ARTICLES OF THE

CONSTITUTION1789 – Present

James

Madison

James Madison

is hailed as the

“Father of the

Constitution” for

being

instrumental in

the drafting of

the United States

Constitution and

as the key

architect of the

Bill of Rights.

Article I, Section 1• “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress

of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House

of Representatives.”

• Article I, Section 1 established the principle of bicameralism – the

presence of two separate, but equally powerful legislative bodies

as a further safeguard against government tyranny.

• By specifying “powers herein granted,” the Founding Fathers

ensured that Congress theoretically could not do whatever it

wanted to do.

Article I, Section 2• Section 2 of Article I establishes a House of Representatives as

the lower House of the Congress.

• As constituted, the House is as powerful as the Senate, and in one

respect is even more powerful:

• the House has the sole power to originate revenue bills.

• The membership of the House is apportioned according to each

state’s population, which is based on the census.

• One representative for every 30,000 people.

• Although the ratio has grown with the population, since 1911 it has been

fixed by statute at 435.

Article I, Section 2• Section 2 also lays out the two-year term rule and qualifications

for each House member:

• Twenty-five years of age

• U.S. citizen of seven years

• Finally, it authorizes the House to choose its top officials,

including the Speaker of the House.

Speaker

John

Boehner (R)

As Speaker of

the House, John

Boehner is

second in line to

the presidency of

the United States

following the

Vice-President in

accordance with

the Presidential

Succession Act.

Rep. Mo

Brooks (R)

Mo Brooks

serves

Alabama’s Fifth

District and

serves on three

Congressional

committees:

House Armed

Services,

Science, Space,

and Technology,

and Foreign

Affairs.

Article I, Section 3• Section 3 of Article I establishes a Senate as the upper House of

the Congress.

• Individual senators may be considered more powerful than their

counterparts in the House because of the longer term lengths

and there are far fewer members in the body.

• However, there is no constitutional basis for the claim that the Senate is a

superior chamber.

• The vice-president theoretically presides over the Senate as its

president and the president pro-tempore serves in the vice-

president’s absence.

Article I, Section 3• The membership in the Senate is apportioned equally among the

states.

• The provisions of Clause 1 and 2 that state legislators choose senators would

be overturned in 1913 with the Seventeenth Amendment.

• Section 3 also lays out the six-year term rule and qualifications for

each senator:

• Thirty years of age

• U.S. citizen of nine years

Senator Jeff

Sessions (R)

Jeff Sessions is the

former Attorney

General of Alabama

and is currently as

the ranking minority

member on the

Senate Budget

Committee. He was

nominated to the

U.S. District Court

for the Southern

District of Alabama

in 1986 by Ronald

Reagan but his

confirmation failed.

Senator

Richard

Shelby, (R)

Richard Shelby

is the senior U.S.

Senator from

Alabama having

switched political

affiliation in 1994

during Bill

Clinton’s first

term. He serves

as the ranking

member of the

Committee on

Appropriations.

Article I, Section 8• Article I, Section 8 is the most heavily cited clause in the original

Constitution, as it lays out all the enumerated powers of Congress.

• “The Congress shall have the power to…”

• Lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises.

• Borrow and coin money.

• Regulate commerce with foreign nations, among the several States, and with

the Indian Tribes.

• Declare war - raise and support Armies/provide and maintain a Navy.

• Establish post offices and post roads.

• The eighteenth clause is known as the Necessary and Proper

clause giving Congress the authority to make all laws that are

necessary and proper for carrying out their foregoing powers.

Article II, Section 1• “The executive power shall be vested in a president of the United

States of America…”

• Article II, Section 1 lays out the manner by which the president

and vice-president are selected, the qualifications for those two

offices, and the means for removal and succession.

• Natural born citizen

• Thirty-five years of age

• U.S. resident of fourteen years

• The executive will serve for a term of four years.

• George Washington established the precedent of serving no more than two,

four year terms totaling eight years.

• Following Franklin Roosevelt’s unprecedented election to four consecutive

terms, Congress passed the Twenty-second Amendment.

President

Barack

Obama (D)

Barack Obama is the 44th and current President of the United States, and the first African-American to hold the office. He is a graduate of both Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review.

Vice-

President Joe

Biden (D)

Joe Biden is the

47th and current

Vice-President of

the United States,

jointly elected with

Barack Obama. As

a Senator, he

chaired the

Judiciary

Committee during

the contentious

Supreme Court

nominations of

Robert Bork and

Clarence Thomas.

Article II, Section 1• Before he can discharge the duties of his office, the president

must take the following oath or affirmation stated in Clause 8:

• “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of

President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve,

protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

• While the Constitution does not mandate the particular individual

that is to administer the oath, the oath is typically administer by

the Chief Justice.

• By convention, the president-elect raises their right hand and places their left

on a Bible.

Article II, Section 2• “The President shall be commander-in-chief of the Army and

Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several

states…”

• Article II, Section 2 is striking for how few express powers are

granted to the president as compared to the long list of powers

granted to Congress in Article I.

• Grant pardons and reprieves.

• Make treaties.

• Nominate/appoint Ambassadors, public Ministers, Judges to the Supreme Court.

• In the twentieth century, the powers granted to the president

expanded to create a far more powerful presidency than the

founders envisioned.

Article II, Section 3• Section 3 outlines the numerous responsibilities of the president.

• He is obligated to give a report on the “state of the union” to

Congress.

• Today this occurs in the form of a yearly address.

• Additionally, this allows the president to outline their legislative agenda for

which they need the cooperation of Congress.

• The president also has the duty to “take care that laws be faithfully

executed.”

Article II, Section 4• Article II, Section 4 lays out the process of impeachment and

conviction of civil officers, but the phrase “high crimes and

misdemeanors” is vague and subject to interpretation.

• Impeachment shall be based on the conviction of:

• Treason

• Bribery

• High crimes and misdemeanors

• Only two chief executives have ever been formally impeached

under this section and, in both cases, the Senate failed to provide

the required two-thirds vote necessary for conviction.

• Andrew Johnson in 1868.

• Bill Clinton in 1998.

Article III, Section 1

• “The judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one

Supreme Court, and in such interior courts as Congress may from

time to time ordain and establish.”

• Article III establishes a U.S. Supreme Court, spells out the terms

of office of its members, and lists the various cases to which its

judicial power extends.

• Just as important, it provides the basis for a more elaborate

judicial system featuring numerous levels of courts.

• Note that only one court is specifically mentioned, and there are no

provisions that specify the size or composition of the court.

Article III, Section 2

• The justices of the Supreme Court are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.• Justices serve for indefinite terms on good behavior, which provides the

equivalent of life tenure to federal judges on those three levels of courts.

• Article III, Section 2 establishes judicial jurisdiction pertaining to all cases involving:• the Constitution

• laws of the United States

• Treaties made between• Ambassadors and public ministers

• maritime jurisdiction

• two or more states

• a state and a citizen of another state

• a state and a foreign nation

Article III, Section 3

• Article III, Section 3 defines treason and sets the perimeters of

how it shall be tried in court.

• Treason is defined as levying war against the United States or

giving aid and comfort to our enemies.

• Individuals can only be convicted of treason on the testimony of two eye

witnesses to the same overt act or on confession in an open court.

• Congress is given the power to declare the punishment of treason, which is

almost always death.

The Judiciary Act

• The Judiciary Act of 1789 was a landmark statute adopted by the first Congress, which established the federal judiciary.

• First, the act set the number of Supreme Court justices at six.• One Chief justice and five Associate justice.

• Second, it created thirteen judicial districts within the eleven States that ratified the Constitution.• Virginia and Massachusetts were allotted two districts because of their vast

territory size.

• Third, it established a circuit court and district court in each judicial district.

• Fourth, it created the Office of Attorney General, whose primary responsibility was to represent the United States before the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice

John

Roberts

John Roberts is

the 17th and

current Chief

Justice of the

Supreme Court.

He was nominated

in 2005 by

President George

W. Bush after the

death of Chief

Justice William

Rehnquist.

Attorney

General Eric

Holder

Eric Holder is the 82nd Attorney General of the United States and the first African-American to hold the position. He served as the senior legal advisor to Barack Obama during his presidential campaign and was on the vice-presidential selection committee.

Article IV, Section 1

• Article IV describes the responsibilities states have to each other

under the Constitution and the obligations of the federal

government to the states.

• In recent years, the most controversial aspect of Article IV has

been the full faith and credit clause of Section 1.

• This clause binds states to respect the public acts and proceedings of other

states, including the granting of drivers’ licenses, child custody ruling, etc.

Article IV, Section 2

• Section 2 of Article IV requires that states not discriminate

against citizens of other states in favor of its own citizens.

• This section also establishes the principle of extradition, which

declares that criminals who flee from the justice of a state will be

returned to the state where he/she committed the crime.

• Crimes associated with extradition include treason, felony, or other crimes.

• It is only upon the demand of the state’s executive authority (governor) that

extradition can occur.

Article IV, Section 3

• Article IV also provides the procedures for admitting new states

to the Union.

• No state has been admitted since Alaska and Hawaii’s entry in the 1950s.

• No new state can be formed within the jurisdiction of another

state nor can any state be formed by the joining of two or more

states or parts of states.

• The only possible method to form a state in this manner is with the

permission of the state’s legislature and Congress.

• Additionally, Congress is granted the power to dispose of or

create any rule or regulation regarding:

• a state, territory, or property of the United States.

Article IV, Section 4

• Section 4 lays out the three requirements that the United States

government will guarantee to every state in the Union:

• a republican form of government

• A republic is a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens

entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by

them.

• protection from invasion

• protection from domestic violence

Article V

• Article V spells out the process for amending the Constitution.

• By far the most common form of constitutional amendment has

been by congressional proposal, with state legislatures ratifying the

proposal.

• Twenty-six of the Twenty-seven amendments have been adopted in this way.

• The necessary numbers include:

• Two-thirds of the state legislatures can call a convention to propose an

amendment.

• Two-thirds of both Houses can propose an amendment.

• The proposed amendment will become valid once it is ratified by three-

fourths of the state legislatures or state conventions.

• No amendment can deprive a state of its equal suffrage in the Senate.

Article V

• Article V does not provide a deadline for considering proposed

amendments, although Congress has the power to set such

deadlines in the language of the proposed amendment.

• Congress did not do this in the case of the Twenty-Seventh

Amendment.

• The amendment received the approval of the required three-fourths of

states necessary for ratification in 1992, a full 203 years after the amendment

was first proposed (1789).

Article VI

• Article VI establishes that the Constitution, laws, and treaties are

to be the supreme law of the land.

• This is cited as the Supremacy clause.

• The Supreme Court has consistently struck down any attempt by

the states to control federal institutions.

• It has even reminded state governments that even state constitutions are

subordinate to federal statutes.

• Article VI also declares that any and all debts that the United

States has entered into prior to the adoption of the Constitution

will still be valid.

Article VI

• Lastly, Article VI mentioned that all Representatives and Senators,

members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and

judicial officers will be bound by an oath or affirmation.

• This oath is similar to the oath taken by the president, which requires full

support and dedication to the Constitution.

• Furthermore, no religious test will be given as a qualification to

any public office or trust.

Article VII

• Article VII declares that the ratification of nine states will be

sufficient in establishing the legality of the Constitution between

the states and the national government.

• Thereafter, the text reads that the Constitution was submitted by

the unanimous consent of the states’ delegates on September 17,

1787.

Preamble

• We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more

perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility,

provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare,

and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,

do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of

America.