Anatomy of the Constitution

Where does the government get its instructions?
How do Congress, the President, and federal judges know what to do?

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What do you think the Framers meant by "We the People"?

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What do you think the Framers meant by "form a more perfect union"?

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What do you think "establish Justice" meant to the Framers?

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What do you think the Framers meant by "Insure domestic Tranquility"?

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What do you think the Framers meant by "provide for the common defense"?

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What do you think "promote the general welfare" meant to the Framers?

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What do you think the Framers meant by "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity"?

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What do you think "do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America" to the Framers?

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What did you learn from analyzing the Preamble? Summarize what you think the purpose of the preamble is?

Anatomy of the Constitution

How do they govern?
The U.S. Constitution is the document that established our nation’s government. The contents of the
Constitution created the three branches of our government with directions for how the federal government
works. (It did this with a little over 4,500 words covering only four sheets of paper!) Although the
Constitution was written in 1787, more than 200 years ago, it still guides our officials in running our country
today. It is the oldest written constitution in the world that is still in use.

Introducing... The Preamble
Our Constitution is divided into nine parts. The first paragraph is called the Preamble and it is short but mighty. Its job is to introduce the Constitution, explain what the document is meant to do, and describe the purpose of the new government. The first three words — ”We the People”—contain the important idea of self-government and of unity in our diversity. It states that this nation will be founded on the ideals of justice, peace, and freedom for all. But what we wanted to be, was not quite who we were at that moment.

Defining "We the People"
So, who was this “we?” The Constitution was written for all people living within the United States, but the rights and freedoms for some people were limited in 1787. To start, voting
was not granted to every person. And voting is the most formal way that people have power in a democracy. Voting qualifications were left to the states, and in 1787 many people were not allowed to vote. This included many groups such as women, white men without property, free and enslaved Black people, and Native Americans. For white women, it was assumed that they were represented by their husbands and fathers. For others, their humanity was not even recognized under the law. But over time, groups have worked to change that. Even without the formal power to vote, people have organized and protested to bring attention to a cause. Everyone can help make sure the nation moves closer to ensuring justice, peace, and freedom for all.

Creating Congress: Article I

Article I is the first and longest part of the Constitution. It creates the legislative branch of
our government. Legislative means law-making. This section is the longest because the
people who wrote the Constitution believed that a legislative branch is very important in a
government that represents the people. Members of the legislature, or law-making body,
are responsible for turning their constituents’ wants and needs into laws. They also
answer most directly to the people who elect them.
Represent Me!
The legislative branch makes our government a representative democracy.
This means that people elect representatives to represent their needs and concerns. Article I
creates a legislature called Congress and divides it into two parts: the Senate and the House of
Representatives. It also describes how Congress should be organized, tells what qualifications legislators must have, and says how often Congress should hold elections and meet as a group. It explains how the House of Representatives and Senate should work. At first, the people only directly elected members of the House of Representatives but now we vote for Senators too.

​Charles Thomson designed this seal for the Continental Congress in 1782. The olive branch and the arrows held in the eagle’s talons represent

Contrast the parts of Congress

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What differences do you notice between the House of Representatives and the Senate? Why do you think the Framers wrote it that way?

The Powers of Congress

• Collect taxes

• Borrow money and pay debts

• Make rules for how to become a citizen

• Regulate commerce (trade) between the states, with Native American nations, and with foreign countries.

• Establish post offices

• Coin money and punish counterfeiters

• Give patents to new inventions

• Create the lower federal courts

• Punish pirates

• Declare war and support an army and navy.

• Make any other laws that are "necessary and proper" to carry out the powers on this list.

Creating the President: Article II

Article II of the Constitution describes the job of the executive branch. This branch

executes, or carries out, laws. The president heads this branch, which also includes the vice president and many departments that are in charge of carrying out the government’s day-to-day business. Article II describes who qualifies for the position, what powers the office has, and what happens if that person misbehaves. It also explains how the president is selected through the Electoral College. And even though the 12th Amendment changed how we elected the President and Vice President, it has mostly been the same process since the beginning.

Presidential Powers

The overall job of the executive branch is to carry out and enforce laws, but Article II
gives the president a list of specific duties:

-Act as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces
-Maintain a cabinet of advisors (Today there are 15 who run the executive departments like the
Department of Education and the Treasury).
-Make a State of the Union address to Congress
-Negotiate treaties with other countries.
-Appoint ambassadors, Supreme Court Justices, federal court judges, and Cabinet members
-Represent the United States when dealing with foreign countries.
-Make sure that laws are carried out (executed).
-Grant pardons in all federal criminal offenses, and reprieves (postponing punishments
like execution)

Here come the judges! Article III creates the Judicial branch. This branch interprets laws to decide what they mean and whether they have been followed in cases.

Article III creates the Supreme Court and authorizes Congress to create lower federal courts. They deal with United States laws, not state laws. Article III also gives directions about what kinds of cases the Supreme Court and federal courts can hear. Under Article III, federal judges are chosen by the President and approved by the Senate, not elected by the people. They stay on the bench until they retire, die, or are removed for bad behavior. Article III also guarantees trial by jury for criminal cases and explains the crime of treason.

Sandra Day O'Connor (pictured here) was the first female Supreme Court Justice.

​

Creating the Courts: Article III

The States: Article IV

States have the power to create and enforce their own laws. Article IV of the

Constitution describes how states should interact with each other.

• Each state has to respect the laws and court decisions (such as custody agreements) of the other states.

• If an accused person flees from one state to another, the state where the crime was committed can request that they be returned to face charges. This is called extradition.

• New states can be admitted to the Union with the authorization of Congress and the president.

• All states must have a republican, or representative, type of government. (Sorry, states can’t have kings.)

Amending the Constitution: Article V

But the Constitution is not final because the Framers wanted the people to have the ability to change the law, if needed. In fact, they believed it was the duty of the people to make the country stronger by making it better. And over time, people have done just that. Article V describes how the Constitution can be changed. A change or addition to the Constitution is called an amendment. But they did not make it easy.

Open Ended

Why do you think they wanted to make the amendment process long and with a lot of checks? What do you think they feared if it was easy to change?

Supreme Law of the Land: Article VI

Federalism is the idea that the national government shares power with the state governments. But what happens if a state law disagrees with a national or federal law? Article VI states that the laws and treaties of the U.S. government are “the supreme law of the land.” If a state and federal law disagree, the federal one wins. This article also requires officials working in state and federal governments to take an oath to support and defend the Constitution no matter what.

Ratification: Article VII

Article VII says the Constitution could not take effect until at least nine out of the thirteen states approved it. (Back then, there were only thirteen states.) Each state held its own convention to discuss and vote on the Constitution’s plan for government. Voters and their

representatives decided, but many ordinary people read about the proposed
Constitution, and discussed and debated its strengths and weaknesses. With all
of these opinions, getting approval wasn’t easy. After much debate over whether
this new government would be too weak or too powerful, a compromise was
reached. It was agreed that ten amendments would be added to the Constitution.
These amendments, called the Bill of Rights, would list specific rights not already
mentioned in the Constitution. This put people’s minds at ease, and the Constitution
became the law of the land in March 1789. The Bill of Rights was added in 1791.

The Amendment Process

The Constitution has only been amended 27 times in all these years. Does that tell you anything about how hard it is to change? Believe it or not, there are only two steps to the amendment process: approval in the U.S. Congress and approval by the states. But these steps are very difficult (especially the second one). Getting 2/3rds of the members of Congress to agree on something is hard enough… but getting 3/4ths of the states to agree?? That’s an awful lot of agreement! With so much approval required, changing the Constitution can take years.

Here are the ways it can be done:

Match

Match the following definitions with the correct term.

• Carry out a law

• System where the national and state governments share power

• Introduce a new amendment

• Approve or pass

• A representative form of government

Execute

Federalism

Propose

Ratify

Republican

• Execute

• Federalism

• Propose

• Ratify

• Republican

So Few Amendments, So Much Time

Thousands of amendment proposals have been introduced in Congress. Only

33 have ever received enough votes to actually be proposed. Of those, 27

were ratified and are now part of our Constitution. The first ten amendments

(Bill of Rights) were added to the Constitution just two years after it was

written. Ordinary people have also used their power to push for amendments

that would help the nation be more just and equal for all. The 13th, 14th, and

15th amendments ended slavery and promised rights to formerly enslaved

people. The 19th and 26th amendments expanded voting rights. We the

people have a duty to use our power to make sure our government moves

closer to the ideals of the Preamble.

Multiple Choice

How many senators are in the U.S. Senate?

• 50

• 435

• 100

• it depends on the population

Multiple Choice

What was added to the Constitution that listed rights not already in the Constitution?

• The 14th Amendment

• The approval of al 13 states

• The Bill of Rights

• The Necessary and Proper Clause

Multiple Choice

What is the term for members of the House of Representatives?

• 2 years

• 4 years

• 6 years

• Life

Match

Match the following parts of the Constitution to what each part says/does.

• Creates the three branches of government

• Discusses how states should interact with each other.

• How to amend/change the Constitution

• Supreme Law of the Land

• How to ratify the Constitution

Articles 1-3

Article 4

Article 5

Article 6

Article 7

• Articles 1-3

• Article 4

• Article 5

• Article 6

• Article 7

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Preamble: What does the Constitution do? What is the ​

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of the government?

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purpose

legislative

amended

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executive

federalism

judicial

states

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Article I: How does the ​​

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branch create laws? What powers do the states have?

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amended

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steps

executive

federalism

judicial

states

legislative

purpose

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Article II: How does the ​​

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branch carry out laws?

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amended

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executive

federalism

judicial

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legislative

purpose

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Article III: How does the ​​

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branch carry out laws?

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executive

federalism

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Article IV: How should the ​​

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get along?

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executive

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Article V: How can the Constitution be ​​

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, or changed?

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amended

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executive

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Article VI: How does the ​​

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work? Which law is supreme?

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executive

federalism

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Article VII: What ​​

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have to be taken to make the Constitution the law of the land?

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executive

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Amendments: What​​ changes have been made to the ​

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?

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amended

Constitution

executive

federalism

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Draw

Who said it? Match the quote about working in government to the correct branch.

Labelling

Which article do they belong to? Match the people with the correct place in the Constitution where you learn about their job.

Drag labels to their correct position on the image

Article II

Article V

Article I

Article VI

Article VII

Article IV

Article III