judicial branch Flashcards
(34 cards)
What is a constitution?
A document that sets out the fundamental principles of governance and establishes the institutions of government.
What is a republic?
A government ruled by representatives of the people.
What were the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union?
A governing document that created a union of thirteen sovereign states in which the states, not the national government, reign supreme.
What does unicameral mean?
A one house legislature.
What was Shay’s Rebellion?
A popular uprising against the government of Massachusetts.
What was the Constitutional Convention?
A meeting attended by state delegates in 1787 to fix the Articles of Confederation.
What is the writ of habeas corpus?
The right of people detained by the government to know the charges against them.
What are bills of attainder?
When the legislature declares someone guilty without a trial.
What are ex post facto laws?
Laws punishing people for acts that were not crimes at the time they were committed.
What was the Virginia Plan?
A plan of government calling for a three-branch government with a bicameral legislature, where more populous states would have more representation in Congress.
What was the New Jersey Plan?
A plan of government that provided for a unicameral legislature with equal votes for each state.
What was the Grand Committee?
A committee at the Constitutional Convention that worked out the compromise on representation.
What is the Great (Connecticut) Compromise?
An agreement for a plan of government that drew upon both the Virginia and New Jersey plans; it settled issues of state representation by calling for a bicameral legislature with a House of Representatives apportioned proportional and a Senate apportioned equally.
What does bicameral mean?
A two-house legislature.
What was the Three-Fifths Compromise?
An agreement reached by delegates at the Constitutional Convention that a slave would count as three-fifths of a person in calculating a state’s representation.
What was the Compromise on Importation?
Congress could not restrict the slave trade until 1808.
What is the separation of powers?
A design of government that distributes powers across institutions in order to avoid making one branch too powerful on its own.
What are checks and balances?
A design of government in which each branch has powers that can prevent the other branches from making policy.
What is federalism?
The sharing of power between the national government and the states.
What is the legislative branch?
The institution responsible for making laws.
What are expressed or enumerated powers?
Authority specifically granted to a branch of the government in the Constitution.
What is the necessary and proper or elastic clause?
Language in Article I, Section 8, granting Congress the powers necessary to carry out its enumerated powers.
What are implied powers?
Authority of the federal government that goes beyond its expressed powers.
What is the executive branch?
The institution responsible for carrying out laws passed by the legislative branch.
