The US Constitution

The U.S. Constitution, proclaimed in 1787, is the supreme law of the country, which protects the rights of all the people living in the United States. The Constitution is based on three main principles. The first one guarantees basic rights

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— freedom of speech and religion. The second principle tells about a gov­ernment by the people. The third principle tells about the three branches of the U.S. government, legislative, executive and ju­dicial, that have different powers.

 

 

1. Basic rights	2. Government by the people	3. Separation of powers
Freedom of speech	People vote for their representatives	Three branches of govern­ment with different powers
Freedom of religion
Right to have a trial	People can ask for new laws or changes
Right to own property

 

The U.S. Constitution includes the Preamble, seven articles and 26 amendments, which help make some changes or add some new things. The first ten amendments are called collec­tively Bill of Rights.

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."

The Articles of the Constitution

Article I. The Congress has many powers. It can decide tax­es and make laws about citizenship and about foreign trade. If the U.S. fights with another country, Congress can declare war.

Article II. The President has other powers. He or she is the Commander-in-Chief of the military. The President can choose people to be judges on the Supreme

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Court, he can choose peo­ple to be ambassadors. But the Senate must say okay to these people.

Article III. The Judicial branch has certain powers. The courts can review some laws. If the laws do not agree with the Constitution, the courts can tell Congress to change the laws. The courts listen to problems about protecting the Constitution­al rights of the people.

 

Article	Who	What it does
I	L legislative	makes laws and decides taxes
		okays treaties
II	E executive	gives ideas for laws and treaties
		is Chief of Army and Navy (President)
III	J judicial	decides if laws are okay (judges)
		helps protect people's rights
IV	States	says all states have a republican form of government
		tells each state to respect the laws of anotherstate
V		tells how to amend the Constitution
VI		says the Constitution is the supreme law
VII		tells how to ratify the constitution

 

Article IV. States have a republican form of government. States can make some state laws. All states must respect the laws of other states.

 

Article V. Three-fourths of the states must say okay to an amendment.

 

Article VI. The Constitution is the supreme law of the U.S. Everyone must follow the Constitution.

 

Article VII. Three-fourths of the states must say okay to this Constitution.

 

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Presentations:

1)_The Statue of Liberty

 

2)Francis Scott Key