Term
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Definition
All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
explanation:
Congress, and only Congress, has the power to make laws. And the Congress is a bicameral legislative body—that is, it's divided into two chambers, the House and the Senate. ("Bicameral" is just a fancy Latin word that means "two chambers.") |
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Term
| Article 1, Section 2, Clause 1 |
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Definition
Clause 1. The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.
Every two years, voters ("Electors") get a chance to cast ballots to determine who will represent them in the House of Representatives. The last bit about "Qualifications requisite" just means that each state must allow anyone who can legally vote in state elections also to vote for US Representative; the states aren't allowed to limit voting rights for US House elections to a small elite |
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Term
| Article 1, Section 2, Clause 2 |
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Definition
Clause 2. No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.
Here are the job requirements for serving in the House: You need to be 25 years old, you need to have been a citizen for at least seven years, and you need to live in the state you want to represent in Congress. That's it! |
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Term
| Article 1, Section 2, Clause 4 |
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Definition
Clause 4. When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.
If a congressional seat should become vacant in the middle of a term, for whatever reason, the state's governor (a.k.a. "the Executive Authority thereof") is supposed to call a special election to fill the vacancy. |
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Term
| Article 1, Section 2, Clause 5 |
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Definition
Clause 5. The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.
For reasons that are not entirely clear, this clause includes two important elements that seemingly have nothing whatsoever to do with each other. First, the House of Representatives has the power to choose its own leaders; customarily, the majority party chooses its leader to serve as the Speaker of the House. Second, the House of Representatives—and only the House of Representatives—has the power to impeach executive and judicial officers deemed unfit for office. (To "impeach" means to accuse; if the House does vote to impeach, the Senate must then decide whether or not to convict and remove the person from office.) |
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Term
| Article 1, Section 3, Clause 1 |
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Definition
Clause 1. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.
Each state, regardless of population, gets two seats in the Senate. Each senator's term lasts six years. And note the crossed-out bit: originally, senators were not elected by the people but were instead chosen by their state legislatures. This led, by the end of the nineteenth century, to widespread accusations of corruption. The 17th Amendment, an important Progressive Era reform passed in 1913, allowed for the direct election of senators by the people. |
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