Vocab
the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution. It guarantees civil rights and liberties to the individual—like freedom of speech, press, and religion.
Bill of Rights
a proposal to the United States Constitutional Convention for the creation of a supreme national government with three branches and a bicameral legislature.
Virginia Plan
a form of government that combines elements of democracy, aristocracy and monarchy, ostensibly making impossible their respective degenerations which are conceived as anarchy, oligarchy and tyranny.
Mixed Government
Specifically granted to the federal government in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. This includes the power to coin money, to regulate commerce, to declare war, to raise and maintain armed forces, and to establish a Post Office.
Expressed/Enumerated Powers
Clause in the Constitution (Article 4, Section 1) requiring each state to recognize the civil judgments rendered by the courts of the other states and to accept their public records and acts as valid.
Full Faith and Credit
the introductory part of a constitution or statute that usually states the reasons for and intent of the law.
Preamble
New Jersey Plan
A proposal for the structure of the United States Government presented by William Paterson at the Constitutional Convention on June 15, 1787.
Democracy
a form of government in which the people have the authority to choose their governing legislators.
Implied/Inherent Powers
The National Government that are suggested by the expressed powers. Inherent Powers. Powers delegated to the National Government because it's the government of a sovereign state within the world community.
Consent of the Governed
Agreement by the people of a nation to subject themselves to the authority to a government.
a distinct often numbered section of a writing in the constitution.
Articles
An agreement that large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that in part defined the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the United States Constitution.
The Connecticut Plan
our government is elected by citizens. Here, citizens vote for their government officials. These officials represent the citizens' ideas and concerns in government.
Representative Democracy
The powers which are neither prohibited or explicitly given by law to any organ of government.
Reserved Powers
Is a principal's approval of an act of its agent that lacked the authority to bind the principal legally.
Ratification
principle of government under which separate branches are empowered to prevent actions by other branches and are induced to share power.
check and balances
Commerce/Slave Trade Compromise
An agreement forbidding Congress from taxing state exports or interfering with the slave trade for at least 20 years.
Limited Government
the concept of a government limited in power. It is a key concept in the history of liberalism.
Concurrent Powers
Powers of a federal system of government shared by both the federal government and each constituent political unit. These powers may be exercised simultaneously within the same territory, in relation to the same body of citizens, and regarding the same subject-matter
Delegated Powers
In U.S. constitutional law, the transfer of a specific authority by one of the three branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial) to another branch or to an independent agency.
the division of a state's government into branches, each with separate, independent powers and responsibilities, so that the powers of one branch are not in conflict with those of the other branches.
separation of powers
Treaty
Any legally binding agreement between nations. In the United States, the word treaty is reserved for an agreement that is made "by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate" (Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution).
governments are created and sustained by the consent of its people, through their elected representatives, who are the source of all political power.
Popular Sovereignty
The national and/or state governments by the Constitution (Article I, Section 9-10) -Examples: No tax can be levied on a state's exports and states cannot enter into treaties with foreign governments.
Denied/Prohibited Powers
Freedom limited by the need for order in society. Note: The concept of ordered liberty was the initial standard for determining what provisions of the Bill of Rights were to be upheld by the states through the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Ordered Liberty