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The Constitution
Branches of Government Powers Checks & Balances
How a Bill Becomes Law
The Major Players
References
Written in 1787 in response to the need of a new stronger, but limited government after the failure of the Articles of Confederation.
The Documents sets out the goals and rules of our government…..call it our “playbook!”
The Outlin
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THE OUTLINE OF THE CONSTITUTION The Constitution is founded on
6 basic principles of how the government should run.
The Constitution is divided into 3 main parts: The Preamble: States the goals The Articles: 7 articles each on a
different topic. The Amendments: Written changes to
the document- 27 total as of 2009.
THE PREAMBLE
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
The Outlin
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THE ARTICLES
I- The Legislative Branch II- The Executive Branch III- The Judicial Branch IV- Relationship with the States V- Amendment Process VI- Debts, Supremacy, Oaths of Office VII- Ratification
The Outlin
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More Details
Diagram
THE AMENDMENTS Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion,
Press, Expression Amendment 2 - Right to Bear Arms Amendment 3 - Quartering of Soldiers Amendment 4 - Search and Seizure Amendment 5 - Trial and Punishment,
Compensation for Takings Amendment 6 - Right to Speedy Trial,
Confrontation of Witnesses Amendment 7 - Trial by Jury in Civil Cases Amendment 8 - Cruel and Unusual
Punishment Amendment 9 - Construction of
Constitution Amendment 10 - Powers of the States and
People Amendment 11 - Judicial Limits Amendment 12 - Choosing the President,
Vice President Amendment 13 - Slavery Abolished Amendment 14 - Citizenship Rights Amendment 15 - Race No Bar to Vote
Amendment 16 - Status of Income Tax Clarified
Amendment 17 - Senators Elected by Popular Vote
Amendment 18 - Liquor Abolished Amendment 19 - Women's Suffrage Amendment 20 - Presidential,
Congressional Terms Amendment 21 - Amendment 18
Repealed Amendment 22 - Presidential Term Limits Amendment 23 - Presidential Vote for
District of Columbia Amendment 24 - Poll Taxes Barred Amendment 25 - Presidential Disability
and Succession Amendment 26 - Voting Age Set to 18
Years Amendment 27 - Limiting Congressional
Pay Increases
The Outline
THE PRINCIPLES OF OUR GOVERNMENT1.Popular sovereignty
Rule by the people.
2.Federalism Power is divided
between national and state governments.
3. Separation of powers Powers are divided separately equally .
4. Checks and balances The process by which
each branch of government exercises some powers over the
others.5.Judicial review
The power of the courts to overturn laws and actions of national, state, and local governments, ensures that laws made by Congress and the states do not violate individual rights.
6. Limited GovernmentGov is NOT all powerful….we give it its powers! The
Outline
Checks & Balances
Click here to see a
video
3 Branches
The Outline
OUR GOVERNMENT’S MAJOR PLAYERS
Barack H. Obama is the 44th President of the United States. His story is the American story — values from the heartland, a middle-class
upbringing in a strong family, hard work and education as the means of getting ahead, and the conviction that a life so blessed should be lived in service to others.
With a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, President Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. He was raised with help from his grandfather, who served in Patton's army, and his grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle management at a bank.
After working his way through college with the help of scholarships and student loans, President Obama moved to Chicago, where he worked with a group of churches to help rebuild communities devastated by the closure of local steel plants.
He went on to attend law school, where he became the first African—American president of the Harvard Law Review. Upon graduation, he returned to Chicago to help lead a voter registration drive, teach constitutional law at the University of Chicago, and remain active in his community.
President Obama's years of public service are based around his unwavering belief in the ability to unite people around a politics of purpose. In the Illinois State Senate, he passed the first major ethics reform in 25 years, cut taxes for working families, and expanded health care for children and their parents. As a United States Senator, he reached across the aisle to pass groundbreaking lobbying reform, lock up the world's most dangerous weapons, and bring transparency to government by putting federal spending online.
He was elected the 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008, and sworn in on January 20, 2009. He and his wife, Michelle, are the proud parents of two daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7.
Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/president_obama/
Major Players
Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., was born November 20, 1942, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the first of four siblings. In 1953, the Biden family moved from Pennsylvania to Claymont, Delaware. He graduated from the University of Delaware and Syracuse Law School and served on the New Castle County Council. Then, at age 29, he became one of the youngest people ever elected to the United States Senate.
Just weeks after the election, tragedy struck the Biden family, when Biden's wife, Neilia, and their 1-year old daughter, Naomi, were killed and their two young sons critically injured in an auto accident. Biden was sworn in at his sons' hospital bedside and began commuting to Washington every day by train, a practice he maintained throughout his career in the Senate.
In 1977, Biden married Jill Jacobs. Jill Biden, who holds a Ph.D. in Education, has been an educator for over two decades in Delaware's schools. Vice President Biden has three children: Beau, Hunter, and Ashley. Beau serves as Delaware's Attorney General and is currently deployed to Iraq as a Captain in the 261st Signal Brigade of the Delaware National Guard. Ashley is a social worker and Hunter is an attorney. Vice President Biden has five grandchildren: Naomi, Finnegan, Roberta Mabel ("Maisy"), Natalie, and Robert Hunter.
As a Senator from Delaware for 36 years, Biden has been a leader on some of our nation's most important domestic and international challenges. As Chairman or Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee for 17 years, Biden was widely recognized for his work on criminal justice issues including the landmark 1994 Crime Bill and the Violence Against Women Act. As Chairman or Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since 1997, Biden played a pivotal role in shaping U.S. foreign policy. He has been at the forefront of issues and legislation related to terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, post-Cold War Europe, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia.
Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/vice_president_biden/
Major Players
On January 6, 2009, Nancy Pelosi was sworn in as Speaker of the House of Representatives of the 111th Congress. Accepting the gavel for the second time, Speaker Pelosi committed to work for the common good to strengthen America’s future. Nancy Pelosi made history in 2007, shattering the marble ceiling to become the first woman to serve as Speaker of House. Building consensus across the aisle and within the diverse House Democratic Caucus, Speaker Pelosi has proved to be a strong, pragmatic leader, unifying her caucus more than any other leader in the last 50 years.
Pelosi first made history in November 2002 when House Democrats elected her the first woman to lead a major political party. She brings to the Speaker’s role more than 20 years of experience in the House, representing the city of San Francisco since 1987. Before being elected Democratic Leader, she served as House Democratic Whip for one year.
Speaker Pelosi comes from a strong family tradition of public service. Her late father, Thomas D'Alesandro, Jr., served as Mayor of Baltimore for 12 years, after representing the city for five terms in Congress. Her brother, Thomas D'Alesandro III, also served as Mayor of Baltimore. She graduated from Trinity College in Washington, D.C. She and her husband, Paul Pelosi, a native of San Francisco, have five grown children and eight grandchildren.
Source: http://speaker.house.gov/about?id=0001 Major Players
John Boehner, elected to represent the Eighth Congressional District of Ohio for a 10th term in November 2008, is a national leader in the fight for a smaller, more accountable government. Throughout his time as a small businessman, state legislator, and Member of Congress, John has been a straight-shooting and relentless advocate for freedom and security. As House Republican Leader and a staunch opponent of pork-barrel politics, John is fighting to eliminate wasteful spending, create jobs, and balance the federal budget without raising taxes. He has challenged Republicans in the 111th Congress to be not just the party of “opposition,” but the party of better solutions to the challenges facing the American people.
Born in Cincinnati in November 1949 as one of 12 brothers and sisters, John has lived in Southwest Ohio his entire life. He and his wife Debbie have been married for 35 years. They have two daughters – Lindsay and Tricia – and live in the northern Cincinnati suburb of West Chester. After graduating from Cincinnati’s Moeller High School in 1968, John earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Xavier University in Cincinnati in 1977.
John’s first two terms in the U.S. House were marked by an aggressive campaign to clean up Congress and make it more accountable to the American people. During his freshman year, Boehner and fellow members of the reform-minded “Gang of Seven" took on the House establishment and successfully closed the House Bank, uncovered "dine-and-dash" practices at the House Restaurant, and exposed drug sales and cozy cash-for-stamps deals at the House Post Office. John also adopted a personal “no earmarks” policy upon taking office in 1991, a no-pork policy he maintains to this day.
Later, John was instrumental in crafting the Contract with America, the bold 100-day agenda for the 104th Congress that nationalized the 1994 elections. One of the Contract's cornerstones - the Congressional Accountability Act, requiring Congress to live under the same rules and regulations as the rest of the nation - bears the unmistakable imprint of his drive to reform the House. The success of John's reform-minded agenda earned him election to the House leadership after the GOP election victories in 1994. As House GOP Conference Chairman in the 104th and 105th Congress, John was a powerful voice in the fight to force Washington to stick to the strict spending limits in the Balanced Budget Act. In September 1999, as Vice-Chairman of the House Administration Committee, John joined House leaders to announce the first-ever "clean" independent audit of the House, a reform he first called for as a member of the Gang of Seven in 1992.
In 2006, Boehner authored the Pension Protection Act, the most sweeping reform of America's pension laws in more than 30 years, which the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said “will make it possible for millions of Americans to save more now for a better future.”
On November 19, 2008, Boehner was elected by his colleagues to serve a second term as House Republican Leader. Boehner believes Republicans can earn back the majority in Congress by renewing their commitment to enduring GOP principles of freedom, security, and smaller government, and developing better solutions to the challenges facing the American people.
Major Players
Steny H. Hoyer
Now serving as the House Majority Leader, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland is charged with managing the House Floor as well as scheduling legislation to be considered on the Floor. He also plays a key role in helping House Democrats determine their legislative agenda and political strategy, and building support for the Party's positions and delivering the Democratic message both in Washington and nationally.
Congressman Hoyer's service as Majority Leader makes him the highest-ranking Member of Congress from Maryland in history. Now serving his 15th term in Congress representing the Fifth Congressional District of Maryland, he also became the longest-serving Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland in history on June 4, 2007. Prior to being elected Majority Leader, he served as the Democratic Whip in the 108th and 109th Congresses.
Public service has always been at the center of Steny Hoyer's professional life. He won a seat in the Maryland Senate at the age of 27, and just a few years later, at the age of 35, was elected President of the Senate, the youngest ever in state history.
Congressman Hoyer is recognized by Members on both sides of the aisle as an effective leader and committed consensus builder who knows how to get things done. He is the former Chairman of the Helsinki Commission, and is widely regarded as a champion on human and civil rights. He is perhaps best known for serving as the lead House sponsor of historic Federal election reform (the "Help America Vote Act"), which President Bush signed into law on October 29, 2002, and for guiding the landmark Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) to passage in 1990.
He and his wife, the late Judith Pickett Hoyer, have three daughters, Susan, Stefany and Anne; son-in-law Loren Taylor; three grandchildren, Judy, James Cleveland, and Alexa; and one great-granddaughter, Ava. Major
Players
Senator Robert C. Byrd
In every corner of West Virginia, the people of the Mountain State know that there is one man on whom they can always depend: U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd. He never has forgotten the hard life that he had as a boy growing up in the poverty of the Southern West Virginia coalfields. He has always remained true to his faith and his family, while working to build a better future for his state and his country.
In the Senate, Robert Byrd works for the people. Better jobs and more jobs. Health care that is affordable and accessible. A good future for our children and grandchildren. Each day in the Senate, Robert Byrd is focused on building a brighter future for the Mountain State.
Byrd's work is shaped by the West Virginia values that he learned from his parents, Titus and Vlurma Byrd. The couple never had much in terms of material wealth, often scraping by thanks to odd jobs and boarders. But they instilled in him a work ethic that has served him well as a butcher, as the proprietor of a grocery store, as a member of the West Virginia State Legislature, and member of the United States Senate. In the halls of Congress, Robert C. Byrd is well known for his fierce defense of the Constitution and the institution of the Senate. The Almanac of American Politics has said that Byrd "may come closer to the kind of senator the Founding Fathers had in mind than any other." Senators from both parties have paid tribute to Byrd's devotion to the Constitution. He endeavors to make sure that the wisdom of the Constitution's Framers is not forgotten and that the people's liberties are protected.
In the history of the Republic, Byrd has served longer than all but one Member of Congress. On June 11, 2006, Byrd became the longest serving U.S. Senator in the history of the Republic and, in November 2006, he was elected to an unprecedented ninth full term in the Senate. During his tenure, his colleagues have elected him to more leadership positions than any other Senator in history. Currently, Byrd is the President pro tempore, or the second highest ranking official in the United States Senate and the highest ranking senator in the majority party. He serves as the senior member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, and is the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security. Byrd also serves on the Senate Budget, Armed Services, and Rules and Administration Committees.
Major
Players
Harry Reid
Since he came to the Senate in 1986, Harry Reid has built a strong record of accomplishments for the people of Nevada. As the fastest growing state in the nation, Nevada has needs no other state has and Reid is using his leadership position to meet them.
Sen. Reid is is leading the way on solutions to keep Nevadans in their homes and end the foreclosure crisis, which is weakening our state’s economy. He is a leader on reducing the cost of health care, while increasing the number of Nevadans who have medical insurance. And he is working to create thousands of good-paying Nevada jobs by making the state the leader in renewable energy.
Reid has brought hundreds of millions of dollars to make Nevada safer. That money puts more police on the street, ensures Nevada’s military bases have everything they need, and is being used to build the long overdue the Southern Nevada Veterans Hospital.
As an avid sportsman, Reid has long been a champion of Nevada’s outdoors. He created Great Basin National Park, Nevada’s only national park. He created the Lake Tahoe Summit, which brings leaders of all political stripes together to preserve Lake Tahoe’s clarity. He is also working to preserve Nevada’s outdoors by developing Nevada’s solar, wind, and geothermal energy industries.
While some are taking away funding from Nevada schools, Sen. Reid is using his leadership position to deliver more federal funding to invest in Nevada students, reduce class sizes, and lower the dropout rate. He also helped make college more affordable by increasing grant aid and cutting student loan interest rates in half. .
Major Players
Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving U.S. Senator in Kentucky’s history, is the Senate Republican Leader in the 111th Congress. Elected to that position unanimously by his colleagues on November 18, 2008, he is the 15th Senate Republican Leader and only the second Kentuckian to lead his party in the Senate. The first, Alben Barkley, led the Democrats from 1937 to 1949.
Leader McConnell previously served, again by the unanimous vote of his colleagues, as the Republican Leader in the 110th Congress and the Majority Whip in the 108th and 109th Congresses. McConnell also served in leadership as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 1998 and 2000 election cycles.
First elected to the Senate in 1984, McConnell made history that year as the only Republican challenger in the country to defeat a Democrat incumbent and as the first Republican to win a statewide Kentucky race since 1968. McConnell’s victory in 2008 is also one for the record books: On November 4, he won nearly a million votes, the most ever received for a Kentuckian in a statewide race. On January 10, 2009, McConnell became the longest-serving Senator from Kentucky, surpassing the tenures of his predecessor as leader, Alben Barkley; his former colleague, Wendell Ford; and his friend and mentor, John Sherman Cooper.
Born on February 20, 1942, and raised in south Louisville, McConnell graduated in 1964 with honors from the University of Louisville College of Arts and Sciences, where he served as student body president. In 1967, he graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law, where he was elected president of the Student Bar Association. McConnell worked as an intern on Capitol Hill for Senator John Sherman Cooper before serving as chief legislative assistant to Senator Marlow Cook and as deputy assistant attorney general to President Gerald Ford. Before his election to the U.S. Senate, he served as judge-executive of Jefferson County, Kentucky, from 1978 until he commenced his Senate term on January 3, 1985.
McConnell currently serves as a senior member of the Appropriations, Agriculture and Rules Committees.
Married to Elaine L. Chao, who served as President George W. Bush’s U.S. Secretary of Labor and as former president of the United Way of America and director of the Peace Corps, he is the proud father of three daughters.
Major Players
REFERENCES
Sound Clip: www.soundclick.com MacGruder’s American Government Textbook. Slide 9, 10, 11 picture: MacGruder’s Textbook
Resource Cd. Slide 12 picture: http://www.cyberlearning-
world.com/lessons/civics/lp.bill_to_law.htm www.whitehouse.gov www.house.gov www.senate.gov Movie Clip: United Streaming
OUR GOVERNMENT
