Test day

Today, we took a test. The test is open blog. The test was ok, I hope I did well.

Review day

First Amendment - Five Freedoms: Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly, Petition
Second - Right to bear arms
Third - No quartering of troops
Fourth - no unreasonable searches and seizures (need warrant, probable cause)
Fifth - if accused, Grand Jury indictment is necessary for serious crimes. No double jeopardy. No self-incrimination. No taking life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.
Sixth - speedy and public trial. Impartial jury. Know what you are charged with. Face the accusers, witnesses. Lawyer
Seventh - Jury trials in civil cases (if not too petty)
Eighth - Reasonable bail and possible fines (No cruel and unusual)
Ninth - people retain some rights
Tenth - States have their own rights

Amendment II - X

II: A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

III: No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

IV: unreasonable searches and seizures

V: double jeapardy, due process, self-incrimination

VI: Speedy, fair, and public trial

VII: more than 20$ = jury trial

VIII: No Cruel or unusual punishment

IX: the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

X: the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

First Amendment

Amendement 1
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.


Five Freedoms include Religion freedom, freedom of Speech, freedom of Press, and freedom of Assemble Petition.

Article and IV and V

Article IV
Section 1
Congress has the right to watch how this happens.
Federal > States

Section 2
extradition is allowed.

Section 3
The Congress shall have the right to admit the new states.

Section 4
The United State will protect each state and will help states to pacify strife within the state.
All for one and one for all.

Article V
2/3 to propose, 3/4 to ratify.

Article VI
First application
Federal > States
Establishes that the Constitution, federal statutes and US treaties as "the supreme law of the land".
If there is a conflict between a lower law and a higher law, the higher one "wins". 

Article II

Article II: Power of the president

• military powers: commander in chief of the army and navy of the United States

• shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court

• 8 supreme court justice currently

• vacancies: shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of Senate

Presidential Duties

• gives the state of union speech

• could be impeached, if 2/3 of senator agrees,

• the president, vice president and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

• 400,00$ salary

Article I and II

Article 1: Legislative Branch

• Legislative Branch is one of the 3 branches of the government of United States

• It is responsible to make laws

• It is made up of 2 houses of the Congress, Senate and House of Representatives

• Congress holds the power to draft and pass legislation, borrow money for the nation, declare war and raise a military. It also has the power to check and balance the other two federal branches

Article 2: The Executive

• It covers the office of the president

• It has four sections: The Presidency, Powers of the President, Presidential Duties, and Impeachment

• Section 1: President and Vice President

• 1. Terms of Office - 4  years

• 2. Electoral college - decide president

• 3. Former Method of Electing President(has been deleted or changed)

• 4. Election Day - second tuesday on Jan

• 5. Qualifications - 35 years above, residency

• 6. Succession - vice president - speaker of the house - senate president

Today, Mr. Schick was not here. We continued to work on our presentation.

Here is what I got

Section 3 of Article III deals with the crime of treason, first by giving us a definition of the crime, then by telling us how the crime will be tried.

• Treason is defined in the Constitution as levying war against the United States, or giving aid to our enemies.
• To be convicted of treason, there must be two witnesses, or that the person committing treason must confess in open court.

Congress has the power to determine the punishment for treason, which ranges from five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, up to life in prison or death.

Why is treason the only crime defined in the Constitution?

• To distinguish between treason and just engaging in dissent
• A free democracy should enable people to have dissents
• To be guilty of treason, they had to take actual action (make war against our government or directly help our enemies).

protects our freedom of speech from being limited.

group project

Today, we worked in pairs on our new project which is to explain the US. Constitution. Arthur and I are paired up and we are assigned Article III which is about judicial branches. We started a googledoc and beginned searching information to interpret this Article. 

Here is what I done so far:

The power to interpret the law of the United States will be held by the U.S. Supreme Court, and the lower federal courts.

The Constitution allowed Congress to create other, inferior lower courts over time. As the case load of the Supreme Court grew, Congress was able to create the lower federal courts to help.

Federal judges will hold office “during good behavior” and they shall receive “compensation” for their services.

• Once they are appointed, they cannot break the law in order to keep their positions in the court. In effect, most federal judges serve a life term (since the Constitution does not state a time limit or number of years).
• Once appointed, their salaries cannot be “diminished” or decreased. This protects the judges from being manipulated through their salary

 

Separation of Powers

Three branches of government

Legislative: Senate, and House of Representatives 

Executive: President 

Judicial: Supreme Court and other federal courts 

Preamble - We the People of the United States. 

Seven Articles 

Article One describes Congress 

Article Two covers the office of the President 

Article Three refers to the Supreme Court 

Article Four outlines the relations between the states, and between the states and the federal government 

Article Five describes how to amend the Constitution 

Article Six establishes the Constitution as the supreme law of the land, validates national debt, and states "no religions test shall be required to hold office" 

Article Seven described how to ratify this Constitution (by a two-thirds majority, or nine states out of thirteen). 

Self studying

Today, Mr. Schick wasn't here. He didn't post classwork either. We just studied something from other classes.

Article of confederation cont.

April 19, 1775 - Revolutionary War begins (Battles at Lexington and Concord)
July 4, 1776 - Declaration of Independence. 
1777 - Articles of Confederation written
1781 - Articles of Confederation ratified 
October 19, 1781 - Revolutionary War fighting ends (British surrender at the Battle of Yorktown) 
17783 - Treaty of Paris is signed 

May 1787 - the Constitutional Convention 
55 delegates meeting in Philadelphia 
George Washington presiding 
Prominent delegates: James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin 
Discussions are kept secret (doors locked, windows nailed shut). 
Objective: design the new government 

First decision

Two houses in Congress
In the Senate: each state has the same number of votes 
In the House of Representatives: votes are determined by the number of people in the state. 
How to determine the number of people in slaves states. 

The issue of how to count slaves split the delegates into two groups. 
The northerners regarded slaves as property who should receive no representation. 
The northerners demanded the slaves be counted which whites. 
The "Three-Fifths Compromise" allowed a state to count three fifths of each slave in determining political representation-and taxation-in the House. 
The compromise clearly reflected the strength of the pro-slavery forces at the convention. 

Article of Confederation

Second Continental Congress- After the war, it was time to get organized.
-In 1777, colonial leaders wrote the Articles of Confederation (finally ratified by 1781-Maryland was last)
-America's first constitution, it provided a framework for this new nation to being doing "nation things".

First, the good stuff the A of C accomplished

-Actually "name" the country ("The United States of America")

-Established diplomacy, especially with European nation. 

-Set up trade with other nations

-Set up cooperation between states (free travel between states, but allowing for extradition)

Also, some controversial issues 

-Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence

-States thought of themselves as separate countries - they resisted the idea of a strong national government

-One vote for each state in the "Congress of the Confederation", regardless of the size of the state

-US expenditures shall be paid for by the individual states, as determined by property value (bigger, richer states pay more)

-Canada (Quebec) didn't join in the club.

Some problems that the Articles of Confederation could not handle

-Debts could not be paid because Congress could not collect taxes

-Each state operated independently, printing their own money (which was worthless in other states)

-There were no courts to settle disputes between states

-Great Britain had cut off trade, so the U.S. has to find new trading partners.

The argument: Strong Federal Government vs. State's Rights

-Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton says established a national bank, collect and consolidate taxes from everyone, get our economic act together

-Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson says let states handle their own affairs, Virginia should not have to bail out New York or Massachusetts

Test Back

The Article of Confederation was America's first national constitution. Under it, colonies are seperate states without a strong central government controlling them. The Articles of Confederations made America a confederate country. It divided the government into three branches which include legislative branch, executive branch, and judicial branch. Legislative branch created laws, which is the biggest branch, consisted of Senate and the House of representatives. Executive branch enforced the law, represented by the president. Judicial branch observe the law, consisted of Suprem courts.

Bill of rights are the first ten amendments of the Constitution. The amendments were added to the Constitution in 1791. I like the second amendment because it gives people's right to bear arm to protect themselves. Guns are cool.

By the way, I got 100 on the last test. I'm so happy.