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AMENDING THE CONSTITUTION AMENDING THE CONSTITUTION

AMENDING THE CONSTITUTION - PowerPoint Presentation

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AMENDING THE CONSTITUTION - PPT Presentation

Ch 3 Sec 3 The US Constitution is the longest lasting national constitution in the world How why do you think that is Why does the Constitution have an Amendment Process Founding Fathers wanted it to endure ID: 207814

amendment constitution process congress constitution amendment congress process presidents laws formal executive court law federal judicial informal practices passed state presidential president

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Slide1

AMENDING THE CONSTITUTION

Ch. 3 Sec. 3Slide2

The US Constitution is the longest lasting national constitution in the world!

How / why do you think that is?Slide3

Why does the Constitution have an Amendment Process?

Founding Fathers wanted it to endureAdaptability / flexibility

How different is America today than it was in 1787?

Yet the same Constitution, with a few minor changes, continues to govern us.

There are 27 Amendments

10 of which were passed right away (Bill of Rights)

27

th

Amendment was passed in 1992 Slide4

THE FORMAL AMENDMENT PROCESSSlide5

The Formal Amendment Process

Two-step ProcessAn Amendment is

proposed

at the

federal

level

An Amendment is

ratified

at the

state

level

Note that the amendment process is an example of

federalism

Congress sets some rules related to the Amendment Process

One of these is a

time limit

for proposed amendments to be ratified. Currently this is

7

years.Slide6

THE “INFORMAL” AMENDMENT PROCESS

Your textbook refers to this as the “indirect

” amendment process

The Constitution was purposefully

vague

. The Founding Fathers wanted later Congresses, courts, and Presidents to apply their own interpretation to the Constitution.

The Four Informal Methods of Amending the Constitution

Changes through

laws

,

practices

,

court decisions

, and

customs / traditions

Slide7

CONGRESS

The “Necessary and Proper Clause”, also called the Elastic Clause (Article I Section 8) gave Congress the ability to change the Constitution through

law-making

So…every time Congress passes a law, they’ve changed the Constitution?

YES!

Congress passes laws to clarify the powers granted them in the Constitution (ex: tax laws) Slide8

CONGRESS Cont.

Congress has made informal changes to the Constitution through its practicesIn other words, finding a

method

to implement a Constitutional provision

Ex: Congress can impeach an elected official for… “high crimes and misdemeanors”—what are those?Slide9

PRESIDENTIAL CHANGES

The Executive Branch has arguably seen the most significant “informal amendments”.Presidential power has greatly increased since the days of George Washington.

Once a president takes an action to expand his power, if it goes unchecked, future presidents will assume they have that power as well.Slide10

PRESIDENTIAL CHANGES THROUGH PRACTICES

Presidents have often used Executive Agreements

with other Heads of State to conduct foreign affairs, rather than the formal

treaty

process.

Technicality: Executive Agreements are made between Heads of State, not their nations.

In law making, Presidents can be very aggressive in

initiating

laws with Congress (ex: “

Obamacare

”)

In order to “execute” the laws passed by Congress, numerous agencies have been created as part of the

federal bureaucracy

(can you name some?)

All of these agencies are part of the

Executive Branch Slide11

CUSTOM & TRADITION

Historically, Presidents have followed the customs and traditions of their predecessors.Ex:

George Washington

decided to only serve 2 terms as president. Every president after him followed the 2-term tradition until

FDR

(who was elected 4 times). Later, the 10-year term limit for presidents became a formal amendment (22

nd

).Slide12

COURT DECISIONS

The Supreme Court and other federal courts interpret the Constitution, so every ruling they make changes the Constitution in some way

Judicial review

established in the

Marbury

v. Madison

case, where the Supreme Court declared an act of Congress unconstitutional.Slide13

2 APPROACHES JUDGES TAKE IN INTERPRETING THE CONSTITUTION

Judicial restraint (“strict construction”) means a judge should follow the

wording

of the Constitution as closely as possible

Not weigh in on social / political issues with their rulings

Judicial activism

(“loose construction”) means judges should actively adapt the meaning of the Constitution to deal with modern social and political issues.