Lecture 8 The three branches of the US governement

Question 1

What are the 3 branches of the constitution ?

Answer 1

The Legislative, the Executive and the Judicial

Question 2

What are the 3 buildings that represent those 3 branches ?

Answer 2

The Legisltaive : the U.S capitol
The Executive : the White House
The Judicial : the Supreme Court

Question 3

What created the Legislative branch ?

Answer 3

The article 1 of the constitution

Question 4

Who has the power of the legislative branch ?

Answer 4

The power of the legislative branch is vested (confié) in the Congress.

Question 5

How many people are there in the House of representative ?

Answer 5

435 representatives

Question 6

How many representatives are there per state ?

Answer 6

It depends on the population of the State. The more populous a State is, the more representative there are.

Question 7

How many does California have representatives ?

Answer 7

43

Question 8

How many does South Dakota have representatives ?

Answer 8

2

Question 9

How often are representatives elected ?

Answer 9

Every 2 years.

Question 10

What does a representative represent ?

Answer 10

A district, not the entire State.

Question 11

What are the conditions to become a representative ?

Answer 11

• You have to be at least 25 years old
• You must have been an American citizen for at least 7 years.
• You have to be resident in the district you want to represent.

Question 12

How is the House of Representative organized ?

Answer 12

The leader of the House of Representative is a speaker. He or she represents the majority party in the house.

Question 13

What’s the majority party in the House nowadays ?

Answer 13

Democrats.

Question 14

Who’s the speaker of the House of democrats ?

Answer 14

Nancy Pelosi since January 2019 (moment of the midterm elections)

Question 15

How many people are there in the Senate ?

Answer 15

100 senators.

Question 16

How many senators is there per state ?

Answer 16

2 per state whatever the size of the state.

Question 17

How many years do senators serve ?

Answer 17

Every 6 years.

Question 18

What do the senators represent ?

Answer 18

The whole state

Question 19

What are the conditions to become a senator ?

Answer 19

• You have to be at least 30 years old
• You must have been an American citizen for at least 9 years old
• You must be resident of the State you represent

Question 20

How is the Senate organized ?

Answer 20

The president of the Senate is the vice-president. His role is symbolical, the leader of the majority in the senate is republican

Question 21

Who is the president of the Senate ?

Answer 21

Mike Pence.

Question 22

What are the role of the legislative ?

Answer 22

• Their main role is to make laws
• They have the power to declare war, the congress is the only one who can do that.
• Congress make federal budget
• Congress has the right to make laws that regulate commerce (interstate and foreign)

Question 23

How many many laws does the the Congress study each years ?

Answer 23

They study more than 10 thousand bill (=projet de loi) each year. An average of 600 become laws.

Question 24

How are the laws proposed ?

Answer 24

1) A senator and a representative introduce a proposal together.
2) The bill is reveiwed by commitees.
3) The House and the Senate vote to approve the bill, when they approve, both have to sign the bill.
4) It is sent to the president, if he agrees he signs it and it becomes a law. If not, the presisent VETOES the bill and it returns to the congress.
5) If the bill gets a 2/3 majority in Congress, it becomes a law, if less, it returns to start.

Question 25

What created the executive branch ?

Answer 25

The article 2of the constitution

Question 26

Which branch is the largest of the governement ?

Answer 26

The Exectutive branch with 2.7 million people working in it.

Question 27

Who compose the executive branch ?

Answer 27

1) The president (“the chief executive”)
2) The vice-president
3) The advisors
4) All the federal agencies and their heads
5) The president’s nominates
6) Secretaries (ministers) and assistant secretaries.
7) The heads of agencies (CIA, FBI….)

Question 28

How does the president nominates workers of the executive branch ?

Answer 28

The have to be approved by the senate, he can’t just nominates whoever he wants.

Question 29

What is a department ?

Answer 29

Équivalent de “ministère”

Question 30

What is an appointement ?

Answer 30

Nomination

Question 31

From what is the cabinet made ?

Answer 31

In the cabinet, there’s the president the vice president and 15 other departments.

Question 32

Which departments are the most powerful ?

Answer 32

1) Department of State (ministre des affaires étrangères)
2) Department of Treasury
3) Department of Defense
4) Department of Justice

Question 33

What is a secretary of state ?

Answer 33

Ministre

Question 34

Who rules the department of Justice ?

Answer 34

The Attorney General.

Question 35

What are the president’s roles ?

Answer 35

1) Chief of executive
2) Leader of his party
3) Chief garidan of the economy
4) Chief of the State
5) He makes sure laws are executed
6) He enforces laws
7) He nominates federal officers
8) He approves or vetoes bills
9) Commander in Chief (but tat does not give him the power to declare war)
10) Director of the foreign policy
11) Legislative leader : he suggest bills

Question 36

What is an attorney?

Answer 36

Avocat

Question 37

How many terms does a vice-president have the right to serve ?

Answer 37

As much as he wants, there is no restriction.

Question 38

What are the roles of the vice-president ?

Answer 38

1) He is the president officer of the senate.
2) He plays a major administrative role
3) He has to be ready to become president if anything happens to him (death, sickness, impeachment —-> depending if the congress decide to remove him or not)

Question 39

How powerful is the judicial branch ?

Answer 39

The founders considered that the judicial branch should be the weakest, but now, this branch has developped a crucial role which is to interprete the law.

Question 40

What created the judicial branch ?

Answer 40

The article 3 of the constitution created the judicial branch

Question 41

Who inspired the judicial branch ?

Answer 41

European and English system.

Question 42

What are the differencies between the american judicial branch and the european’s and english’s ?

Answer 42

1) The American Consitution is different
2) It’s a federal state
3) the Judicial Review

Question 43

What is the Judicial Review ?

Answer 43

The judicial review is the right (for the judicial branch) to decide if the congressional and state’s act are in accordance with the constitution —-> if not, they have the right to invalidate them.

Question 44

Why does the judicial review exists ?

Answer 44

It is to make sure that states respect laws.

Question 45

What ican we say about the supreme court ?

Answer 45

It is the highest judicial body in the US.
It’s located in Washington district.
It’s the only part of the judicial branch that is specifically mentionned in the Constitution

Question 46

How are the judges of the Supreme court called ?

Answer 46

Justices

Question 47

How many members are there in the Supreme Court ?

Answer 47

9 members : 1 chief justice and 8 justices

Question 48

How many years do justices serve ?

Answer 48

They are nominated for life. The only way to stop is to retire or to die.

Question 49

Who nominates justices ?

Answer 49

The president : he can nominates no one (if no one retires and no one dies)
Trump already nominated 2.

Question 50

What are the 3 categories of Supreme Court Justices ?

Answer 50

• Judicial conservative
• Judicial moderates
• Judicial liberals

Question 51

To which categories do the current justices belong ?

Answer 51

4 justices are fairly liberals and 5 are fairly conservative

Question 52

Is the law important in american life ?

Answer 52

It’s a part of the daily life, American tend to be letigious people (procédurier, au moindre pb ils font des procès)