The document summarizes the 7 articles of the US Constitution. Article I establishes the legislative branch and gives powers to Congress. Article II establishes the executive branch and gives powers to the presidency. Article III establishes the judicial branch and the Supreme Court. Article IV describes relations between states and guarantees protections. Article V establishes the process for amending the Constitution. Article VI establishes the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. Article VII describes the ratification process for establishing the Constitution.

1. ARTICLES OF THE
CONSTITUTION
1789 – Present

2. James
Madison
James Madison
is hailed as the
“Father of the
Constitution” for
being
instrumental in
the drafting of
the United States
Constitution and
as the key
architect of the
Bill of Rights.

3. Article I, Section 1
• “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.”
• Article I, Section 1 established the principle of bicameralism – the
presence of two separate, but equally powerful legislative bodies
as a further safeguard against government tyranny.
• By specifying “powers herein granted,” the Founding Fathers
ensured that Congress theoretically could not do whatever it
wanted to do.

4. Article I, Section 2
• Section 2 of Article I establishes a House of Representatives as
the lower House of the Congress.
• As constituted, the House is as powerful as the Senate, and in one
respect is even more powerful:
• the House has the sole power to originate revenue bills.
• The membership of the House is apportioned according to each
state’s population, which is based on the census.
• One representative for every 30,000 people.
• Although the ratio has grown with the population, since 1911 it has been
fixed by statute at 435.

5. Article I, Section 2
• Section 2 also lays out the two-year term rule and qualifications
for each House member:
• Twenty-five years of age
• U.S. citizen of seven years
• Finally, it authorizes the House to choose its top officials,
including the Speaker of the House.

6. Speaker
John
Boehner (R)
As Speaker of
the House, John
Boehner is
second in line to
the presidency of
the United States
following the
Vice-President in
accordance with
the Presidential
Succession Act.

7. Rep. Mo
Brooks (R)
Mo Brooks
serves
Alabama’s Fifth
District and
serves on three
Congressional
committees:
House Armed
Services,
Science, Space,
and Technology,
and Foreign
Affairs.

8. Article I, Section 3
• Section 3 of Article I establishes a Senate as the upper House of
the Congress.
• Individual senators may be considered more powerful than their
counterparts in the House because of the longer term lengths
and there are far fewer members in the body.
• However, there is no constitutional basis for the claim that the Senate is a
superior chamber.
• The vice-president theoretically presides over the Senate as its
president and the president pro-tempore serves in the vice-president’s
absence.

9. Article I, Section 3
• The membership in the Senate is apportioned equally among the
states.
• The provisions of Clause 1 and 2 that state legislators choose senators would
be overturned in 1913 with the Seventeenth Amendment.
• Section 3 also lays out the six-year term rule and qualifications for
each senator:
• Thirty years of age
• U.S. citizen of nine years

10. Senator Jeff
Sessions (R)
Jeff Sessions is the
former Attorney
General of Alabama
and is currently as
the ranking minority
member on the
Senate Budget
Committee. He was
nominated to the
U.S. District Court
for the Southern
District of Alabama
in 1986 by Ronald
Reagan but his
confirmation failed.

11. Senator
Richard
Shelby, (R)
Richard Shelby
is the senior U.S.
Senator from
Alabama having
switched political
affiliation in 1994
during Bill
Clinton’s first
term. He serves
as the ranking
member of the
Committee on
Appropriations.

12. Article I, Section 8
• Article I, Section 8 is the most heavily cited clause in the original
Constitution, as it lays out all the enumerated powers of Congress.
• “The Congress shall have the power to…”
• Lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises.
• Borrow and coin money.
• Regulate commerce with foreign nations, among the several States, and with
the Indian Tribes.
• Declare war - raise and support Armies/provide and maintain a Navy.
• Establish post offices and post roads.
• The eighteenth clause is known as the Necessary and Proper
clause giving Congress the authority to make all laws that are
necessary and proper for carrying out their foregoing powers.

13. Article II, Section 1
• “The executive power shall be vested in a president of the United
States of America…”
• Article II, Section 1 lays out the manner by which the president
and vice-president are selected, the qualifications for those two
offices, and the means for removal and succession.
• Natural born citizen
• Thirty-five years of age
• U.S. resident of fourteen years
• The executive will serve for a term of four years.
• George Washington established the precedent of serving no more than two,
four year terms totaling eight years.
• Following Franklin Roosevelt’s unprecedented election to four consecutive
terms, Congress passed the Twenty-second Amendment.

14. President
Barack
Obama (D)
Barack Obama is
the 44th and
current President
of the United
States, and the
first African-
American to hold
the office. He is a
graduate of both
Columbia
University and
Harvard Law
School, where he
was president of
the Harvard Law
Review.

15. Vice-
President Joe
Biden (D)
Joe Biden is the
47th and current
Vice-President of
the United States,
jointly elected with
Barack Obama. As
a Senator, he
chaired the
Judiciary
Committee during
the contentious
Supreme Court
nominations of
Robert Bork and
Clarence Thomas.

16. Article II, Section 1
• Before he can discharge the duties of his office, the president
must take the following oath or affirmation stated in Clause 8:
• “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of
President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve,
protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
• While the Constitution does not mandate the particular individual
that is to administer the oath, the oath is typically administer by
the Chief Justice.
• By convention, the president-elect raises their right hand and places their left
on a Bible.

17. Article II, Section 2
• “The President shall be commander-in-chief of the Army and
Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several
states…”
• Article II, Section 2 is striking for how few express powers are
granted to the president as compared to the long list of powers
granted to Congress in Article I.
• Grant pardons and reprieves.
• Make treaties.
• Nominate/appoint Ambassadors, public Ministers, Judges to the Supreme Court.
• In the twentieth century, the powers granted to the president
expanded to create a far more powerful presidency than the
founders envisioned.

18. Article II, Section 3
• Section 3 outlines the numerous responsibilities of the president.
• He is obligated to give a report on the “state of the union” to
Congress.
• Today this occurs in the form of a yearly address.
• Additionally, this allows the president to outline their legislative agenda for
which they need the cooperation of Congress.
• The president also has the duty to “take care that laws be faithfully
executed.”

20. Article II, Section 4
• Article II, Section 4 lays out the process of impeachment and
conviction of civil officers, but the phrase “high crimes and
misdemeanors” is vague and subject to interpretation.
• Impeachment shall be based on the conviction of:
• Treason
• Bribery
• High crimes and misdemeanors
• Only two chief executives have ever been formally impeached
under this section and, in both cases, the Senate failed to provide
the required two-thirds vote necessary for conviction.
• Andrew Johnson in 1868.
• Bill Clinton in 1998.

21. Article III, Section 1
• “The judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one
Supreme Court, and in such interior courts as Congress may from
time to time ordain and establish.”
• Article III establishes a U.S. Supreme Court, spells out the terms
of office of its members, and lists the various cases to which its
judicial power extends.
• Just as important, it provides the basis for a more elaborate
judicial system featuring numerous levels of courts.
• Note that only one court is specifically mentioned, and there are no
provisions that specify the size or composition of the court.

22. Article III, Section 2
• The justices of the Supreme Court are appointed by the president
and confirmed by the Senate.
• Justices serve for indefinite terms on good behavior, which provides the
equivalent of life tenure to federal judges on those three levels of courts.
• Article III, Section 2 establishes judicial jurisdiction pertaining to
all cases involving:
• the Constitution
• laws of the United States
• Treaties made between
• Ambassadors and public ministers
• maritime jurisdiction
• two or more states
• a state and a citizen of another state
• a state and a foreign nation

23. Article III, Section 3
• Article III, Section 3 defines treason and sets the perimeters of
how it shall be tried in court.
• Treason is defined as levying war against the United States or
giving aid and comfort to our enemies.
• Individuals can only be convicted of treason on the testimony of two eye
witnesses to the same overt act or on confession in an open court.
• Congress is given the power to declare the punishment of treason, which is
almost always death.

24. The Judiciary Act
• The Judiciary Act of 1789 was a landmark statute adopted by the
first Congress, which established the federal judiciary.
• First, the act set the number of Supreme Court justices at six.
• One Chief justice and five Associate justice.
• Second, it created thirteen judicial districts within the eleven
States that ratified the Constitution.
• Virginia and Massachusetts were allotted two districts because of their vast
territory size.
• Third, it established a circuit court and district court in each
judicial district.
• Fourth, it created the Office of Attorney General, whose primary
responsibility was to represent the United States before the
Supreme Court.

26. Chief Justice
John
Roberts
John Roberts is
the 17th and
current Chief
Justice of the
Supreme Court.
He was nominated
in 2005 by
President George
W. Bush after the
death of Chief
Justice William
Rehnquist.

27. Attorney
General Eric
Holder
Eric Holder is the
82nd Attorney
General of the
United States and
the first African-
American to hold
the position. He
served as the senior
legal advisor to
Barack Obama
during his
presidential
campaign and was
on the vice-presidential
selection
committee.

28. Article IV, Section 1
• Article IV describes the responsibilities states have to each other
under the Constitution and the obligations of the federal
government to the states.
• In recent years, the most controversial aspect of Article IV has
been the full faith and credit clause of Section 1.
• This clause binds states to respect the public acts and proceedings of other
states, including the granting of drivers’ licenses, child custody ruling, etc.

29. Article IV, Section 2
• Section 2 of Article IV requires that states not discriminate
against citizens of other states in favor of its own citizens.
• This section also establishes the principle of extradition, which
declares that criminals who flee from the justice of a state will be
returned to the state where he/she committed the crime.
• Crimes associated with extradition include treason, felony, or other crimes.
• It is only upon the demand of the state’s executive authority (governor) that
extradition can occur.

30. Article IV, Section 3
• Article IV also provides the procedures for admitting new states
to the Union.
• No state has been admitted since Alaska and Hawaii’s entry in the 1950s.
• No new state can be formed within the jurisdiction of another
state nor can any state be formed by the joining of two or more
states or parts of states.
• The only possible method to form a state in this manner is with the
permission of the state’s legislature and Congress.
• Additionally, Congress is granted the power to dispose of or
create any rule or regulation regarding:
• a state, territory, or property of the United States.

31. Article IV, Section 4
• Section 4 lays out the three requirements that the United States
government will guarantee to every state in the Union:
• a republican form of government
• A republic is a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens
entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by
them.
• protection from invasion
• protection from domestic violence

32. Article V
• Article V spells out the process for amending the Constitution.
• By far the most common form of constitutional amendment has
been by congressional proposal, with state legislatures ratifying the
proposal.
• Twenty-six of the Twenty-seven amendments have been adopted in this way.
• The necessary numbers include:
• Two-thirds of the state legislatures can call a convention to propose an
amendment.
• Two-thirds of both Houses can propose an amendment.
• The proposed amendment will become valid once it is ratified by three-fourths
of the state legislatures or state conventions.
• No amendment can deprive a state of its equal suffrage in the Senate.

33. Article V
• Article V does not provide a deadline for considering proposed
amendments, although Congress has the power to set such
deadlines in the language of the proposed amendment.
• Congress did not do this in the case of the Twenty-Seventh
Amendment.
• The amendment received the approval of the required three-fourths of
states necessary for ratification in 1992, a full 203 years after the amendment
was first proposed (1789).

34. Article VI
• Article VI establishes that the Constitution, laws, and treaties are
to be the supreme law of the land.
• This is cited as the Supremacy clause.
• The Supreme Court has consistently struck down any attempt by
the states to control federal institutions.
• It has even reminded state governments that even state constitutions are
subordinate to federal statutes.
• Article VI also declares that any and all debts that the United
States has entered into prior to the adoption of the Constitution
will still be valid.

35. Article VI
• Lastly, Article VI mentioned that all Representatives and Senators,
members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and
judicial officers will be bound by an oath or affirmation.
• This oath is similar to the oath taken by the president, which requires full
support and dedication to the Constitution.
• Furthermore, no religious test will be given as a qualification to
any public office or trust.

36. Article VII
• Article VII declares that the ratification of nine states will be
sufficient in establishing the legality of the Constitution between
the states and the national government.
• Thereafter, the text reads that the Constitution was submitted by
the unanimous consent of the states’ delegates on September 17,
1787.

37. Preamble
•We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more
perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility,
provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare,
and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of
America.