7 Principles of the Constitution

today we're going to be talking about the seven principles

of the Constitution.

We're going to understand and describe these seven basic principles

of the Constitution.

When we talk about principle, we're talking about a fundamental

truth or rule that serves as the foundation for a

system of belief.

So in this case, the system of belief we're talking

about is the Constitution itself.

So the Constitution sets out the basic principles upon which

the government in the United States was built and still

operates. Today it sets the limits within which the government

must conduct itself, and it lays out the basic rules

of American politics.

It's built around these seven principles.

The first concept is popular sovereignty.

If you look at the word popular sovereignty, you should

know that popular means people in sovereignty means power.

So the people have the power.

If we look at this cartoon weaken, see, this man

right here represents the government, and this represents us.

And this person who's stepping off the plank is showing

that if the people all step off, the government falls,

the government would fail.

So its upto us to determine the success or the

failure of the government.

The power is with us.

So popular sovereignty is all political power resides in the

people. We see this concept, um, most notably in the

opening words of the preamble where it says we, the

people of the United States, do ordain and establish this

Constitution for the United States of America.

It's saying that we, the people, are establishing this Constitution.

The next principle is a limited government, and we've talked

about a limited government throughout the first two chapters.

Um, if you think back to King George and Great

Britain, it was not a limited government.

King George had all of the power and it was

very restrictive.

So when we set out to create our own, um,

government, we wanted the government to be limited.

We didn't want another government like King George, so we

wanted a limited government.

And this was a big issue that anti federalists had

with the Constitution is that it fear that the government

would become too powerful, like the president would become a

king. So the idea of a limited government is that

no government is all powerful.

That government on Lee has the power to do those

things that the people have given it the power to

dio. The government must obey the law.

So if you look just at the word limited government,

it's saying that the government is limited in what it

may dio limited.

Government is also is often connected to constitutionalism.

And if you look at the word constitutionalism, you see

the word constitution in it.

Constitutional constitutionalism is the concept that the government must be

conducted according to constitutional principles thes seven principles that we're

discussing. It also states that government and its officers are

always subject to the law, the rule of law.

Nobody is above the law itself.

The Constitution itself is a statement of limited government, as

it reads mostly as a list of prohibitions of power

to the government.

And these prohibitions are enshrined throughout the Bill of Rights

and throughout the Constitution.

Most specifically, um, in the First Amendment, where it says

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.

It's saying that Congress is prohibited for making a law,

um, establishing a national religion, Um or, um, freedom of

religion itself.

The next principle is separation of powers.

Um, this is the idea and the basic principle of

American government, where the legislative, executive and judicial powers are

divided or separated among three independent and co equal branches

of government.

And we know these three branches of government are the

legislative, executive and judicial branches.

So this one is very similar to checks and balances

they both have to do with these three branches.

But the key to remember with separation of powers it's

just the idea that there are three different branches, that

there's three separate branches that each have power.

Um, it's just the establishment of those three branches we

see here.

Legislative is made up of Congress.

When we talk about Congress, we're talking about Senate and

the House of Representatives.

The executive branch is made up of the president, the

vice president, the Cabinet and the judicial branch is made

up of the Supreme Court and other federal courts.

So the establishment of these three branches is what we're

talking about when we talk about separation of powers, the

powers, all of these powers are separated equally into these

three branches.

The next one we're going to talk about is checks

and balances, and this also has to do with the

three branches.

But this is talking specifically about how each branch is

subject to a number of constitutional checks or restraints by

the other branches.

Each branch has certain powers with which it can check

the operations of the other two to ensure a balance

of power.

So whereas separation of Powers is talking about about the

establishment of the three branches, checks and Balances is talking

about the jobs of those three branches.

What do those three branches dio?

We going to hear about how it works?

We can see an example where the executive branch can

receive a bill and they can veto the bill so

they can say that.

Decide that that bill, they don't want that bill.

They can say no to that bill, and that bill

would go back to the legislative branch.

But in response, the legislative branch can override that presidential

veto with a vote of two thirds of the House

and the Congress, the House and the Senate.

So that's the legislative branch, acting as a check on

the executive branch and the executive branch acting as a

check on the legislative branch.

We also see this idea of checks and balances currently

um, and that President Trump has nominated a Supreme Court

justice. So that's a check on the judicial system there

nominated by the executive branch.

But the legislative branch has to approve that nomination.

So that's where we are right now with Amy Coney.

Barrett is the legislative branch is approving that nomination.

So all three branches are included in this situation, and

they're all checking each other to ensure that the power

is balanced.

The fifth principle is judicial review, and this has to

do with the judicial branch and, more specifically, the courts.

Judicial review is the power of the courts to determine

the constitutionality of a governmental action so the courts have

the power to declare an action unconstitutional or constitutional.

Eso un Constitution would be stating that the act violated

the Constitution, and this idea of judicial review came about

during this case.

Marbury versus Madison in 18 03 in this case, determined

the Constitution to be actual law.

It wasn't just a set of political ideals and principles

that we loosely followed.

It was actually the rule of law.

It was the supreme Law thief.

Sixth principle is federalism on dhe.

We've talked a lot about federal that waas Um a

word of the day we know that federal means central

or national government.

So federalism is the division of power among a central

federal, a national government and several regional governments.

And when we talk about regional governments were talking about

state governments.

So there's certain powers that the national government holds.

There's certain powers that the state governments hold, and then

there's also powers that are shared between between them.

So if we see here, the national is our federal

government. The blue is our federal government in D.

C. That those are the powers that, um, the three

branches hold.

And then the green circle over here is the state

government. So, like R, Missouri State government has the power

to do those things in the green circle and then

the overlapping area.

The darker green area are the powers that are shared

between both the national and the state governments.

And this concept is called federalism.

In the last principle is Republicanism, and this is the

power The people exercise their power by voting for their

political representatives.

Um, and this one is closely connected to popular sovereignty

because it has to do with the people holding the

power. But the key with Republicanism is that the people

are exercising their power.

And here's the key by voting for their political representatives.

If you see that Republicanism starts with R E P

and representatives also starts with our EP, that will help

you determine um, what this principle entails.

So we elect representatives, um, to represent us in our

government. Um, it would be really inefficient if every time

an issue came up or a law needed to be

passed that every person in the United States had to

go and vote for that.

Um, so instead, we vote for specific people who then

represent our needs, um, in in our government.

So if we look at all of these seven principles,

you guys will be taking a quiz in canvas over

these seven principles.

I want you guys to take your time, read through

the questions and really think about the words themselves when

you're thinking about the definitions.

Popular sovereignty popular means people.

Sovereignty means power.

So the people have the power.

So anytime it talks about the people um, having the

power, the people making the decisions um, you wanna thank

popular sovereignty when you think about limited government?

Think about how the government is limited in what it

may dio.

It can't just do anything at once.

It's limited.

It's powers are limited.

When you think about separation of powers, this is just

how our government is separated into three branches.

The legislative, executive and judicial.

When you think about checks and balances, you want to

think about the jobs of those three branches so each

branch checks on the other two branches to ensure a

balance of power.

It's the jobs of those branches to check each other.

When you think about judicial review, I want you to

think about the judicial branch, the courts, the judges.

They're determining whether an act is constitutional or unconstitutional.

When you think about federalism, I want you to think

about the word federal and think about how the federal

government has certain powers and how the state government has

certain powers and how the federal and state government share

powers as well.

And when you think about Republicanism, I want you to

think about that.

Our e p, the R, E, P and Republicanism and

the R, E P and representatives Republicanism is about how

the people elect representatives to serve them in their government

7 Principles of the Constitution

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