Walkthrough of the Constitution | Constitution 101

0:11[Music] today we're going to walk through the constitution of the united states let's begin with the preamble we the people of the united states in order to form a more perfect union establish justice ensure domestic tranquility provide for the common defense promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this constitution for the united states of america i'd love to read the preamble and it's so significant of course that the constitution begins with the words we the people they remind us that we the people of the united states have the sovereign power not the king not the legislature not the president not the judiciary we the people we parcel it out

1:00to the various branches of governments that the constitution is about to create but the power remains in the people themselves now let's talk about article 1 which establishes the legislative branch it says all legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a congress of the united states which shall consist of a senate and house of representatives now for the framers congress was supposed to be the most powerful and therefore threatened to be the most dangerous branch james madison worried in federalist 48 that the legislative department is everywhere extending the sphere of its activity and drawing all power into its impetuous vortex that's why it's the longest of the substantive articles it sets out a whole lot

1:48of different powers of congress and also the powers that are denied to congress for example it grants congress the power to lay and collect taxes but it denies congress the powers to grant titles of nobility now article two the executive branch it's amazing how much shorter it is than article one it says that the executive power shall be vested in a president of the united states of america article two then sets out a few specific powers that the president has like being commander in chief of the armed forces and also the power to receive ambassadors and to make treaties by and with the advice and consent of the senate that's a blended power it's not one exclusive to the president but so much of our current presidency includes implied powers that have collected over

2:33time or that presidents have simply assumed or asserted the actual language of the constitution is sparse reminding us that the framers thought of the president as a kind of impartial chief magistrate who would administer laws passed by congress but congress not the president would be the main actor now article 3 the judicial branch article 3 says the judicial power of the united states shall be vested in one supreme court and in such inferior courts as the congress may from time to time ordain and establish so that tells us that the supreme court is the head of the judicial branch but it's only one of the federal courts that have the power to decide questions involving federal law and that congress may create those inferior courts but it doesn't have to

3:23now article 3 also says there's a very narrow category of cases that the supreme court has to hear as a matter of what's called its original jurisdiction but broadly the supreme court has the discretion to hear or not to hear whatever cases it likes and it tends to hear cases when there's a conflict among the lower federal courts involving significant questions of the interpretation of federal law article 4 this involves states and citizenships and the admission of new states it has a really important clause called the comity clause or the privileges and immunities clause that says the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states

4:05that means that if i'm a citizen of pennsylvania and i go to virginia i can take my basic civil rights with me i can make contracts i can sue and be sued but i don't take my political rights with me i can't walk into a courthouse and serve on a virginia jury or walk into a virginia election and vote in that election so article 4 establishes certain fundamental rights or civil rights or privileges or immunities and it says that they're portable article 5 sets out the amendment process this is hugely important it tells us how we change the constitution and article 5 says there are two ways of proposing an amendment and two ways of ratifying it so here we go article 5 says congress whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary

4:53shall propose amendments to this constitution or on application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states shall call a convention for opposing amendments so congress can propose the amendment by two-thirds vote or if two-thirds of the state legislatures ask then congress has to call a convention for proposing amendments and then article 5 says that these proposed amendments shall be valid to all intents and purposes when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states or by conventions in three-fourths thereof so two ways of ratifying either three ports of the legislatures can ratify or conventions in three-fourths of the states can ratify that sounds very complicated and

5:32that's by design article v makes the constitution very hard to amend because of that we've had a whole lot of amendments proposed in our history but not a whole lot have been ratified the 27th amendment recognized as valid in the 1990s was the last ratified amendment to the constitution and that's because article 5 was designed to slow down deliberation to ensure that amendments represent the considered will of we the people and can qualify as the supreme law of the land and speaking of the supreme law of the land that brings us to article six which includes the supremacy clause and the supremacy clause says this constitution and the laws of the united states which shall be made in pursuance thereof shall be the supreme

6:18law of the land the supremacy clause is hugely important as well because it means that if a state passes a law that clashes either with the constitution or with federal law the constitution trumps and federal law trumps and the supreme court derives its power to strike down unconstitutional federal and state laws that clash from the constitution uh from the supremacy clause itself maybe just one quick beat on this power of judicial reviewer the power of courts to strike down on constitutional laws alexander hamilton said in federalist 78 whenever there's a clash between the will of the people represented by the constitution and the will of their representatives embodied in ordinary laws judges should prefer the principle to the agent in other

7:06words because we the people are the sovereign powers the preamble reminded us and our will is embodied in the constitution as the supreme law of the land as article 6 reminds us that our will has to trump uh the will of our temporary and fallible representatives and finally ratification article 7 says ratification of the conventions of nine states shall be sufficient for the establishment of this constitution between the states so ratifying the same that's different than the rule of the articles of confederation which required unanimous consent and that's why when new hampshire in 1788 ratified the constitution it became the supreme law of the land even though there were still four states that had to ratify and it took them another

7:52year and now we've talked about all seven articles of the us constitution and we can sum up by saying what is the constitution of the united states it establishes the government of the united states and it defines its powers and limits and as article six says the constitution of the united states is the supreme law of the land