Structure of the Court System: Crash Course Government and Politics

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American Law: History and Origins

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Overview of the American Legal System

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HISTORY OF US LAW AND WHAT IS THE LAW?

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The Constitution, the Articles, and Federalism: Crash Course US History #8

The Functions of the Constitution

The United States Constitution is an amazing document.  A bold experiment in democracy more than 200 years ago, it has proved both stable and flexible enough to survive and remain effective in a world totally different from the one in which it was written.

The Constitution has three main functions.  First it creates a national government consisting of a legislative, an executive, and a judicial branch, with a system of checks and balances among the three branches.  Second, it divides power between the federal government and the states.  And third, it protects various individual liberties of American citizens.

The Constitution’s framework owes much to the history that led to its drafting.  The limitations placed on the federal government and each of its branches were a reaction to the tyranny of British rule, and especially the tyranny of the single monarch.  Yet the breadth of the national government’s powers were a correction to the weak government of the Articles of Confederation (the short lived system before the present constitution), that had proved incapable of forging the thirteen original states into one nation.

US Elections - How do they work?

Separation of Powers

The Government of the United States, the federal government, is divided into three branches:  the executive power, invested in the President, the legislative power, given to Congress (the House of Representatives and the Senate), and the judicial power, vested in one Supreme Court and other federal courts created by Congress.  The Constitution provides a system of checks and balances designed to avoid the tyranny of any one branch.

Most important actions require the participation of more than once branch of government.  For example, Congress passes laws, but the President can veto them.  The executive branch prosecutes persons for criminal violations, but they must be tried by the courts.  The President appoints federal judges, but their appointment must be confirmed by the Senate.

How is the Power divided in the US Government

B.  The Structure of the Federal Government

1.  Legislative Branch

Article I of the Constitution vests the legislative power of the Untied States in a bicameral Congress.  The Congress is composed of the House of Representatives, the members of which are elected for two-year terms and represent districts of  equal numbers of  people, and the Senate which is composed of two senators from each state who serve for six-years terms.  Senators were originally chosen by the state legislature, but are now directly elected.  The composition of the House and Senate represented a compromise between the larger states, which wanted a legislature based on population and the smaller states, which wanted equal representation for each state.  A majority of both houses must pass all bills, and if the President vetoes a bill, a two-thirds majority of both houses is required for the bill to become law.

The powers of Congress are listed in Article I, Section 8, and Congress may not exercise any not power listed there.  But those powers encompass many areas, including taxing and spending, coining and borrowing money, controlling interstate and foreign commerce, maintaining an army and navy, and declaring war.  Several of these powers have been interpreted very broadly, especially the power to regulate interstate commerce and the power to “make all laws which shall be necessary and proper” for carrying out all their other powers.  Congress also has broad authority to delegate many of its powers to the President and to administrative agencies.

2.  Executive Branch

The power of the executive branch is vested in the President.  The President is elected for a four-year term, not by direct election but by the electoral college.  Under this system, each state has a number of members of the electoral college equal to the number of members of the House and Senate.  The candidate who receives the largest number of votes in a state gets all the electoral votes of that state.  The candidate with a majority of the electoral college becomes the President.  If no candidate receives a majority of the electoral votes, the winner is chosen by the House of Representatives.  To be eligible to be President one must be thirty-five years old and a natural born citizen of the United States.  Under the Twenty-second Amendment, no person may serve as President more than twice.

The powers explicitly granted to the President in Article II are quite important, but limited in number.  The President is the Commander in Chief of the Army.  He also has the power to grant pardons and reprieves and has the power, with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, and to appoint federal judges, ambassadors, and other public Officers of the United States.  The extent of the President’s inherent power over matters not explicitly provided for in the Constitution is subject to debate.  The power to conduct foreign affairs has been held to be inherent in the office, but the Supreme Court has been less willing to extend inherent powers in the domestic area.

The President is subject to control by Congress in several ways.  Congress has the last word on many disputes with its ability to pass laws, even over the President’s veto.  The President’s most important appointments are subject to confirmation by the Senate.  Finally, the President may be removed from office if impeached by the House and convicted by two-thirds of the Senate of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

3.  The Judicial Branch

The Constitution grants the judicial power of the United States to one Supreme Court and other inferior courts that may be created by Congress.  Federal judges are appointed for life by the President and must be confirmed by the Senate.

All federal courts are, under the Constitution, courts of limited jurisdiction. They may hear only “cases or controversies,” which means that they cannot perform non-judicial functions or give advice to the President or Congress about the constitutionality of  proposed action.  They cannot hear all kinds of cases, but only those listed as within the judicial power of the United States, as laid out in Article III.  The kinds of cases listed in Article III were chosen to protect various interests of the United States.  The federal courts are also subject to the will of Congress in so far as it can distribute and even limit the jurisdiction of the various federal courts.

The federal courts have one power not enjoyed by courts in some other countries.  They may declare a statute enacted by Congress to be in violation of the Constitution and therefore invalid.  This power of judicial review was established by the Supreme Court in 1803, in the landmark case of Marbury v. Madison.  If the Supreme Court declares a Congressional Statute unconstitutional, normally the only way to change this result is to use the difficult process of amending the Constitution.

Although the Supreme Court is in one sense the final arbiter of the meaning of the Constitution, this power is not unlimited.  The Court cannot enforce its judgments without the cooperation of the executive branch, and is subject, at least in some measure, to control over its jurisdiction by Congress.  The Court itself has relinquished the power to interpret certain areas of the Constitution, saying that is committed by the Constitution to other branches of government.  For example, the Court has determined that the power to judge the qualifications of members of Congress has been entrusted by the Constitution solely to Congress itself, and has refused to act in such matters.

10 Facts: What Everyone Should Know About the Civil War

10 Facts: What Everyone Should Know About the Civil War

Characters, Causes, and Context

The Civil War profoundly shaped the United States as we know it today. Nevertheless, the war remains one of the most misunderstood events in American history. Here are ten basic facts you need to know about America's defining struggle. To know more go through the link below.

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/10-facts-what-everyone-should-know-about-civil-war

Civil War 2013: Photographs From the Grisly American Conflict | The New ...

The North had more men and war materials than the South.

At the beginning of the Civil War, 22 million people lived in the North and 9 million people (nearly 4 million of whom were slaves) lived in the South.  

The North also had more money, more factories, more horses, more railroads, and more farmland. On paper, these advantages made the United States much more powerful than the Confederate States.  

However, the Confederates were fighting defensively on territory that they knew well. They also had the advantage of the sheer size of the Southern Confederacy. Which meant that the northern armies would have to capture and hold vast quantities of land across the south. 

Still, too, the Confederacy maintained some of the best ports in North America—including New Orleans, Charleston, Mobile, Norfolk, and Wilmington. Thus, the Confederacy was able to mount a stubborn resistance.

The Civil War, Part I: Crash Course US History #20

The Civil War began when Southern troops bombarded Fort Sumter, South Carolina.

When the southern states seceded from the Union, war was still not a certainty. Federal forts, barracks, and naval shipyards dotted the southern landscape. 

Many Regular Army officers clung tenaciously to their posts, rather than surrender their facilities to the growing southern military presence. 

President Lincoln attempted to resupply these garrisons with food and provisions by sea. The Confederacy learned of Lincoln’s plans and demanded that the forts surrender under threat of force.  

When the U.S. soldiers refused, South Carolinians bombarded Fort Sumter in the center of Charleston harbor.  After a 34-hour battle, the soldiers inside the fort surrendered to the Confederates.  

Legions of men from north and south rushed to their respective flags in the ensuing patriotic fervor. 

How the Civil War Got Its Start

The issues of slavery and central power divided the United States.

Slavery was concentrated mainly in the southern states by the mid-19th century, where slaves were used as farm laborers, artisans, and house servants. Chattel slavery formed the backbone of the largely agrarian southern economy.  In the northern states, industry largely drove the economy. Many people in the north and the south believed that slavery was immoral and wrong, yet the institution remained, which created a large chasm on the political and social landscape. 

Southerners felt threatened by the pressure of northern politicians and “abolitionists,” who included the zealot John Brown, and claimed that the federal government had no power to end slavery, impose certain taxes, force infrastructure improvements, or influence western expansion against the wishes of the state governments. 

While some northerners felt that southern politicians wielded too much power in the House and the Senate and that they would never be appeased. 

Still, from the earliest days of the United States through the antebellum years, politicians on both sides of the major issues attempted to find a compromise that would avoid the splitting of the country, and ultimately avert a war. 

The Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and many others, all failed to steer the country away from secession and war. In the end, politicians on both sides of the aisle dug in their heels. 

Eleven states left the United States in the following order and formed the Confederate States of America: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

American Civil War | History of the United States | 1861-1865 | Documentary

Abraham Lincoln was the President of the United States during the Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln grew up in a log cabin in Kentucky.  He worked as a shopkeeper and a lawyer before entering politics in the 1840s.  Alarmed by his anti-slavery stance, seven southern states seceded soon after he was elected president in 1860—with four more states to soon follow. 

Lincoln declared that he would do everything necessary to keep the United States united as one country. He refused to recognize the southern states as an independent nation and the Civil War erupted in the spring of 1861.  

On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves in the areas of the country that "shall then be in rebellion against the United States." The Emancipation Proclamation laid the groundwork for the eventual freedom of slaves across the country.  

Lincoln won re-election in 1864 against opponents who wanted to sign a peace treaty with the southern states.  On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was shot by assassin John Wilkes Booth, a southern sympathizer. Abraham Lincoln died at 7:22 am the next morning. 

The American Civil War

A civil war, also known as an intrastate war in polemology, is a war between organized groups within the same state or country. ... A civil war is a high-intensity conflict, often involving regular armed forces, that is sustained, organized and large-scale. 

FThe Civil War was fought between the Northern and the Southern states from 1861-1865.

The American Civil War was fought between the United States of America and the Confederate States of America, a collection of eleven southern states that left the Union in 1860 and 1861. The conflict began primarily as a result of the long-standing disagreement over the institution of slavery. 

On February 9, 1861,  Jefferson Davis, a former U.S. Senator and Secretary of War, was elected President of the Confederate States of America by the members of the Confederate constitutional convention.  

After four bloody years of conflict, the United States defeated the Confederate States. In the end, the states that were in rebellion were readmitted to the United States, and the institution of slavery was abolished nation-wide.

To know about The Civil War in the USA watch the video above.

Tea, Taxes, and The American Revolution: Crash Course World History #28

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The Wars for American Independence: The Revolutionary War in Four Minutes

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"A Brief History of America's Independence: Part 1" (Revolutionary War)

 This is the video clip to prepare for the Seminar 7.