Constitutional Principles
This 1787 agreement created a bicameral Congress with representation based on population in one chamber and equal representation for each state in the other.
What is the Great Compromise (Connecticut Compromise)?
This chamber of Congress has 435 voting members and initiates all bills for raising revenue.
What is the House of Representatives?
This constitutional role makes the president the civilian leader of the United States military.
What is commander in chief?
This is the highest court in the federal judiciary.
What is the Supreme Court of the United States?
This process allows eligible citizens to choose public officials and decide certain public questions.
What is voting?
This principle divides governmental authority among legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
What is separation of powers?
A senator must be at least this age to serve in the U.S. Senate.
What is 30 years old?
This presidential directive manages operations of the executive branch and generally does not require congressional approval.
What is an executive order?
This Supreme Court power allows the Court to declare laws or executive actions unconstitutional.
What is judicial review?
In most states, voters must register with this political party to participate in its closed primary election.
What is the party whose primary they wish to vote in?
Under this principle, each branch may limit the powers of the other branches, such as when the president vetoes a bill or a court invalidates a law.
What are checks and balances?
This congressional power permits Congress to formally accuse federal officials, including a president, of misconduct.
What is impeachment?
This body, composed of the heads of executive departments and other senior advisers, counsels the president.
What is the Cabinet?
This amendment protects freedom of speech, religion, press, peaceful assembly, and petition.
What is the First Amendment?
These organized groups seek to influence public policy on behalf of shared interests, often through lobbying.
What are interest groups?
This clause of Article VI establishes that the U.S. Constitution, federal laws, and treaties take precedence over conflicting state laws.
What is the Supremacy Clause?
This Senate procedure can delay or block action on a bill unless 60 senators vote for cloture.
What is a filibuster?
This independent executive agency investigates federal crimes and operates within the Department of Justice.
What is the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)?
In Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), the Supreme Court held that states must provide this to indigent defendants charged with serious crimes.
What is an attorney (legal counsel)?
This winner-take-all method awards a state's electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in that state, with limited exceptions.
What is the general-ticket system?
This Federalist Paper, written primarily by James Madison, explains how a large republic can control the effects of factions.
What is Federalist No. 10?
After both chambers pass different versions of a bill, this temporary committee reconciles the differences before another vote.
What is a conference committee?
The Senate's power to approve many presidential appointments and treaties is commonly described by this two-word phrase.
What is advice and consent?
This Fourteenth Amendment guarantee requires states to apply laws fairly and not deny persons equal protection under the law.
What is the Equal Protection Clause?
This 2010 Supreme Court decision held that the government may not restrict independent political expenditures by corporations and labor unions.
What is Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission*?