Chapter 3 The Constitution

the nature of the constitution: three key features

• Article I- all legislative powers herein shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives
• Article II- the executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America
• Article III- the judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish
• Article IV- federal-state and state-federal relationships
• Article V- amendment procedures
• Article VI- miscellaneous provisions including the 'supremacy clause'
• Article VII- ratification procedure

a codified constitution

• code- systematic and authoritative collection of rules
• the United States Constitution is the collected and authoritative set of rules of American government and politics
• codified constitution- a written constitution
• not everything about the ordering of American government and politics is to be found in the constitution

• this new codified constitution consisted of 7 articles
• the 1st 3 explained how the 3 branches of the federal governmen would work and what powers they would have
• article I- established Congress as the national legislature, defining its membership, the qualifications and method of election of its members and its powers
• article I, section 8- congress was given specific powers; coin money, declare war

• article II- decidied on a singular executive by vesting all executive pwoer in the hands of a President; would be chosen indirectly by an Electoral College

• Article III- established the United States Supreme Court
• Congress quickly added trial and appeal courts
• the Court was to have to the role of umpire of the Constitution- implied in the supremacy clause of Article VI and the provision in Article III that the court's judicial power applies to all cases arising under this constitution
• supremacy clause- the portion of Article VI which states that the constituton, as well as treaties and federal laws, shall be the supreme law of the land
• the court would make this more explicit in its landmark decision of Marbury v Madison in 1803

• these 3 articles contain enumerated powers granted to the federal government
• enumerated powers- powers delegated to the federal government under the Constitution
• the federal government does not possess unlimited power, but only such power as it is given in the constitution
• it was also given much less specific powers

a blend of specificity and vagueness

• implied powers- powers possessed by the federal government by inference from those powers delegated to it in the constitution
• the power to draft people into the armed forces may be implied from Congress's enumerated power to raise an army and navy
• congress was given the power to provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States
• from this was implied that Congress had the power to levy and collect taxes to provide for the defence of the United States

• many of the implied powers are decuded from the necessary and proper clause of Article I, Section 8
• necessary and…