Chapter 2: The Constitution Flashcards
Unalineable
The human right based on nature or God
Articles of Confederation
A weak constitution that governed America during the revolutionary war
Constitutional convention
A meeting in Philadelphia in 1787 that produced a new constitution
Shay’s rebellion
A 1787 rebellion in which ex-Revolutionary war soldiers attempted to prevent foreclosures of farms as a result of high interest rates and taxes
Virginia Plan
Proposal to create a strong national government
New Jersey plan
Proposal to create a weak national government
Great Compromise
Plan to have a popularity elected House based on state population and a state-selected Senate to members for each state
Republic
Government in which elected representatives make the decisions
Judicial review
The power of the courts to declare laws unconstitutional
Federalism
Government authority shared by national and local governments
Enumerated powers
Powers given to the national alone
Reserved powers
Powers given to the state government alone
Concurrent powers
Powers shared by the national and state governments
Separation of powers
Constitutional authority is shared by three different branches of government
check and balances
Authority shared by three branches of government
faction
A group with a distinct political interest
Federalists
Those who favor a stronger national government
Antifederalists
Those who favor a weaker national government
Coalition
An alliance of groups
habeas corpus
An order to produce an arrested person before a judge
Bill of Attainder
A law that declares a person, without trial, to be guilty of a crime
Ex post facto law
A law that makes an act criminal even though the act was legal when it was committed
Bill of Rights
First ten amendments to the Constitution
line-item veto
An executive’s ability to block a particular provision in a bill passed by the legislature
The principal goal of the American Revolution was
liberty
In 1776, how many states adopted written constitutions?
13
The Articles of Confederation created a
league of friendship
The purpose of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 was to
consider revisions to the Articled of Confederation
Each state would have had an equal number of votes in the legislature under the _____ ______ plan.
New Jersey
The Great Compromise finally allocated representation on the basis of
population in the House and statehood equality in the Senate
Dividing power between the states and the national government is referred to as
federalism
The Declaration of Independence explicitly stated that governments were instituted among men to
secure rights
Pennsylvania’s government was considered “radically democratic” because it featured no
governor
Relative to the notion of the democratic government, the Supreme Court’s power of judicial review
places limits on majority rule
