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Constitutional ConventionConstitution of United States of America
Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1787A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Index of Terms
Amendment
Article 5 of the Constitution allows Congress to propose amendments (with two-thirds vote) that must be ratified by three-fourths of the states (today 38 of 50). Amendments are also necessary to withdraw existing amendments. There are 27 amendments to the Constitution as of 2023. Amendments allow revisions to or clarification of components of the Constitution. The first 10 amendments are known as the Bill of Rights, and they were ratified two years after the Constitution (1789). They were drafted and passed because of concerns among anti-Federalists about civil liberties.
House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is one of two bodies that makes up the United States Congress. Like senators, representatives must meet specified age and citizenship requirements to serve. They serve terms of two years. In conjunction with the Senate, the House passes legislation that must be signed by the president to become law. The Constitution dictates that representatives are directly elected by their constituents in the states. The number of representatives from a state is not fixed; rather, the census clause of Article 1 states that representation will be proportional to a state’s population. Thus, the number of representatives allocated to a state may change every 10 years when the census is taken. There are currently 435 voting members of the House of Representatives.
President
The president is the executive office of the United States under the separation of powers outlined in the Constitution. The president must be a US citizen by birth and at least 35 years old. Executive power is subject to checks by both the legislative and judicial branches of government.
Senate
The Senate is one of the two houses of the bicameral legislature in the United States. Senators have the authority to pass legislation, but a bill does not become a law unless passed by the House of Representative, too, and signed by the president. This method of legislating serves as one of several checks on legislative authority. The Constitution states that each state has two senators who are elected by state legislatures. The 17th Amendment to the Constitution, however, altered the indirect form of election by giving citizens the right to directly vote for their senators.
