Split Decisions
This constitutional division places authority in both national and state governments.
What is federalism?
Legislative, executive, and judicial functions assigned to different branches illustrate this principle.
What is separation of powers?
This shared pen name appeared on essays written by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay.
Who is Publius?
This Virginian drafted the Declaration of Rights and became a prominent critic of a Constitution without explicit rights protections.
Who is George Mason?
These are the regular terms of office for a House member and a senator, respectively.
What are two years and six years?
This ancient city is associated with direct participation by eligible citizens rather than universal modern suffrage.
What is Athens?
Congress uses an appropriate means not listed word for word to carry out an enumerated responsibility. This type of power is supported by the necessary and proper clause.
What is an implied power?
When the Senate rejects a presidential nominee, it exercises this principle of one institution restraining another.
What are checks and balances?
In Federalist 10, this kind of republic multiplies interests and makes an oppressive majority harder to organize.
What is an extended representative republic?
This article established the original Constitution among ratifying states after approval by conventions in nine states.
What is Article VII?
These congressional seats face regular election in a midterm year, while the presidency does not.
What are all 435 House seats and approximately one-third of Senate seats?
This English document represents the principle that the ruler is subject to law.
What is the Magna Carta?
This 1819 Supreme Court decision upheld Congress’s implied power to create a national bank and rejected Maryland’s tax on that bank.
What is McCulloch v. Maryland?
After a presidential veto, this congressional action can enact the bill if two-thirds of each house agree.
What is a veto override?
This Federalist essay argues that officials’ ambition must be checked through institutions with means and incentives to resist encroachment.
What is Federalist 51?
This Virginia orator opposed ratification and warned that the proposed national government endangered liberty.
Who is Patrick Henry?
With all 435 voting House seats filled, this minimum number gives a party an outright majority.
What is 218?
One of these thinkers emphasizes a powerful sovereign to restrain insecurity; the other emphasizes consent and protection of natural rights.
Who are Thomas Hobbes and John Locke?
Under this constitutional clause, the Constitution and valid federal laws take precedence over conflicting state laws.
What is the supremacy clause?
The president nominates a federal judge, but this chamber must approve the nomination before the appointment can proceed.
What is the Senate?
In Federalist 84, Hamilton argued that this proposed addition was unnecessary and potentially dangerous because listing exceptions might imply powers never granted.
What is a bill of rights?
This protection in Virginia’s Declaration of Rights enables publication to expose abuses, and its absence from an explicit national declaration concerned ratification critics.
What is freedom of the press?
This arrangement exists when the presidency and at least one chamber of Congress are controlled by different political parties.
What is divided government?
This weakness-and-remedy pair links the Articles’ revenue problem to an Article I power.
What are dependence on state contributions and congressional taxing authority?
McCulloch v. Maryland upheld the national bank even though creating a bank is not expressly listed in the Constitution. This clause supported Congress’s authority to create it.
What is the necessary and proper clause?
After the House impeaches a president, this Senate action requires a two-thirds vote of members present and results in removal from office.
What is conviction?
This Anti-Federalist essay argued that essential natural rights should be expressly reserved in the proposed national Constitution.
What is Brutus II?
These two approval thresholds describe Article V’s congressional proposal route and state ratification requirement.
What are two-thirds of both houses to propose and three-fourths of states to ratify?
The House faces a complete election every two years, but this arrangement allows about two-thirds of senators to remain between regular election cycles.
What are staggered six-year Senate terms?
Cato IV warned that an ambitious executive could use government jobs and appointments to reward supporters. This practice is known by this term.
What is patronage?