Week 1-2 History

The Law of the US

- Basic History
- Revolution: The Declaration of Independence July 4 1776
- By the 2
nd
Continental Congress
- Independent from Great Britain
- Articles of Confederation: First Charter
- First attempt but had problems
- No true National Government etc.
- Constitutional Convention: What kind of govt.?
- Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists
- The Constitution
- Bill of Rights was the frst constitutional amendment
- Constitution to replace Charter
- Constitutional Structure
- Separation of Powers & Judicial Review
Federalism
- Shared sovereignty
Week 1-3: Constitutional Powers
Structure of American Government
1. Legislature [elected]
2. Executive [elected]
3. Judiciary: decisions become case law [unelected]
Legislature Power: Congress
Art 1: all legislative powers held by Congress (Legislature) [= UK Parliament]
- Bi-Cameral Legislature: both houses to agree
- House of Representatives
- Revenue Bills
- The Senate (100, 2 from each of 50 states)
- Art 8: Enumerated powers e.g. issue money, postal system, declare war,
raise army and navy
- Power to raise funds
- e.g. taxes but revenue bills must originate from the House
=> Limitation to executive and judiciary
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Introduction to U.S. Law
- Impeachment: remove ofcial by E and J branches by a vote
=> Limitation excess powers of E and J i.e. judges and
President
- Investigative power
- Subpoena power: which is usually judicial power
Executive Power: President
- Duty to the Law
- Power of appointment
- Executive Departments created by statue
- Power to veto: strike down any legislation before becomes law
- Need to reject entire act, not a single provision
- Reversed by Congress by 2/3 of the House [Art 1 sec 7]
- Check and balance
- Foreign Afairs
- Choose which Country to recognize
- Make treaties etc.
- Inherent authority and inherent discretion
The Cabinet: assists the President
- Not called ministers but called secretaries
- Admin agencies to help citizens out of Great Depression so growth of
executive power of U.S.
- Executive authority thru agency authority then exercised thru regulations,
which are legal rules
- But delegated powers
Two types of agencies
a. Executive agencies
b. Independent agencies not subjected to absolute President authority
Judiciary Power: ART III
- Lower Federal Court (limited jurisdiction) vs. State Court (general
jurisdiction)
- Limited to authorities given to them under Art III
- Cannot interfere with disputes between citizens of diferent states and
aliens
- Judges: Federal judges are called Art III judges
- Good behavior. Therefore lifetime appointee
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Introduction to U.S. Law
- Compensation shall not be diminished. This is check and balance
because Congress cannot withdraw money because does not like the
judge
- Confrmation of judges
Conclusion
- Constitution created basic structure of government
- But created possible questions and conficts so up to court to resolve these
questions when political could not resolve
Week 1-4: Constitutional Implementation
1. Separation of Powers
- Sharing of institutional power: must cooperate
- Made separate but made equal
- Art VI sec 2: supremacy clause
- Constitutional law are supreme, displaces any incompatible state laws
Judicial Review
2. Slavery
- Was constitutional and enshrined into the Constitutional
- Could not be abolished by law because constitutional Art 1 sec 9 cl 1
- Could only be resolved by bloody civil law and not by constitution
Week 1-5 Federalism
- Horizontal
- Concurrent Authority among states
- Shared sovereignty unless pre-emptive
- Doctrine of pre-emption
- Full faith and credit
- State Sovereign Immunity
- Vertical
- One national and 50 States
- Within each state, independent three-branch
- Parallel systems co-exist
- States has inherent authority so need to express grant to the nation
Growth of Federal Power
1. Federal govt. implied power (civil law)
- In addition to enumerated powers
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Introduction to U.S. Law
- Necessary clause in the Constitution; necessary to carry out
expressed law
- Civil Law resolved slavery but segregation
2. Commerce Clause interstate clause
- National govt. can regulate state activities if state activities would
afect on national level
- National court can overrule private discrimination in states if afect
commerce
- Limits
- New York v US, 1992: Court invalidated a federal law
- Recently, US v Lopez, 1995 limited commence clause
- Guns: federal cannot mandate states to do police check on
buying guns
- Conditional spending by the Congress i.e. giving money if fulfll
certain condition
Right to Travel
- Cases
In US also has free movement of goods and people
- SCOTUS: One National US Common Market
- Dormant commence clause
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Introduction to U.S. Law