Constitution
Important Figures
Foundational Documents
Key Events
Vocabulary
100

What did the supremacy clause establish?

Federal law/U.S. Constitution take precedence over state laws/state constitutions.

100

Thomas Jefferson mainly incorporated the ideas of which Enlightenment thinker in the Declaration of Independence?

John Locke

100

What document failed to create an effective government and needed to be replaced by the Constitution?

Articles of Confederation

100

What was the date that the 13 colonies declared independence from Great Britain?

July 4th, 1776

100

System of government where power is divided between a national government and the states.

Federalism

200

What are the 3 branches that were established in the Constitution?

Legislative, Executive, Judiciary
200

What three rights did John Locke say were inalienable under natural law?

Life, liberty, and property

200

What was a foundational document argued that the Constitution wouldn't work because the US is too big?

Brutis I

200

Which court case stated the Commerce Clause was stretched too far to justify gun restriction at schools?

U.S. v. Lopez

200

What is a group of self-interested people who use the government to get what they want, trampling the rights of others in the process? (Federalist 10 discusses these groups)

Faction

300

Which article of the Constitution was the longest and what does it discuss?

Article I, the legislative branch

300

Which philosopher believed government should be based on the Will of the People?

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

300

Federalist 51 described the importance of what?

Separation of powers.

300

What event was the catalyst for writing the Constitution?

Shays' Rebellion

300

Define popular sovereignty. 

The idea that the government's right to rule comes from the people.

400
Article V of the Constitution explains the process to do what?

Add amendments to the Constitution.

400

What political concept used in U.S. government today did Baron de Montesquieu create?

Separation of powers

400

Which foundational document warned of Factions but said the US was so big, they would cancel each other out?

Federalist 10

400

What was the court case involving the necessary and proper clause, stating that it could be used to stretch the enumerated powers (specifically the Commerce Clause)?

McCulloch v. Maryland

400

What is the difference between participatory democracy and elite democracy?

Participatory democracy involved widespread political participation while elite democracy involves elected representatives making decisions and acting as trustees for those who elected them.

500

What is Article IV (4) about?

Addresses relations among the states.

500

Who wrote a pamphlet (Common Sense) that attacked the monarchy and advocated for a system where power rests with the people, not kings?

Thomas Paine

500

Which document is this from:

"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government..."

Declaration of Independence

500

Which war led to the Stamp Act?

French Indian War

500

What was the Great Compromise

Created bicameral legislature.  House based on population and Senate based on equal representation.  

M
e
n
u