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
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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.