ratified in 1788
let's make a law
Federalist 70
war powers
checks and budget
100

This article describes the power of the judicial branch.

What is III?

100

It's not in the Constitution, and presidents Obama and Trump don't like it, but this traditional rule requires that 60 votes in the Senate are needed to advance a bill.

What is a filibuster?

100

Throughout Federalist 70, Hamilton is referencing executive powers in this article of the Constitution. 

What is Article II?

100

According to Article II, Section 2, the President of the United States has this military power. 

What is Commander-in-Chief?

100

This part of government has "the power of the purse" and controls the budget. 

What is Congress?

200

This element of the Constitution ratified in 1791 clarified that states can make individual choices regarding laws, and thus allowed for a lot of pluralism - the idea that different groups have different ideas - as articulated in Federalist 10.

What is the 10th Amendment?

200

This is the formal, and appropriate, title for the person in charge of overseeing 435 lawmakers. 

What is the Speaker of the House?

200

Hamilton is likely referring to this Constitutional clause when he writes that a decisive executive "is essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks."

What is commander-in-chief?

200

In 1941, President Roosevelt asked that this political institution "declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December seventh, nineteen forty one, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire."


What is Congress?

200

Presidential power was checked by the judicial branch in this 1952 instance, when President Truman tried to take over these to support the effort in the Korean War.

What are steel mills?

300

In part because the Framers of the Constitution and Hamilton, in Federalist 70, intended the executive branch to be led one person, the President has this informal power to siginficantly sway public opinion.  

What is the bully pulpit?

300

These two landmark laws - one in 1964, and one in 1972, address discrimination, and the environment, respectively. 

What are the Civil Rights Act and the Clean Water (or Air) Act?

300

In Federalist 70 Hamilton mentions checks on the presidency. He is likely thinking of this four word phrase, highlighted in the Declaration of Independece by Thomas Jefferson, when he writes that the "ingredient which constitutes safety in the republican sense is, first, a due dependence on the people."  

What is consent of the governed?

300

In 2020, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy told The Hill that this action by President Trump was completed "without any congressional authorization" and could "set off a potential massive regional war.”

What is the assasination of Iranian General Soleimani?

300

If President Obama was able to do this in the last eight months of his term, the Supreme Court may not have ruled 4-4 that his executive order to grant citizenship to 5 million undocumented immigrants was unconstitutional.

What is appoint a new Supreme Court Justice? 

400

Presidents FDR and George W. Bush received near unanimous approval to conduct war against Japan and Afghanistan, respectively, thanks to the "declare war" clause in this article and section of the Constitution.  

What is Article I, Section 8?

400

The Infrastructure Bill of 2021 passed the House and the Senate 69–30. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 passed the Senate by simple majority 51 - 50 because of this Senate rule. 



What is budget reconciliation, or a law about the budget?

400

Hamilton admits that some may think "a vigorous Executive is inconsistent with the genius of republican government," because they are concerned about this. 


What is dictatorship, or tyranny?

400

This 1973 law was passed to insure "that the collective judgment of both the Congress and the President will apply to the introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities," according to the Nixon Presidential Center. 


What is the War Powers Resolution, or Act?

400

This word is used to describe the majority (61%) of the annual government budget that includes such necessary and expected payouts as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.  

What is mandatory?

500

Much of the power of the Office of the Presidency is based on this clause included in the first sentence of Article II, Section 1. 

What is the vesting clause?

"The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States."

500

In the complex lawmaking process, these two terms refer to an ammendment to a law that provides benefits such as jobs to a specific district or state, and the act of compromise through trading votes.   

What are "earmarks" and "logrolling"?

500

In Federalist 70, Hamilton wrote that these four words (including prepositions) are "essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks; it is not less essential to the steady administration of the law, to the protection of property against those irregular and high-handed combinations which sometimes interrupt the ordinary course of justice."

What is "energy in the executive"?

500

One of the most successful U.S. generals in American history, this president warned of the growing military bureaucracy following World War II and the Korean War. In his farewell address, he said, "we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex."

Who is Eisenhower?

500
These two words are core to the American governmental system. One, with Greek origins, means the power of the people to make or sway decisions through voting. The other, with Roman origins, means we have system in which leaders represent constituents. 

What is democracy and republic?

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