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A change added to a bill or law, or to the Constitution. |
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People who wanted the states to have the power instead of the national government. They didn't want a national constitution. |
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Those who wanted a strong national government and worked to establish the U.S. Constitution. |
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Articles of Confederation |
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This was the first draft of the Constitution. We used this until 1789 after the actual constitution was ratified. |
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The first ten amendments to the Constitution that establish certain rights for people- like the Right to Bear Arms, Right to Freedom of Speech, Assembly, etc. |
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This is the form of government that we have. The federal government has certain powers and responsibilities and the states have certain powers and responsibilities. |
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This means that the government has to follow a constitution and can't do things that aren't specifically written in to it. The government is limited by what the constitution says. |
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This is the idea that each branch of a government has specific responsibilities and the branches have to agree on things so that no one branch gets too much power and does what it wants. |
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A two house system of government like we have with a senate and a house of representatives. |
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These are provisions set up in the constitution to make sure that no one government agency or branch can go off on a tangent....the constitution gives the president the right to veto things the senate and house decide on, and the senate and house can override the president if need be. |
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This is a kind of government with strong state governments and a loose, weak national government. The Anti-Federalists favored this type of government. |
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This is a part of Article 1 of the Constitution that allows Congress to make the laws necessary to carry out the responsibilities that it is given in the Constitution- i.e. enact taxes, etc. |
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Specific powers given to Congress in the Constitution. |
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These were articles written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay in favor of ratifying the Constitution. These guys wanted a strong national government. |
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This is a power granted to the U.S. Supreme court to look at decisions made by Congress, the President or individual states and determine if they are constitutional or not. If they are deemed constitutional, then the decision stands. If they are not constitutional, then the decision is cancelled. |
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This was an agreement decided on at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that said that slaves would count as three-fifths of a person, and so states with slaves would be given representatives in congress based on how many free people they had PLUS the slaves figured at 3/5s per person each. |
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This plan was discussed at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The believers in this plan wanted all states to have equal representation in Congress regardless of the number of people in the state. |
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This was discussed at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The people who liked this plan wanted a system of representation in Congress based upon the population of each state. The more people in a state, the more members in Congress. |
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The believers in the New Jersey Plan and the Virginia PLan came together and agreed on this compromise: There should be two houses of Congress. In one, the membership shall be based upon the state's populations. In the other, each state shall have two representatives regardless of the population size of the state. This is how our government is set up today. |
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Article VI of the Constitution. It says the U.S. Constitution is the SUPREME law of the land- no states can go against this. |
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Unjust government that employs cruel use of power and authority. |
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