Foundational documents

Decl of Ind

Thomas Jefferson; Declared Independence from Britain - justification for "divorce"

Identified Natural Rights - Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness and gov.'s job to protect them

Influenced heavily by John Locke

• Consent of the Governed; Popular Sovereignty; Social Contract Theory

• Limited government

Articles of Confed

John Dickerson; Confederal Government; Weak- Congress not given many powers

Unicameral Legislature

Each State = 1 vote (2-7 delegates); 9/13 votes needed to pass laws

No Executive / No Judicial

No power to raise an army

Const

Const Convention; Outlines the structure of the government

• Three branches of government w/ check and balances

Relationships between states

Amendment process

27 Amendments (including the Bill of Rights)

Fed 10

James Madison; Factions are inevitable - cannot destroy them, so must manage them

• Large Republic is the best form of government to address factions - too difficult for any one faction to gain power; less likely for corruption

Pluralism -> many factions competing for influence leads to only the best ideas being enacted

Prevents tyranny of the majority; Views of people will be "refined and enlarged" by their elected representatives

Brutus 1

Robert Yates; anti-fed

Constitution gives too much power to central government

• Necessary and Proper Clause (Elastic Clause) is a blank check to Congress

• Supremacy Clause - state governments will be obsolete; impotent

• Too large a country for Congress to represent local concerns; ineffective because too many views (factions) form consensus

Can do away with States governments, creating one powerful state.

Standing Army in peacetime is a destruction of liberty

Once you give up power the only way to get it back is by force - "Many instances can be produced where the people have voluntarily increased the powers of their rulers; but few, if any, in which rulers have willingly abridged their authority.'

Fed 51

Madison or Hamilton; Power is divided between

• three branches of government, each w/ little control over the other

• national/ state government; House and Senate are divided & elected in different ways (back then)

Checks and Balances - Gov. must be powerful enough to control the people, but also control itself - separate but equal powers

All keep power from becoming too centralized • prevent one person/one group from taking over the government

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary..

"you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

Fed 70

Hamilton; Argues for a single, "energetic" executive (president)

"energy in the executive is the leading character in the definition of good government."

• President must be single person; having a dual executive or committee will lead to confusion, disagreement, and inability to act decisively

• Debate and disagreement are good for Congress, poison for the president President needs to be able to act swiftly and decisively to respond to crises Having a single president makes the executive easily accountable; multiple

presidents = finger-pointing and shifting blame

Rejects a plural executive, instead a Cabinet of advisors to the President

Fed 78

The least dangerous branch- Independent and inherently weaker than the other 2 branches - cannot enforce its decisions

"no influence over either the sword or the purse,..It may truly be said it have neither

| FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgement."

Judiciary must be independent; case for lifetime appointments The power of judicial review - job is to interpret the Constitution

• Argues that the federal courts have the duty to determine whether acts of Congress are constitutional and to follow the Constitution impartially. Hamilton viewed this as a protection against abuse of power by Congress.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

MLK; Justice delayed is justice denied; "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere....

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed"

All people should be treated the same under the law (14th Amendment Equal

Protection Clause)

Nonviolent direct action seeks to create urgency for legislative action

• Countered the claim that civil rights protesters were agitating, they were merely pointing out tensions that already existed (uncomfortable truths)

Owns extremism in support of a noble cause, such as fulfilling the promise of America (so long as it fits the tenets of nonviolence)