  an amendment?

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• A reading of Article V of the Constitution
  reveals that the framers of the Constitution
  specified no time limit on the ratification
  process.
• The Supreme Court held that it had to be
  reasonable
• Since 1919, most have a 7 year limit.

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• 23. How often has the national convention
  provision been used?

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• No national convention has been held since 1787.

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• Excluding the Bill of Rights, how many amendments
  have been added to the Constitution in the past
  200 years?

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• 17

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• 25. Why has the Constitution been so successful
  over the past 200 years? Use Article 1, Section
  8 and Article III, Section 1 as examples in your
  answer.

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• It has been successful because it gives Congress
  broad powers to carry out its duties as the
  nations legislative body.
• Article I, Section 8 gives Congress the power to
  regulate foreign and interstate commerce (without
  a definition of commerce)

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• Article III, Section 1, states that the national
  judiciary shall consist of one supreme court and
  such inferior courts, as Congress may from time
  to time ordain and establish. This gave
  Congress the flexibility needed to adjust the
  courts over time.

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• 26. How has the executive branch expanded its
  powers under the Constitution?

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• Even though the Constitution does not expressly
  authorize the president to propose bills or even
  budgets to Congress, presidents since Wilson
  (1913) have proposed hundreds of bills each year.
• Presidents have used Article II as
  commander-in-chief to send troops into combat
  even though only Congress can declare war.

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• Presidents have also conducted foreign affairs by
  the use of executive agreements without the
  approval of the Senate.

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• 27. What is Judicial Review? Was it a novel
  idea? How did it get established?

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• Judicial review refers to the power of U.S.
  courts to invalidate actions undertaken by the
  legislative and executive branches of govt.
• It was not a novel ideaunder the common law
  tradition inherited from England, courts
  traditionally exercised this authority.

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• It was established by the Supreme Court in 1803
  with its Marbury v. Madison.

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• 28. What did Woodrow Wilson mean when he
  summarized the Supreme Courts work as a
  constitutional convention in continuous session?

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• The Supreme Court has reversed itself over time.
  Basically, the law is what the Supreme court says
  it is at any point in time.

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• 29. How has the White House changed under the
  Constitution?

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• The executive branch provides legislative
  leadership far beyond the intentions of the
  Constitution. Originally, the president had a
  staff consisting of personal secretaries and a
  few others. Today, the executive staff has
  increased to several thousand persons.

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• 30. What are the factions mentioned by James
  Madison called today? Are they mentioned in the
  Constitution?

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• They are interest groups today and they are not
  mentioned in the Constitution.