Founding Ideas
This constitutional principle means government officials may exercise only the authority granted to them by law, even when they believe a different action would be more effective.
What is limited government?
Congress relies on this clause to create a national bank as an implied means of carrying out its expressed taxing powers.
What is the Necessary and Proper Clause?
This presidential action rejects a bill, but Congress can override it with two-thirds votes in both chambers.
What is a veto?
These TWO landmark cases strengthened federal authority in different ways: one established judicial review; the other upheld implied powers and federal supremacy.
What are Marbury v. Madison and McCulloch v. Maryland?
Under America's first national government, the lack of this federal authority made it difficult to pay war debts and fund national operations.
What is the power to tax?
Thomas Paine's Common Sense Pamphlet presented which two primary arguments?
What are independence and a democratic-Republic government.
Found in Article VI, this clause makes valid federal law overrides conflicting state law.
What is the Supremacy Clause?
The president nominates a controversial individual to lead a federal department. Although the president has the authority to make the nomination, this chamber of Congress can prevent the nominee from taking office by withholding its approval.
What is the senate?
In this landmark case, the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
What is Brown v. Board of Education?
A person born outside the United States to parents who are not U.S. citizens generally must complete this legal process to become a U.S. citizen after meeting eligibility requirements.
What is naturalization?
This principle means the government gets its authority from the people.
What is popular sovereignty?
This Article I power allows Congress to regulate goods moving between states.
What is the Commerce Clause?
These TWO Senate terms describe extended debate used to delay a vote and the procedure used to end that debate.
What are a filibuster and cloture?
The federal government attempted to prevent newspapers from publishing classified documents about American involvement in Vietnam. The Supreme Court ruled that the government had not justified this restriction on publication.
What is New York Times Co. v. United States?
This group opposed ratification of the Constitution without stronger protections for individual liberties and feared that the proposed national government would become too powerful.
Who were the Anti-Federalists?
Montesquieu influenced the Constitution through which two principles found in the first articles of the constitution?
What are Checks and balances + separation of powers?
This First Amendment clause prevents Congress from establishing an official national religion, even with majority support.
What is the Establishment Clause?
This presidential power manages executive branch operations without passing a new law, but must rest on legal authority.
What is an executive order?
During World War II, the Supreme Court upheld the exclusion of Japanese Americans from designated military areas, accepting the government's national security justification.
What is Korematsu v. United States?
During the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the Great Compromise resolved a disagreement between large and small states by creating a bicameral legislature consisting of these two chambers.
What are the House of Representatives and the Senate?
The Articles of Confederation created a weak national government because Americans feared tyranny. However, the Constitution established a stronger federal government. Explain how the framers addressed the weaknesses of the Articles while still protecting against tyranny. Identify TWO constitutional principles in your response.
The Constitution strengthened the federal government by giving it powers such as taxation and regulating interstate commerce. To prevent tyranny, the framers incorporated separation of powers, dividing government into three branches, and checks and balances, allowing each branch to limit the others.
In this landmark Supreme Court case, the judicial branch established its authority to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional, strengthening its ability to check the power of the other branches.
What is Marbury v. Madison?
In this landmark Supreme Court case, the justices established that executive privilege is not absolute and that even the president must comply with judicial demands for evidence in a criminal investigation.
What is United States v. Nixon (1974)?
In this case, the Supreme Court ruled that a public military college's male-only admissions policy violated the Equal Protection Clause, rejecting the state's argument that separate educational opportunities were sufficient.
Reveal Answer
What is United States v. Virginia?
Alexander Hamilton argued in Federalist No. 78 that federal judges needed this protection/priviledge so they could make decisions without fearing removal for unpopular rulings.
What is tenure during good behavior (life tenure/term)?