meeting of state delegates in 1787 leading to adoption of new Constitution
What is the Constitutional Convention?
100
following established legal procedures
What is due process?
100
a legislature consisting of two parts, or houses
What is bicameral?
100
refusal to sign a bill or resolution
What is veto?
200
a government in which citizens hold the power to rule
What is democracy?
200
a form of government in which power is divided between the federal, or national, government and the states
What is federalism?
200
the right to vote
What is suffrage?
200
clause in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution that gives Congress the right to make all laws “necessary and proper” to carry out its expressed powers
What is the elastic clause?
200
president’s power to kill a bill, if Congress is not in session, by not signing it for 10 days
What is pocket veto?
300
a government in which one leader or group of people holds absolute power
What is authoritarian?
300
agreement providing that enslaved persons would count as three-fifths of other persons in determining representation in Congress
What is the three-fifths compromise?
300
the rights of full citizenship and equality under the law
What are civil rights?
300
complex systems with many departments, many rules, and many people in the chain of command
What is bureaucracy?
300
the collective agencies and employees of the executive branch
What is federal bureaucracy?
400
a representative democracy where citizens choose their lawmakers
What is republic?
400
a group of people named by each state legislature to select the president and vice president
What is electoral college?
400
putting someone on trial for a crime of which he or she was previously acquitted
What is double jeopardy?
400
an oddly shaped district designed to increase the voting strength of a particular group
What is gerrymander?
400
a group of advisers to the president that includes the heads of 14 top-level executive departments
What is cabinet?
500
the notion that power lies with the people
What is popular sovereignty?
500
powers that Congress has that are specifically listed in the Constitution
What are expressed powers?
500
programs intended to make up for past discrimination by helping minority groups and women gain access to jobs and opportunities
What is affirmative action?
500
a court order that requires police to bring a prisoner to court to explain why they are holding the person