CONSTITUTION

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POL 3162Introduction to American Politics

• CONSTITUTION
• SHANG E. HA
• SOGANG UNIVERSITY

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Overview

• APT, Chapter 2
• What were the sources of conflict at the
  Constitutional Convention?
• How was compromise achieved at the Constitutional
  Convention?
• How was the Constitution ratified?
• How is the Constitution a framework for
  government?
• Is the Constitution a living document?

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The Founding Document
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Political Ideals of the Founders

• The founders wanted to create a constitution that
  was general enough to stand the test of time.
• Their approach succeeded, and the U.S.
  Constitution is the oldest written constitution
  still in use today.
• However, by leaving some passages open to
  interpretation, they also set the stage for
  con?ict over the meaning of the Constitution.

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History of the US Constitution
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History of the US Constitution (cont)
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Political Theories of the Framers

• Republicanism rejection of monarchy in favor of
  a form of government based on self-rule
• The Federalist Papers explain and justify the
  framework of government created by the
  Constitution

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Federalist Paper 51(by James Madison)

• In framing a government which is to be
  administered by men over men, the great
  difficulty lies in this you must first enable
  the government to control the governed and in
  the next place oblige it to control itself
• The clear articulation of the need for republican
  government and a system of separated powers

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Federalist Paper 10(by James Madison)

• A number of citizens, whether amounting to a
  majority or a minority of the whole, who are
  united and actuated by some common . . .
  interest, adverse to the rights of other
  citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate
  interests of the community.
• Factions are groups of like-minded people who try
  to influence the government
• Need to control factions by making sure that
  there were many of them and no one would grow too
  powerful.

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The Politics of Compromise at the Constitutional
Convention

• Majority rule vs. minority rights
• Large states vs. small states
• Legislative vs. executive power
• National vs. state/local power
• Slave states vs. non-slave states

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Conflicts in the Constitutional Convention

• Federalists those who favored a strong national
  government and a system of separated powers
• Anti-federalists those who favored strong state
  governments and feared that a strong national
  government would be a threat to individual rights

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Majority Rule vs. Minority Rights

• A central problem of the democracy is protecting
  minority rights within a system ruled by the
  majority
• Based on the republican principle, minority
  tyranny would be controlled by simply voting out
  the minority faction
• Majority tyranny is a real problem
• To control majority tyranny, factions must be set
  against one another to counter each others
  ambitions and prevent the tyranny of any single
  majority faction (e.g., separation of powers)

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Small States vs. Large States

• Virginia Plan A plan proposed by the larger
  states in which representation in the national
  legislature was based on population
• New Jersey Plan In response to the Virginia
  Plan, smaller states proposed that each state
  should receive equal representation in the
  national legislature, regardless of size
• Great Compromise A compromise between the large
  and small states, proposed by Connecticut, in
  which Congress would have two houses (Senate and
  House of Representatives)

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Connecticuts Pivotal Place
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Legislative vs. Executive Power

• How much power should the President have relative
  to the legislative branch? (One executive or
  three? AND How to elect the president?)
• As for electing the presidents, the compromise
  that was reached gave us the electoral college
  where each states vote is based on its number of
  representatives and Senators.
• (in contrast to the presidential system) A
  parliamentary system is a system of government in
  which the legislative and executive power are
  closely joined. The legislature (parliament)
  selects the chief executive (prime minister) who
  forms the cabinet from members of the parliament.

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Federal vs. State Power

• Federalism - the American system of divided power
  between autonomous levels of government that
  control different areas of policy
• The National Supremacy Clause of the Constitution
  is part of Article VI, Section 2, that states the
  Constitution is the supreme Law of the Land,
  which means national laws take precedent over
  state laws if the two are in conflict
• The 10th Amendment states that all powers not
  delegated by the Constitution are reserved to the
  States and to the People. (Generally, in a
  compromise with the Anti-federalists, the first
  10 amendments of the Constitution outline a Bill
  of Rights that protect individual rights and
  liberties) ? Civil Liberties

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Slave vs. Non-slave States

• The Three-Fifth Compromise, where the
  Constitutional Convention decided to count slaves
  as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of
  determining the number of House districts per
  state based on population
• An example of a logroll or vote-trade was when
  Northern states agreed that they would return
  runaway slaves and Southern states agreed to
  allow Congress to tax and regulate commerce and
  imports on a simple majority.
• Finally, there was a compromise on how long
  importation of slaves would be allowed, and the
  convention settled on letting the slave trade
  continue to 1808 after negotiation.

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Major Compromises at the Constitutional Convention
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Exclusive Powers Congress

• Raise revenue for the federal government via
  taxing and borrowing
• Regulate interstate and foreign commerce
• Coin money
• Declare war
• Necessary and proper clause (a.k.a., elastic
  clause Part of Article I, Section 8 of the
  Constitution)
• Gives Congress the power to make all Laws which
  shall be necessary and proper for carrying into
  Execution the foregoing Powers

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Exclusive Power The President

• Commander-in-chief of the armed forces
• Receive ambassadors and foreign ministers
• Issue pardons
• Article II The executive power shall be vested
  in a President of the United States of America

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Exclusive Power The Courts

• The Judicial Branch (Article III), which has only
  six paragraphs devoted to it in the Constitution
• Federalist Paper 78
• The Supreme Court would be the least dangerous
  branch because it had neither the power of the
  purse nor the sword
• Lifetime tenure for justices in good behavior and
  relative independence from the other two branches
• In fact, the Constitution does not explicitly
  mention judicial review, the key power currently
  used by the Supreme Court

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The Question of Relevance Turning a Blind Eye

• Which parts of the Constitution are relevant and
  which are irrelevant?
• Some are clearly irrelevant, such as the 3rd
  Amendment which forbids quartering troops in
  citizens homes
• But sometimes this is extremely controversial
• For a long time there was a heated debate about
  whether the Second Amendment guaranteed the
  right to keep and bear arms to individuals (as
  conservatives argued) or to the militia which
  (as many liberal law professors argued) was
  superseded by the creation of the National Guard
• Recently, this conflict has been decided by the
  Supreme Court which ruled in Heller vs. District
  of Columbia and MacDonald v. City of Chicago that
  the Second Amendment does protect an individuals
  right to keep and bear arms

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The Question of Relevance Ambiguity

• The 8th Amendments ban on cruel and unusual
  punishment is generally viewed as excluding
  capital punishment, but the execution of
  juveniles and the mentally retarded has been
  found unconstitutional
• However in 1972, in Furman v. Georgia, the
  Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was
  unconstitutional
• Then, in 1976, in Gregg v. Georgia the court
  ruled that the death penalty could be used
  constitutionally

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The Question of Relevance Multiple Interpreters

• Although the Supreme Court has the goal of
  interpreting the Constitution (by adjudicating
  actual cases or controversies, not hypothetical
  ones), in reality, interpreting the constitution
  falls on every branch of government and the
  citizenry
• E.g., Obamas health care reform
• Only when a challenge is brought to the Supreme
  Court does that institution have a final
  judicial review.

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Amending the Constitution
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Amendments Introduced in Congress That Did Not
Pass
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Checks and Balances
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Checks and Balances in the War on Terror