Executive - Judicial Branch

Course Completion Express Workshop (Cohort) Worksheet #3: The Executive Branch and the Judicial Branch This ‘Course Completion Express Workshop” worksheet provides a roadmap of many key concepts from the course sections discussing the history and structure of the U.S. Constitution. The worksheet SHOULD NOT be treated as a comprehensive guide to what you need to know to successfully demonstrate competency over the material. Rather, this worksheet is designed to help you focus on many core concepts as PART of your educational journey in the course. If you plan to print this checklist and hand-write your answers, first add more white space after each question. THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH (The President and the Federal Executive Branch bureaucracy) 1. The Constitution established the role of President and Executive Branch in Article _2____. The Presidency we have most closely reflects the influence of the ____Virginia___________ Plan debated at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, 1787. 2. The U.S. Senate has __100___ members, with each state having __2___ senators. 3. The President is elected every __4___ years and must be at least __35__ years old. The President is limited to ___2__ elected terms in office according to the __22__nd Amendment to the Constitution passed after Franklin Roosevelt won election 4 times. 4. The President’s citizenship requirement as discussed in the Constitution requires that the President be ___naturally born a us citizen___________. 5. The following are all powers granted to the President in Article II of the Constitution EXCEPT FOR WHICH: a) The power to Declare War and control the state militias to quell domestic insurrection b) The power to appointment Supreme Court Justices, federal judges, and other officers of the U.S. government with Senate confirmation c) The power to grant pardons and reprieves for federal crimes (except for impeachment) d) The power to establish treaties with foreign countries (with Senate approval) 6. What are Executive Orders and why are they sometimes controversial? __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________. 1 THE JUDICIAL BRANCH 7. The Supreme Court is established in Article _3____ of the U.S. Constitution. What does that same Article say about the creation of the lower federal courts? _______________________________________________________________________________________. 8. There currently are __94___ federal District Courts where trials occur, __13___ regional circuit courts of appeals (and one specialized nationwide Court of Appeal), and a total of __9___ Supreme Court Justices that comprise the Supreme Court. 9. The _federal district court______________ has original jurisdiction for most federal criminal law trials. This is where your trial by jury would occur if the Department of Justice charged you with a federal crime. 10. The Supreme Court has ___appellate____________ jurisdiction for most cases, meaning that the Supreme Court can choose to accept a case only after it has worked its way through the federal court system (and only a small # of those cases) or the state system in a way that prompts a federal lawsuit challenging the Constitutionality of a state law. 11. The following are all cases that the Supreme Court likely to accept EXCEPT FOR (pick one): a) Cases that involve a challenge to a state law as unconstitutional. b) Cases where two or more Circuit Courts of Appeals have made different rulings on a similar issue. c) Cases where a criminal defendant has been charged with a federal crime. d) Cases where a law already challenged in the Circuit Court of Appeals involves a key Constitutional issue. 12. The main power of the federal courts (including the Supreme Court) to “check the power” of the Legislative and Executive Branches is called _judicial review______________ and refers to the Courts’ ability to determine whether a law created by Congress or an Executive Action (e.g., an Executive Order) taken by the President is _unconstitutional____________. The Supreme Court only can use this power in relation to a specific court case challenging the law or action. 13. The concept precedence is the foundation of the American legal system. What does this concept mean? __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________. Answer Key: 1. Article 2. Virginia Plan. 2. 100, 2 Senators per state 3. 4 years, 35 years old. Two elected terms, 22 nd amendment. 2 4. “a naturally born citizen” (Constitution, Article II) 5. The President does NOT have the power to declare war. So, “A” is not correct, even though the President does have the power to control the state militias to quell domestic insurrection. 6. Executive Orders are official policy statements from the President instructing the Executive Branch on key operations, requirements, and guidance on how to implement the laws that Congress has passed. While most Executive Orders are not controversial at all, Presidents do from time to time use Executive Orders to issue policy guidance as a way to “get around working with Congress” and heavily “bending” the laws through decisions about how to selectively enforce or implement the law. Critics find this Presidential use of Executive Orders to be pushing the President too far into the “legislative role” that Congress has (whereas, per critics, the President’s main job is not to make laws, but to faithfully execute/implement those laws). 7. Article 3. The Constitution creates a Supreme Court, but leaves Congress to decide on whether the country would have Federal courts (inferior courts) and what structure the federal court system should have. Congress first created the federal judicial branch courts with the Judiciary Act of 1789, officially titled "An Act to Establish the Judicial Courts of the United States." 8. 94 Federal District Court regions, 13 appeals court districts, 9 Supreme Court Justices. 9. Federal District Court 10. Appellate Jurisdiction 11. Answer: “C”. The Supreme Court would NOT hear “cases where a criminal defendant has been charged with a federal crime.” The original jurisdiction for a common federal court case is the Federal District Courthouse where a trial with a jury will take place. 12. Judicial Review, Unconstitutional (meaning that the law or action violates the Constitution. This judicial review ability applies to national, state, and local government laws or actions). 13. The legal concept of “precedence” (also called by the Latin phrase, stare decisis, “let the decision stand”) is a legal principle that bases court decisions on the long history of court rulings in similar cases. In other words, the PRECEDENT set by earlier Courts guides the decision-making today. The use of precedence as a foundation for the American legal system provides predictability and stability in the U.S. court system. However, critics argue that judges should be more willing to overturn prior precedent in order for the law to remain closely connected to modern conditions throughout the country (what we call ‘judicial activism’). 3