American Politics and the US Constitution
Many of the powers granted to Congress were meant to correct problems with the Articles of Confederation. Most of the powers are explicit in the Constitution's text; although the power of oversight is implied.
As a reminder, Congress has some key powers that are very important. These include the power to tax and the power to regulate commerce. It also has the power to borrow money and coin money. It has the power to declare war and the power to give advice and consent, and it has the power to impeach the president and judicial officials.
The legislative process is lengthy and cumbersome. It is this way on purpose.
The framers of the Constitution wished to maintain balance among the different branches of government; so, they placed checks on Congress's ability to pass laws.
In addition, Congress has added additional layers to the law-making process. This is through the use of the committee system.
Every state must go through the process of reapportionment and redistricting every 10 years. This is to accommodate for changes in their state’s population based on the last census.
State legislatures are responsible for drawing electoral districts. But this makes districts more vulnerable to gerrymandering.
Gerrymandering is the redrawing of electoral districts to give an advantage or disadvantage to a political party or group. In general, gerrymandering is not illegal, but it has been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. This is especially the case when race is the basis for gerrymandering.
The courts have considered many cases about racial gerrymandering. But they just recently began to consider cases about partisan gerrymandering. Next, you will look at the executive branch.
The delegates at the Constitutional Convention proposed creating the office of the president. They debated many forms the role might take. The president is now elected for a maximum of two four-year terms and can be impeached by Congress for wrongdoing and subsequently removed from office. The presidency and presidential power, especially war powers, have expanded greatly over the last two centuries. This was often with the willing assistance of the legislative branch.
Executive privilege has been used by presidents often. It has been used to withhold information from Congress. This has been done to avoid the congressional takeover of presidential power and to protect individuals from embarrassing actions.
Executive orders can be used to achieve presidential objectives.
Presidents have become responsible for preparing the budget that is sent to Congress.
Presidents have the power to veto legislation.
Presidential activities are covered more intensively with the availability of modern media.
The president is the commander in chief of the armed forces.
The power of any president is limited by the system of checks and balances, but any president will have great power in a number of areas.
The power of the pardon is virtually unchecked for federal crimes.
The president also has the power of commander in chief. This gives the president great freedom of action and potential in foreign policy.
Presidents can issue executive orders in their capacity as head of the bureaucracy. This can be done with limited oversight by Congress or the courts.
Presidents can negotiate executive agreements with foreign leaders that do not require senatorial approval.
Presidents have the power to nominate individuals to cabinet-level positions and to the Supreme Court. This can be very important.
Presidents are in a unique position to attempt to persuade public opinion and Congress to support their policies. They are sometimes successful and sometimes not, but they have the opportunity to make an attempt.
New presidents face a number of important challenges. They have to make the transition from being a candidate to being an elected official in a democratic system. They have to learn the powers of the office and work in a complex government system. They need to recognize the limitations inherent in the system of checks and balances.
New presidents need to be prepared for a smooth transition from their predecessor. They need to nominate individuals for many government positions quickly. They need to formulate and present a political agenda. They will have to perform all the ongoing functions of the presidency.
The judicial branch was no doubt perceived to be the weakest branch of the new government. Over the course of time, however, the courts have become more involved in the process of governing the country.
Marbury v. Madison clearly set the pattern of judicial review.
The Fourteenth Amendment extended the coverage of the Bills of Rights to the states with the accompanying limitations. This resulted in additional cases for the courts.
Some changes in political activity have resulted from the demands of ongoing modernization. The world is changing in ways that have brought up issues that end up in front of the courts because of their complexity. So, there is the need to adjust past laws, rules, and regulations to new situations.
The judicial system is required to make more and more decisions. These decisions involve examining laws passed by Congress. They also include looking at actions from the president or actions by the states. Some of these decisions, even those that act with judicial restraint, will involve elements of policy-making.
The Founders decided to create a complete system of courts for the new country. The federal judiciary consists of district courts, circuit courts of appeals, and the Supreme Court. District courts deal with questions of guilt or innocence in criminal cases and who is responsible in civil cases.
Cases will work their way up the system to either a circuit court of appeals or, in a few cases, the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court remains the major decision-making body for interpretations of the Constitution. It evaluates the actions of the other branches of the government.
The judicial system helps determine how the Constitution should be interpreted.
The importance of cases that come before the circuit courts and the Supreme Court is shown by the involvement of parties not directly affected by the case. They submit written documents. These are known as amicus curiae briefs or "friend of the court" briefs, and these are in support of one side or the other in hopes of getting a decision that is in keeping with preferences on the broader constitutional issues being considered.
The U.S. courts protect the sanctity of the U.S. Constitution from breaches by the other branches of government.
The U.S. courts protect individual rights against societal and governmental oppression.
The Constitution remains the key document for the government. It is the supreme law of the land. The federal courts have a key role in determining which actions of government at all levels are permissible and which ones are not because they violate the Constitution or infringe on the rights of U.S. citizens. The protection of these rights is an essential part of a democratic system.
The national government and state governments have different types of powers within the Constitution. This helps balance the power between the states and the national government.
This balance of power was a great compromise between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. However, there were many constitutional clauses that limited states' rights, and these demonstrated that the national government and the Federalists came out of the Constitutional Convention with more powers than had ever existed under the Articles of Confederation.
These two important Supreme Court cases illustrated how the Supreme Court expanded the power of the national government. It did so through the Necessary and Proper Clause’s implication of expanded powers. It also did so through the Supremacy Clause and the expressed power of Congress to regulate commerce.
Language existed in the Constitution that increased the powers of the national government over the states, but the Supreme Court found itself in the contentious debate between the national government and the states. In the end, the court used the Constitution to increase the powers of the national government.
Political Participation
The House and Senate have structural differences between them. These differences have practical consequences for how the two chambers function.
In general, members of the House are closer to constituent demands, and members of the Senate are further from constituent demands.
House members, due to district representation, represent narrower sets of interests. This is compared to senators, who represent states.
The House runs by strict rules of procedure to keep the chamber on track because members serve two-year terms. Senators work at a slower pace and have more individual power because they serve six-year terms.
A key task of members of the House and Senate is raising money to run for reelection.
Efforts to regulate campaign finance have been attempted since the early 1900s. But recent Supreme Court decisions have served to roll back these legislative efforts.
The Supreme Court's Citizens United decision gave rise to super PACs and a large influx of money into the electoral process. There are concerns by some that the electoral process has been corrupted.
Incumbents have various advantages over challengers. This results in very high reelection rates.
It is often thought that federal elections are influenced by local concerns. However, recent research indicates that national concerns play a powerful role.
Presidential nominations are usually controlled by political parties.
Initially, party elites nominated presidential and vice presidential candidates. Today this power rests largely with regular party members.
The primary election process, now used to select nominees, has nationalized. This has resulted in extending the length of the presidential nomination process. The order of states on the primary election calendar impacts the influence they have over the eventual nominee. Many candidates drop out if they do poorly early in the primary process.
Electoral votes are what ultimately elect a president and vice president.
The initial phases when deciding to run for office set the tone for who will be legitimate.
Overall, there is a deference for people with a higher socioeconomic level. These are people with education, the right type of job, some wealth, and the connections needed to raise funds.
It is not surprising that the professions most represented in Congress are former elected officials (mainly state and local), lawyers, and educators. Likewise, it should be no surprise that many members of Congress are quite wealthy.
The typical candidate for Congress, or the presidency, is probably not the average citizen. This raises questions about the representativeness of election outcomes. Those questions, however, will have to wait for another time.
Presidential electors are responsible for the election of a president and vice president.
Electoral votes are distributed among the states according to total congressional representation, that is, the number of representatives plus the number of senators.
States allocate their electoral votes to candidates based on their popular vote outcome. There are 48 states and the District of Columbia that use a winner-take-all method, and there are two states that use a district method.
A majority of the electoral votes is needed to become president or vice president. If there is no candidate with a majority, the House, by states, will choose a president. The Senate will choose a vice president.
It is possible for the winning candidate to win a majority of the electoral votes while not winning a majority of the popular vote. The Constitution does not obligate an elector to vote for a particular candidate. However, electors are typically faithful to their pledged candidate.
The distribution of presidential candidate preferences through the nation results in safe states and swing states.
Presidential elections are typically decided by swing states. This explains why campaigns focus most of their time and energy in these states.
In the American system of government, lobbying is everywhere. Interest groups work to persuade elected officials toward legislation that favors their own interests.
Lawmakers rely on interest groups and lobbyists to provide them with information about the technical details of policy proposals. They look to them for information about fellow lawmakers’ stands and constituents’ perceptions, and they seek cues about how to vote on issues, particularly those with which they are unfamiliar.
Lobbyists also target the executive and judiciary branches.
In addition, some groups seek influence indirectly. They do so by influencing constituents who then put pressure on their elected officials to support the outcome of interest.
Interest groups try to influence election outcomes by making campaign contributions.
Interest groups spend considerable amounts of money to influence election outcomes.
PACs and super PACs are the legal mechanisms through which interest groups make contributions.
PACs are limited in the amounts they can give, but they can coordinate their activities with candidates. Super PACs are not limited in the amounts they can give, but they cannot coordinate their activities with candidates.
Discovering whether groups have succeeded in changing minds through their contributions is difficult. This is because groups usually support candidates who already agree with them.
Interest groups have a variety of tools to use to influence the actions of the government.
Interest groups can provide their members (or even the general public) with information that can influence voting decisions in elections.
Interest groups can undertake actions to increase voter turnout.
Interest groups can also directly lobby for change in government policies.
Elections in the United States are primarily administered by the states. This means different states will have somewhat different election rules.
Voters in nearly all states must register to vote in order to cast a ballot. Some states have prioritized making it easy to vote. Others have made it more difficult out of worries about voter fraud.
Some voter registration requirements have been used to disenfranchise people who were African American.
The Fifteenth Amendment was passed an effort to allow African American citizens the right to vote, but discriminatory practices by local elected officials prohibited them from voting in large numbers until much later.
The Nineteenth Amendment was the outcome of decades of struggle. It ultimately led to women receiving the right to vote nationally.
The Twenty-Fourth Amendment prohibited poll taxes. These had been used in some states to suppress turnout among people who were African American or poor.
The Twenty-Sixth Amendment extended the right to vote to young people aged 18–21.
Not everyone who is old enough to vote is eligible to vote. We can track the size of the voting-eligible population.
A voter’s personal characteristics (such as education, income, age, gender, etc.) can influence the likelihood of voting. People who have more at stake in an election or face fewer obstacles are more likely to vote.
Certain political policies, like fewer voting days, voter ID laws, noncompulsory turnout, and more have supporters who see their benefits. However, these policies can lead to lower voter turnout. Policymakers must weigh the pros and cons before implementing them.
Voters consider a number of factors when voting. They look at political party, incumbency, issues, past performance, personal traits, and strategy when deciding who to vote for.
Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
Civil rights are requirements for government action.
Discrimination is sometimes okay under the Constitution. However, it cannot jeopardize a fundamental freedom or impinge on a protected class of people.
Civil rights have not been universally accorded to all during U.S. history. Certain groups have been denied civil rights. These include racial minorities and women, for example. Such denial has been rectified, over time, through political movements.
The protection of civil rights has been achieved in the courts. But the most lasting changes have come through the legislative process and through constitutional amendments.
What constitutes a civil right is an ongoing discussion. Protections from government power are initially expressed in the Constitution. These are followed by voting, economic opportunity, education, and housing. Healthcare, at the moment, has entered into this discussion.
The pursuit of civil rights is ongoing. Groups denied civil rights are pressing their demands for equal treatment. One example is the LGBTQ+ community.
The courts decide whether discrimination is allowed. They do so according to three levels of scrutiny. First is the rational basis test. It includes most types of discrimination. The second is intermediate scrutiny. It applies when sex or gender is the basis for discrimination. The third is strict scrutiny. It is used when fundamental freedoms or suspected classes of persons are the targets of discrimination.
Civil liberties differ from civil rights in that they define things the government is not supposed to do. In general, three types of liberties are protected in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They are individual freedom, rights of the accused, and procedures.
These liberties are not absolutes, primarily because the government is the guardian of our liberties. The government and citizens may not always agree with how their liberties are defined. They may not agree with how they should be respected either.
Furthermore, liberties can come into conflict. The resolution of such disputes, again, lies in the hands of the government. The Supreme Court will play a vital role in these situations.
he First Amendment guarantees religious freedom and freedom to not be religious. These rights were important to the Founders. Early settlers fled religious persecution in England and elsewhere. And many settlers were forced to support established churches in the colonies. As a consequence, the First Amendment prohibited the establishment of national churches. And it prevented interference in the free practice of religion.
Supreme Court cases have helped to outline what is considered permissible and what is not. The court has ruled in terms of government involvement, regulation, or prohibition of religious practices.
Some prohibitions exist, such as laws against polygamy or child endangerment.
Support for students in religious schools is possible. But it cannot be in the form of direct support for the schools. The court supported that there is indeed a wall of separation between state and church. However, if there is compelling reason for government involvement, it cannot be excessive.
The right to express political opinions was essential to the Founders. This was true for views in disagreement with those in power. The right to free speech, free press, and free assembly were keys to such political expressions. When the First Amendment was proposed, freedom of the press referred to the printed word. This was in the form of newspapers, pamphlets, and books. These works helped mobilize support for protecting colonists' rights in their confrontations with England. Judicial decisions have extended these protections. They now cover other forms of the media, including radio, TV, and the internet.
Political speeches were also important when the First Amendment was written. One example was Patrick Henry’s quote, “Give me liberty or give me death.” It resonated with those opposed to what they saw as English tyranny. The courts have extended free speech to cover other forms of political expression. These are an extension of speech or the right of assembly. Silent protests can be quite powerful. These illustrate that the unspoken work is more compelling than the spoken word.
The Constitution and Bill of Rights do not mention slander or libel. But neither is considered legitimate. The Founders understood these limits. They did not feel the need to explicitly state them in either the Constitution or the amendments. Over many decades, the courts have dealt with issues related to obscenity. Restrictions on artistic or political expression are less strict today than in the past. But there is still disagreement and even uncertainty over what might constitute obscenity in any given situation.
The Second Amendment provides the liberty of self-defense through the ownership of firearms.
The Third Amendment may seem obsolete today. But it does support the idea that we have an expectation of privacy for our homes. And the government cannot readily intrude on that. This concept is more developed in the Fourth Amendment.
The Fourth Amendment provides protection from unreasonable searches and seizures.
The Fifth Amendment explains a grand jury indictment. It provides protection from self-incrimination and double jeopardy. And it presents the requirement of due process.
The Fifth Amendment's "taking" provision grants protection to private property. It requires the government to use taken property for public use. And it must provide just compensation to the property's owner.
The Sixth Amendment provides the right to a speedy and public trial before an impartial jury. It allows the right to defend yourself and know what you are accused of. It offers an attorney to assist you. It allows you to confront the witnesses against you and present witnesses on your behalf.
The Seventh Amendment provides some certainty that civil disputes will have a neutral venue. This allows people to contest and correct the harms that have been done to them by other private parties.
The Eighth Amendment provides protections against excessive bail or fines. It prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
The Fourteenth Amendment is meant to provide equal protection under the law for all citizens.
To determine whether a law that discriminates has a legitimate purpose, the court system uses strict scrutiny, intermediate scrutiny, and the rational basis test.
Although the Fourteenth Amendment was added to the Constitution, many states sought to disenfranchise the rights granted to newly freed enslaved people with the use of Jim Crow laws.
Although the Fourteenth Amendment was added to the Constitution, the rights of states to separate based on race was upheld in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).
The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments were also known as the Civil War Amendments. They helped end slavery and grant equal protection and voting rights to newly freed slaves after the Civil War.
The Civil War Amendments were not enough to prevent discrimination against people of color. So Congress responded with the passage of both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Women have also had a long battle with civil rights in the United States.
Although women were active in the abolition and temperance movements, they did not obtain suffrage rights until 1920.
Women gained the right to vote with the Nineteenth Amendment.
Modern issues involving women and individual rights include education rights, equal wages, harassment, and reproductive rights.
Public Opinion & The Media
Initially, scholars believed the media could place information directly into people’s minds. But later research has found the effects of media on public opinion to be more limited.
Media effects often work through shaping our perceptions of the world (framing and priming). Or they work through choosing which stories to cover (agenda setting).
Good government requires a free media that watches the performance of the government.
Even with our general guarantee of a free press, there are regulations on the media.
These regulations include equal-time requirements (to promote fairness for all candidates) and indecency rules.
Candidates and elected officials work hard to get their messages out. They know it will be filtered by the media. Presidents also work hard to coordinate their messaging to the media and the public.
Public opinion helps the government and the media analyze and interpret how the public feels about people, places, and events.
Public opinion is a collection of our attitudes and beliefs. They are formed through a process known as political socialization.
Everyone experiences political socialization. They are influenced by their families, schools, social groups, political conditions, and the media.
Through political socialization, we are able to form our philosophy. We consider the role and expectations of government.
Citizens rely on both heuristics and research. They use those to form opinions about government actions, leaders, and policies.
Demographic groups can function as a heuristic to help form public opinions.
Demographic groups include geographic location, age, gender, race, religion, and workplace.
Political actors and policies are affected by public opinion.
Public opinion polls are used heavily during elections. But they come with risks.
Public opinion affects each branch of government differently.