The Bill of Rights guarantees Americans freedom of speech, of religion,
and of the press. They have the right to assemble in public places, to
protest government actions, and to demand change. There is a right to own
firearms. Because of the Bill of Rights, neither police officers nor
soldiers can stop and search a person without good reason. Nor can they
search a person's home without permission from a court to do so. The Bill
of Rights guarantees a speedy trial to anyone accused of a crime. The trial
must be by jury if requested, and the accused person must be allowed
representation by a lawyer and to call witnesses to speak for him or her.
Cruel and unusual punishment is forbidden. With the addition of the Bill of
Rights, the Constitution was ratified by all 13 states and went into effect
in 1789.
Since then 17 other amendments have been added to the Constitution.
Perhaps the most important of these are the Thirteenth and Fourteenth,
which outlaw slavery and guarantee all citizens equal protection of the
laws, and the Nineteenth, which gives women the right to vote.
The Constitution can be amended in either of two ways. Congress can
propose an amendment, provided that two-thirds of the members of both the
House and the Senate vote in favor of it. Or the legislatures of two-thirds
of the states can call a convention to propose amendments. (This second
method has never been used.) In either case a proposed amendment does not
go into effect until ratified by three-fourths of the states.
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH
The legislative branch -- the Congress -- is made up of elected
representatives from each of the 50 states. It is the only branch of U.S.
government that can make federal laws, levy federal taxes, declare war, and
put foreign treaties into effect.
Members of the House of Representatives are elected to two-year terms.
Each member represents a district in his or her home state. The number of
districts is determined by a census, which is conducted every 10 years. The
most populous states are allowed more representatives than the smaller
ones, some of which have only one. In all, there are 435 representatives in
the House.
Senators are elected to six-year terms. Each state has two senators,
regardless of population. Senators' terms are staggered, so that one-third
of the Senate stands for election every two years. There are 100 senators.
To become a law, a bill must pass both the House and the Senate. After the
bill is introduced in either body, it is studied by one or more committees,
amended, voted out of committee, and discussed in the chamber of the House
or Senate. If passed by one body, it goes to the other for consideration.
When a bill passes the House and the Senate in different forms, members of
both bodies meet in a "conference committee" to iron out the differences.
Groups that try to persuade members of Congress to vote for or against a
bill are called "lobbies." They may try to exert their influence at almost
any stage of the legislative process. Once both bodies have passed the same
version of a bill, it goes to the president for approval.
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
The chief executive of the United States is the president, who together
with the vice president is elected to a four-year term. As a result of a
constitutional amendment that went into effect in 1951, a president may be
elected to only two terms. Other than succeeding a president who dies or is
disabled, the vice president's only official duty is presiding over the
Senate. The vice president may vote in the Senate only to break a tie.
The president's powers are formidable but not unlimited. As the chief
formulator of national policy, the president proposes legislation to
Congress. As mentioned previously, the president may veto any bill passed
by Congress. The president is commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The
president has the authority to appoint federal judges as vacancies occur,
including justices of the Supreme Court. As head of his political party,
with ready access to the news media, the president can easily influence
public opinion.
Within the executive branch, the president has broad powers to issue
regulations and directives carrying out the work of the federal
government's departments and agencies. The president appoints the heads and
senior officials of those departments and agencies. Heads of the major
departments, called "secretaries," are part of the president's cabinet. The
majority of federal workers, however, are selected on the basis of merit,
not politics.
JUDICIAL BRANCH
The judicial branch is headed by the U.S. Supreme Court, which is the only
court specifically created by the Constitution. In addition, Congress has
established 13 federal courts of appeals and, below them, about 95 federal
district courts. The Supreme Court meets in Washington, D.C., and the other
federal courts are located in cities throughout the United States. Federal
judges are appointed for life or until they retire voluntarily; they can be
removed from office only via a laborious process of impeachment and trial
in the Congress.
The federal courts hear cases arising out of the Constitution and federal
laws and treaties, maritime cases, cases involving foreign citizens or
governments, and cases in which the federal government is itself a party.
The Supreme Court consists of a chief justice and eight associate
justices. With minor exceptions, cases come to the Supreme Court on appeal
from lower federal or state courts. Most of these cases involve disputes
over the interpretation and constitutionality of actions taken by the
executive branch and of laws passed by Congress or the states (like federal
laws, state laws must be consistent with the U.S. Constitution).
THE COURT OF LAST RESORT
Although the three branches are said to be equal, often the Supreme Court
has the last word on an issue. The courts can rule a law unconstitutional,
which makes it void. Most such rulings are appealed to the Supreme Court,
which is thus the final arbiter of what the Constitution means. Newspapers
commonly print excerpts from the justices' opinions in important cases, and
the Court's decisions are often the subject of public debate. This is as it
should be: The decisions may settle longstanding controversies and can have
social effects far beyond the immediate outcome. Two famous, related
examples are Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and Brown v. Board of Education of
Topeka (1954).
In Plessy the issue was whether blacks could be required to ride in
separate railroad cars from whites. The Court articulated a "separate but
equal" doctrine as its basis for upholding the practice. The case sent a
signal that the Court was interpreting the Thirteenth and Fourteenth
Amendments narrowly and that a widespread network of laws and custom
treating blacks and whites differently would not be disturbed. One justice,
John Marshall Harlan, dissented from the decision, arguing that "the
Constitution is color-blind."
Almost 60 years later the Court changed its mind. In Brown the court held
that deliberately segregated public schools violated the Fourteenth
Amendment's equal protection clause. Although the Court did not directly
overrule its Plessy decision, Justice Harlan's view of the Constitution was
vindicated. The 1954 ruling applied directly only to schools in the city of
Topeka, Kansas, but the principle it articulated reached every public
school in the nation. More than that, the case undermined segregation in
all governmental endeavors and set the nation on a new course of treating
all citizens alike.
The Brown decision caused consternation among some citizens, particularly
in the South, but was eventually accepted as the law of the land. Other
controversial Supreme Court decisions have not received the same degree of
acceptance. In several cases between 1962 and 1985, for example, the Court
decided that requiring students to pray or listen to prayer in public
schools violated the Constitution's prohibition against establishing a
religion. Critics of these decisions believe that the absence of prayer in
public schools has contributed to a decline in American morals; they have
tried to find ways to restore prayer to the schools without violating the
Constitution. In Roe v. Wade (1973), the Court guaranteed women the right
to have abortions in certain circumstances -- a decision that continues to
offend those Americans who consider abortion to be murder. Because the Roe
v. Wade decision was based on an interpretation of the Constitution,
opponents have been trying to amend the Constitution to overturn it.
POLITICAL PARTIES AND ELECTIONS
Americans regularly exercise their democratic rights by voting in
elections and by participating in political parties and election campaigns.
Today, there are two major political parties in the United States, the
Democratic and the Republican. The Democratic Party evolved from the party
of Thomas Jefferson, formed before 1800. The Republican Party was
established in the 1850s by Abraham Lincoln and others who opposed the
expansion of slavery into new states then being admitted to the Union.
The Democratic Party is considered to be the more liberal party, and the
Republican, the more conservative. Democrats generally believe that
government has an obligation to provide social and economic programs for
those who need them. Republicans are not necessarily opposed to such
programs but believe they are too costly to taxpayers. Republicans put more
emphasis on encouraging private enterprise in the belief that a strong
private sector makes citizens less dependent on government.
Both major parties have supporters among a wide variety of Americans and
embrace a wide range of political views. Members, and even elected
officials, of one party do not necessarily agree with each other on every
issue. Americans do not have to join a political party to vote or to be a
candidate for public office, but running for office without the money and
campaign workers a party can provide is difficult.
Minor political parties -- generally referred to as "third parties" --
occasionally form in the United States, but their candidates are rarely
elected to office. Minor parties often serve, however, to call attention to
an issue that is of concern to voters, but has been neglected in the
political dialogue. When this happens, one or both of the major parties may
address the matter, and the third party disappears.
At the national level, elections are held every two years, in even-
numbered years, on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in
November. State and local elections often coincide with national elections,
but they also are held in other years and can take place at other times of
year.
Americans are free to determine how much or how little they become
involved in the political process. Many citizens actively participate by
working as volunteers for a candidate, by promoting a particular cause, or
by running for office themselves. Others restrict their participation to
voting on election day, quietly letting their democratic system work,
confident that their freedoms are protected.
