AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
For example, part of the Constitution called the Bill of Rights gives people the right to freedom of religion. Because the Constitution is the supreme law of the land:
A few Supreme Court decisions helped make the Supremacy Clause clearer.
The first important case was "Marbury v. Madison" (1803). In this case, the Supreme Court ruled that it had the power to review state courts' decisions, if those decisions seemed like they did not follow the supreme law. This power is called judicial review.
In "Martin v. Hunter's Lessee" (1816), the United States Supreme Court ruled that it was more powerful than the state Supreme Courts. In the case, the Virginia Supreme Court said that a United States Supreme Court decision was unconstitutional, and told all of the Virginia state courts not to obey it. The United States Supreme Court ruled that it had the final say in legal issues that had to do with federal laws not the state courts. If a state court and the United States Supreme Court disagree, the Supreme Court is the supreme law of the land.
Three years later, in "McCulloch v. Maryland" (1819), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states cannot control federal institutions. The state of Maryland had tried to tax a federal bank. The Supreme Court ruled that states cannot tax government property. This was another example of a case where the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the "supreme laws of the land" were more powerful than state laws or court decisions.
In 1824, the Supreme Court ruled on "Gibbons v. Ogden" (1824). The state of New York had given Aaron Ogden a monopoly over the steamboat business in the Hudson River. However, Thomas Gibbons got the same power from a federal government permit. The Supreme Court decided that the federal permit was more powerful than the state monopoly. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall wrote:
Finally, in "Reid v. Covert" (1957), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that no branch of the United States government can be given extra powers by a treaty, if those powers were not given to it by the Constitution. This case showed that the Constitution could even limit the power of treaties, and was truly the supreme law of the land.
The last part of Article Six is sometimes called the "No Religious Test Clause."
This clause says that people have to swear to support the Constitution if they are:
Congress gets to decide the exact words in this oath to support the Constitution. However, in this oath, they cannot require a "religious test." This means they cannot make a person swear that they follow a certain religion.
Under this clause, Congress may include the words "so help me God" in the oath. However, a person cannot be required to say those words. A person cannot be required to swear or say anything about religion in order to work for the United States government.
During the 1960 presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy was running for President. If he were elected, he would be the first Catholic president ever. Many people were unsure that Americans should elect a Catholic as president. This raised the question of whether Americans not their government were requiring a "religious test" for their President. Would they require that a President be a Protestant in order to get elected?
On September 12, 1960, Kennedy talked about this issue directly in his :
Kennedy won the election.
David S. Johnson
David Stifler Johnson (December 9, 1945 – March 8, 2016) was an American computer scientist. He was known for his works in algorithms and optimization. He was the head of the Algorithms and Optimization Department of AT&T Labs Research from 1988 to 2013. He was a visiting professor at Columbia University from 2014 to 2016. He was awarded the 2010 Knuth Prize.
Johnson died on March 8, 2016 at the age of 70.
Alfred E. Senn
Alfred Erich Senn (April 12, 1932 – March 8, 2016) was an American professor of history. He worked at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Senn was born in Madison, Wisconsin. Senn was the author of eight books. He taught about the history of Lithuania.
Senn died in Madison, Wisconsin at the age of 83.
Bill Wade
William James "Bill" Wade (October 4, 1930 – March 9, 2016) was an American football quarterback. He played professionally in the National Football League (NFL). He was thought as one of the greatest athletes in Nashville and Vanderbilt University history.
Wade was a member of the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. He was best known for being the starting quarterback on the Chicago Bears' 1963 NFL championship team. He also played for the Los Angeles Rams.
Wade died in Nashville, Tennessee on March 9, 2016. He was aged 85.
Rafiq Azad
Rafiq Azad (born Rafiqul Islam Khan; February 14, 1942 – March 12, 2016) was a Bangladeshi poet, editor and writer. He was born in Tangail. He wrote over 45 collections of poetry including "Prakriti O Premer Kabita, Asambhaber Paye, Sahasra Sundar, Haturir Nichae Jiban, Khub Beshi Durea Noy, Khamakaro Bahaman Hey Udar Amiyo Batas" and others. He was a freedom fighter during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. Azad was called as one of the most important young poets in the post-Liberation War period.
Azad died in Dhaka, Bangladesh from a stroke on March 12, 2016. He was aged 74.
József Verebes
József Verebes (23 March 1941 – 13 March 2016) was a Hungarian football manager and player. He was born in Budapest. Verebes played for Ferencvárosi TC from 1961 through 1962. He managed the Hungary national football team in 1987.
On 15 October 2010, Verebes became the coach of Nagytétény SE, competing in the Budapest championship. Verebes became the advisor of his former club Rába ETO in 2011.
Verebes died in Budapest from complications of a stroke at the age of 74.
Martin Olav Sabo (February 28, 1938 – March 13, 2016) was an American politician. He was a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL). He served as a United States Representative for , which includes Minneapolis. He served as a representative from 1979 through 2007.
Sabo was born in Crosby, North Dakota. He studied at Augsburg College. Sabo died in Minneapolis, Minnesota from respiratory failure, aged 78.
Iolanda Balaș
Iolanda Balaș (, , later "Balázs-Sőtér Jolán"; 12 December 1936 – 11 March 2016) was a Romanian Olympic athlete. She was a champion and former world record holder in the women's high jump. She was the first Romanian woman to win an Olympic gold medal and is considered to have been one of the greatest high jumpers of the twentieth century.
Balaș was diagnosed several years ago with type II diabetes. She died in Bucharest, Romania from complications from a gastric disorder, at the age of 79.
Bill Gadsby
William Alexander Gadsby (August 8, 1927 – March 10, 2016) was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman. He played for the Chicago Black Hawks, New York Rangers, and Detroit Red Wings in the National Hockey League. He was born in Calgary, Alberta.
Gadsby died in Farmington Hills, Michigan on March 10, 2016. He was aged 88.
Ernestine Anderson (November 11, 1928 – March 10, 2016) was an American jazz and blues singer. She recorded over 30 albums. She was nominated four times for a Grammy Award.
She sung at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Monterey Jazz Festival (six times over a 33-year span), as well as at jazz festivals all over the world. In the early 1990s she joined Qwest Records, the label of fellow Garfield High School grad Quincy Jones. Her career lasted for 60 years. Anderson was born in Houston, Texas.
Anderson died in her sleep in Seattle, Washington on March 10, 2016. She was aged 87.
Claude Estier
Claude Estier (8 June 1925 – 10 March 2016), born Claude Hasday Ezratty, was a French politician and journalist. He was deputy of Paris in 1967-1968 and again in 1981-1986. He was then Senator from 1986 to 2004 and was President of the Socialist group in the Senate from 1988 to 2004. In 1955 he joined the political redaction of Le Monde. He quit in 1958.
Louis Meyers
Louis Meyers (1955 or 1956 – March 11, 2016) was a American festival organizer and co-founder of South By Southwest. He was born in Austin, Texas. Meyers was the event’s primary music booker until he sold his share in the event after the 1994 conference. Meyers was also an multi-instrumentalist and producer. From 2005 to 2013, Meyers was executive director of Folk Alliance International.
Meyers was admitted to a hospital in Austin on March 10, 2016 and initially was diagnosed with blood clots. He then died of a suspected heart attack the next day at his home. He was aged 60.
Gogi Grant
Myrtle Audrey Arinsberg (September 20, 1924 – March 10, 2016), known as Gogi Grant, was an American popular singer. She was best known for her No. 1 hit in 1956, "The Wayward Wind". She was voted the most popular female vocalist by "Billboard" magazine. This single returned to the "Billboard" Hot 100 in 1961. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Grant died on March 10, 2016 in Philadelphia, aged 91. Her death was announced by her son, Joshua Beckett. She also had a daughter, Jeri Brown.
Jovito Salonga
Jovito "Jovy" Reyes Salonga (June 22, 1920 – March 10, 2016) was a Filipino statesman and lawyer. He was known as a leading opposition leader during the regime of Ferdinand Marcos. He served as the opposition leader from 1972 until the People Power Revolution in 1986, which removed Marcos from power. Salonga was the 14th President of the Senate of the Philippines serving from 1987 to 1992.
Salonga died in March 10, 2016 from cardiac arrest in Quezon City. He was aged 95.
Dragan Nikolić
Dragoslav "Dragan" Nikolić (; 20 August 1943 – 11 March 2016) was a Serbian actor. He was born in Belgrade. In 1967 he starred in the movie "Kad budem mrtav i beo". Nikolić has since appeared in many movies of different genres. He was one of the most well-known actors in Serbian cinema.
In 2000, he received the "Pavle Vuisić" Award for his lifework. From 2011 to 2013, he was the television host on the Serbian edition of quiz "Millionaire".
Nikolić died in Belgrade from cancer at the age of 72.
Rómulo Macció
Romulo Macció (1931 – 11 March 2016) was an Argentine painter. He worked with the local avant-garde art movement which took shape during the 1960s. He was born in Buenos Aires.
Macció described much of the genteel portrait and landscape art available at that time as "pink chocolate." He was awarded the De Ridder Prize in 1959 and the Torcuato di Tella Institute International Prize in 1962. He helped create the Neo-figurative movement that swept Latin American art during the 1960s.
Macció died in Buenos Aires on 11 March 2016. He was aged 84.
Lawrence Van Gelder
Lawrence Van Gelder (February 17, 1933 – March 11, 2016) was an American journalist and instructor. He has worked at several different New York City-based newspapers in his long career. He was born in New York City.
Until 2010, he was senior editor of the Arts and Leisure weekly section of "The New York Times" as well as a movie critic. Among the newspapers for which Van Gelder has worked are the "New York Daily Mirror", the "New York Journal-American" and the "World-Journal-Tribune".
Gelder died of leiomyosarcoma (soft muscle cancer) on March 11, 2016, aged 83.
South Gyeongsang Province
South Gyeongsang is a province in South Korea. It has cities including its capital Changwon, Gimhae, and Sangju. South Gyeongsang's governor is Hong Jun-pyo.
In 1895, Gyeongsang-do divided. In the south, the west was called Jinju, and the east Dongnae. In 1896, Jinju and Dongnae joined, making Gyeongsangnam-do. In 1896 the provincial capital was Jinju, but it changed to Busan in 1925. In 1963, Busan separated, so in 1983 the provincial capital moved to Changwon. Ulsan separated in 1997.
South Gyeongsang's area is 10531.1km². It occupies 10.6% of South Korea's whole area. South Gyeongsang's area is the fourth largest of the 16 cities and provinces.
South Gyeongsang's population is 3,364,695 and the population density is 307/km².
There are 8 cities and 10 counties in South Gyeongsang.
http://www.gyeongnam.go.kr/jsp/main/main.jsp
Aphelion (disambiguation)
Aphelion might mean:
Sikorsky S-76
The Sikorsky S-76 is an american helicopter. It is used both by civil and military aviation.
Fairey Hendon
2016 Saxony-Anhalt state election
The Saxony-Anhalt state election was held on 13 March 2016 in the German State of Saxony-Anhalt for the next composition of the Parliament of Saxony-Anhalt. The incumbent Governor is Reiner Haseloff of the CDU, governing with the SPD.
The only realistic possibility would be a coalition government of the CDU, SPD and the Greens. Together, they would have a 2-seat majority . Other combinations (such as the CDU and The Left or CDU and AfD) are highly unlikely. The stark differences among the parties will make it harder for negotiations to create a coalition.
The reference for the polls is wahlrecht.de.
North American Aviation A3J Vigilante
Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Ratified on January 23, 1933, the Twentieth Amendment (Amendment XX) to the United States Constitution moved the beginning and ending of the terms of the president and vice president from March 4 to January 20. It moved the start and end dates for members of Congress from March 1 to January 21. In both cases the start and end time is at noon. It also gives the procedure to follow if for some reason there is no president-elect.
In the later part of the eighteenth century, when the Constitution was written, travel and communications were both very slow by modern standards. To cross the Atlantic Ocean could take several weeks. Traveling by horseback or by carriage on crude roads in the US could take even longer. Communications were mainly by letter or messenger. For these reasons the framers of the Constitution allowed for the longer periods of time it took to send and receive messages. Four months, the time from the election in November to the swearing-in in March, was necessary at the time.
By the 1930s, a railroad passenger could cross the country in 3 days. The Post Office had been using airmail since 1918. But vastly improved travel times and communications were not the only reasons behind the Twentieth Amendment. The joint resolution calling for the amendment was sponsored by Republican Senator George William Norris of Nebraska. Called the "Lame Duck" Amendment, it acquired this name because Norris wanted to eliminate the lame-duck sessions of Congress where outgoing members still held office and voted on bills for several months before the new members could be sworn in. The bill he wrote applied to both houses of Congress, the offices of President and Vice-President.
Another area the amendment addressed was with the succession of the president if the president-elect died before taking office. It provides for the vice-president elect to become the president-elect and take office on January 20. The amendment also give Congress the power to legislate on other issues dealing with the succession of the president.
The sessions of Congress between the election and the beginning of a new term are called "lame duck" sessions because members of Congress who were voted out of office still attend and can still vote. Originally the term "lame duck" was a financial term meaning those who could not repay a loan. As used in politics, a representative who lost an election was no longer accountable to the voters. As the framers of the Twentieth Amendment saw it, lame duck representatives should not be able to vote since voters had already rejected their views. The Twentieth Amendment only shortened the lame duck period by six weeks. Between 1933 and 2012, 18 lame-duck sessions of Congress have passed laws.
Noura Ghazi
Noura Ghazi (نورة غازي) also Noura Ghazi al-Safadi ( نورة غازي الصفدي ) was born September 30 1981 in Damascus, Syria. She is a Syrian lawyer. Her husband, Bassel disappeared in Syria in 2014.
Ghazi's father was an activist for workers. When Ghazi was five years old, her father was sent to prison by the Supreme Court of State Security. Noura Ghazi studied law at Damascus University.
Ghazi became a human rights lawyer in 2004. She defends people who are in jail because they are prisoners of conscience in Syria.
Ghazi's husband Bassel Khartabil (Arabic: باسل خرطبيل‎), or Bassel Safadi (Arabic: باسل صفدي‎), a Syrian-Palestinian who wrote open-source software, was arrested on March 15, 2012. They were married at Adra prison on January 7, 2013.
While Bassel was in prison, from 2012-2015, Ghazi wrote a book about him called "Waiting". Bassel translated the book into English.
Preamble to the United States Constitution
The Preamble to the United States Constitution is a brief introduction to the Constitution's purposes and guiding principles. It provides the Founding Fathers' intentions for creating the Constitution and what they hoped the Constitution would achieve. It was added to the Constitution as an afterthought and was not discussed on the floor of the Constitutional Convention nor was it voted on. Gouverneur Morris, one of the writers of the Constitution, wrote and added it at the last moment. The Preamble itself did not have any legal meaning. The Supreme Court upheld this view in "Jacobson v. Massachusetts" (1905).
"We the People" means all of the citizens of the United States.
The first few words of the Preamble "We the People of the United States" were very different than any treaty or law the United States had ever written before. For example, the United States' first constitution, the Articles of Confederation, describes itself as "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States," and then gives a list of all thirteen states. The treaties the United States had signed were the same. They were agreements between states, not people.
At the time, Gouverneur Morris chose to write "We the People" instead of saying "We the United States of..." and then listing all thirteen states. First of all, Article Seven of the Constitution said that only nine states had to approve the Constitution for it to take effect. At the time, nobody knew which states would ratify the Constitution and which would not. Because of this, the Preamble could not list all thirteen states as if they had all already agreed. Also, if other states joined the United States later, it would be impossible to add their names to the list. For these reasons, the Preamble had to start with "We the People."
The words "We the People" turned into a strong statement that this new government was made by the people of the United States, to benefit the people of the United States. When Virginia's delegates were debating the Constitution, Governor Edmund Randolph pointed out: "The government is for the people; and the [problem] was, that the people had no [power] in the government before." If the people are going to have to follow the government, he said, should not the people be the ones to create that government?
"In order to form a more perfect union" is a concept most likely based on "Commentaries on the Laws of England" by Sir William Blackstone. It was widely read at the time and many of the framers were students of his work. Blackstone stated the constitution of England was perfect, but steadily improving. The phrase "a more perfect union" simply meant a better one than any before the Constitution.
Before the government based on the Constitution, the United States was based on the Articles of Confederation. However, had very little power as a federal government. They did not give the United States government enough power for the country to work and grow. Every state was for itself, instead of working cooperatively. Sometimes they acted like thirteen separate countries that would only come together if another country attacked them.
"Establish justice" meant to establish the rule of law. It meant that everyone was equal before the law with no distinction between the status or wealth of a person. With their new government, the Founding Fathers wanted to establish (create) justice and fairness. When the British Empire governed the American colonies, the colonists did not think the government was fair. For example, Parliament would decide that the colonists had to pay taxes on items like stamps and things that were made in other countries. The colonists did not have any say in this.
Even after the United States became independent, many of the Founding Fathers thought that the states had too much power under the Articles of Confederation. They thought the states had taken away people's rights.
For example, during the Shays' Rebellion in Springfield, Massachusetts, the state of Massachusetts:
Shays' Rebellion was still fresh in the minds of the framers. It cause many to fear the spirit of the American Revolutionary War might be getting out of hand. There was a need to keep peace in the new country.
Just five years after the Articles of Confederation were ratified in 1781, many Americans were unhappy with the Articles. Many of the Founding Fathers thought that the Articles had made the United States government too weak. Shays' Rebellion made it very clear that the national government under the Articles of Confederation was not strong enough. Daniel Shays, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War, led the rebel farmers trying to overthrow the Massachusetts government. The farmers had formed an entire army, which neither the state or federal governments had enough soldiers or money to fight. In desperation Massachusetts offered to pay for a private army to fight the rebellion. Finally, in 1787, that private army defeated the rebels.
John Jay, one of the Founding Fathers, said that after the United States government could not pay for soldiers to defend against any armed rebellion: "the inefficiency of the Federal government [became] more and more [obvious]." Another Founding Father, Henry Knox, said that Shays' Rebellion convinced many people that the United States needed a stronger federal government. The Rebellion made it clear that the states were not protected, and if they were attacked, they would be on their own.
"Provide for the common defense" meant the framers were well aware that independence from Great Britain did not mean they were secure. British Canada to the north was still full of angry loyalists. To the west were unknown numbers of hostile Native American tribes. Farther west was the vast Louisiana territory held by France. To the south the Spanish held Florida. Worse, these powers were fighting a series of wars in Europe that affected much of North America. The framers knew America needed to protect itself. Providing for the common defence meant the new government would make sure all of the states were protected and defended if attacked.
"Promote the general welfare" is the basic goal of all governments. It was the main reason for having a constitution.
In general, this part of the Preamble means that one of the new government's jobs would be to make things better for the whole country. Specifically, this part of the Preamble has to do with the government's powers to tax people and spend money. It means that the new government will only have the power to tax and spend on things that are good for the entire country. The government will not be allowed to spend money on things that will be good for only a part of the country, or only some people in the country.
For example, of the Constitution gives Congress the power to tax people and spend money on creating Post Offices and building roads for mail carriers to use. Congress can do this because Post Offices will "promote the general Welfare"—everybody in the country will benefit from being able to send and get mail.
"Secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity" was important since many had come to America from places with little political or religious freedom. This phrase demonstrates the intent of the new government to protect the newly-won freedoms and protect against a tyrannical government.
However, the Articles of Confederation were all about the states' rights. At that time, many people were afraid of having a federal government that was too strong. These people were called anti-federalists. They included some of the Founding Fathers, like Patrick Henry and James Monroe. The anti-federalists worried that a strong federal government could become tyrannical and take away the rights of individual states, like they thought the British colonial government had done. They also worried that a government ruled by a President might turn into a monarchy, where the President would become a King and have total power. Because of these worries, the Articles of Confederation talked all about states' rights, and not about individual people's rights. The framers wanted to establish these rights for the people of the United States and their "posterity" meaning all the generations of Americans who would follow.
"Do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America" is perhaps the strongest statement in the Preamble. It says in effect that the people made the Constitution and it is the people who give it power.
The Preamble to the United States Constitution, is the beginning of the Constitution. It is not a law. Instead, it talks about the Founding Fathers' reasons for writing the Constitution, and what they hope the Constitution will do.
Thelma Aldana
Thelma Aldana or Thelma Esperanza Aldana Hernández de López (born September 27, 1955), is a Guatemalan lawyer. She became a judge in the Supreme Court in 2009. She was elected president of the Supreme Court from 2011-2011. In 2013 she replaced Claudia Paz y Paz as Guatemala’s attorney general.
Aldana graduated from the University of San Carlos in Guatemala. She has a Master's degree in Civil and Procedural Law.
In 2011, when she was president of the Supreme Court, Aldana started special courts in Guatemala for femicide cases. Killing women, and violence against women became a crime in Guatemala. Eleven districts now have the special courts. Judges and police officers receive special gender crime training. Every year there are 56,000 reports of violence against women.
In 2015 Aldana led an investigation into government corruption. As a result, the president of Guatemala resigned.
Suranimala Rajapaksha
Jayasinghe Rajapakse Mohottige Don Suranimala Rajapaksha (Sinhala:සුරනිමල රාජපක්ෂ) (5 January 1949 – 14 March 2016) was a Sri Lankan politician. He was first elected to the Parliament of Sri Lanka in 1994. He was the Minister of School Education in Republic Socialist of Sri Lanka in 2001 to 2004. He was a member of the United National Party (UNP) and a member of UNP Working Committee. He was appointed as the Coordinating secretary to the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe on 27 January 2015.
Rajapaksha died on 14 March 2016 at a hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka from renal failure. He was aged 67.
Doreen Massey
Doreen Barbara Massey FRSA FBA FAcSS (3 January 1944 – 11 March 2016) was a British social scientist and geographer. She was working among others on topics involving Marxist geography, feminist geography, and cultural geography. Her work on space, place and power has been highly helpful within a range of related disciplines and research fields. She served as Emeritus Professor of Geography at the Open University.
Massey died on 11 March 2016 from pancreatic cancer. She was aged 72.
Hilary Putnam
Hilary Whitehall Putnam (July 31, 1926 – March 13, 2016) was an American philosopher, mathematician, and computer scientist. He was a central figure in analytic philosophy from the 1960s. He worked in philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of science. Until his death, Putnam was Cogan University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University.
Putnam was born in Chicago, Illinois. He studied at Harvard University, at University of Pennsylvania and at the University of California, Los Angeles. Putnam died on March 13, 2016 from mesothelioma at his home in Boston, Massachusetts. He was aged 89.
David Joseph Walsh (28 April 1923 – 14 March 2016), commonly referred to as Davy Walsh or Dave Walsh, was an Irish footballer. He was born in Waterford, Ireland.
He played as a centre forward for, among others, Linfield, West Bromwich Albion and Aston Villa. Walsh was a dual international. He played for both Ireland teams – the FAI XI and the IFA XI.
In 1949, he was a member of the FAI XI that defeated England 2–0 at Goodison Park, becoming the first team to beat England at home.
Walsh died on 14 March 2016 from pneumonia in Dublin, Ireland. He was aged 92.
San Francisco (disambiguation)
San Francisco is a combined city/county in the U.S. state of California.
San Francisco may also refer to:
Sergio Arellano Stark
Sergio Arellano Stark (10 June 1921 – 9 March 2016) was a Chilean military officer. He led the so-called “Caravan of Death". It killed many Chileans from helicopters and established Augusto Pinochet’s hold on power. He was born in Santiago, Chile.
Stark died in Santiago, Chile on 9 March 2016 from complications of Alzheimer's disease. He was aged 94.
Martha Wright
Martha Wright, born Martha Lucile Wiederrecht (March 23, 1923 – March 1, 2016), was an American actress and singer. She performed on Broadway and on television. She was in "South Pacific" and "The Sound of Music".
Wright died at the age of 92 in Newburyport, Massachusetts on March 1, 2016.
Thomas G. Morris
Thomas Gayle Morris (August 20, 1919 – March 4, 2016) was an American politician. He was born in Eastland County, Texas. Morris served in the New Mexico House of Representatives from 1953 to 1958. He was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives in 1958. Morris began serving on January 3, 1959, and left office January 3, 1969, after being defeated for re-election.
Morris died in Amarillo, Texas on March 4, 2016 at the age of 96.
Morgan F. Murphy
Morgan Francis Murphy (April 16, 1932 – March 4, 2016) was an American politician. He was born in Chicago, Illinois. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives representing Illinois's 2nd district. He served from 1973 through 1981. He replaced Abner J. Mikva. He later served as a U.S. representative for Illinois's 3rd district. He served from 1971 through 1973.
Murphy died in Chicago, Illinois from prostate cancer on March 4, 2016. He was aged 83.
Article Five of the United States Constitution
Article Five of the United States Constitution outlines how the Constitution can be changed. Changes to the Constitution are called Constitutional amendments.
Article Five also says that there are certain clauses, or parts, of Article One of the Constitution that could not be amended right away. These clauses are explained in the "Protected clauses" section.
Before the Constitution was approved, the United States was covered by its first constitution, the Articles of Confederation.
Under the Articles of Confederation, amendments had to be approved by a unanimous vote in all 13 state legislatures. Not only did every state legislature have to agree on the amendment. If a single state Senator or Representative in the country disagreed with an amendment, the amendment would fail. This made it basically impossible to get any amendments passed.
When the Founding Fathers wrote Article Five, they were trying to make sure changing the Constitution was not too hard, but not too easy either. James Madison later explained that the amendment process in the Constitution "guards equally against that extreme facility which would render the Constitution too mutable; and that extreme difficulty which might perpetuate its discovered faults."
In Simple English, Madison meant that the amendment process protects equally against:
There are two steps in the process for changing the Constitution. The first step is proposing (formally suggesting) an amendment. Article Five of the Constitution allows this to be done in two different ways.
The first way is the most common way. Any member of Congress can suggest an amendment. However, two-thirds (67%) of both the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives have to agree that the amendment is needed. If this happens, the proposed amendment moves to Step 2 in the process.
As of 2020, the second way has never been used. However, it exists to protect the rights of the state legislatures. If two-thirds of the state legislatures ask them to, Congress has to call a Constitutional Convention. Delegates would come to the Convention from each state. The Constitutional Convention could propose as many amendments as they wanted to. All of the amendments they proposed would move to Step 2 in the process.
At first, when the Founding Fathers were writing the Constitution, they were only going to give Congress the power to propose amendments. However, some of the Founders, like Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, worried that this gave Congress too much power. Madison and Hamilton re-wrote Article Five to add the second option for proposing an amendment, and the rest of the Founders agreed. Adding the second option helped make sure the states had power too the power to propose amendments if enough of their legislatures agreed.
Step 2 starts when an amendment has been proposed, either by Congress or by a Constitutional Convention. The proposed amendment now has to be ratified. Like with Step 1, Article Five gives two choices for how an amendment can be ratified. Congress gets to choose which way to use.
Congress has almost always chosen the first way: letting the state legislatures ratify the amendment. If three-fourths (75%) of the state legislatures ratify the amendment, it becomes part of the Constitution.
The second option is for Congress to ask each state to create a "ratifying convention." This is a group of people not members of the state legislature who would decide whether or not to ratify the amendment. If ratifying conventions in three-fourths of the states ratify the amendment, it becomes part of the Constitution.
Congress has only used the second option once: after it proposed the 21st Amendment. (This amendment cancelled the 18th Amendment, which made alcohol illegal in the United States. The 21st Amendment made alcohol legal again.)
At the time, Congress thought that this would be the more democratic option. A large majority of the people in the United States wanted the 21st Amendment to pass. However, Congress thought the state legislators would refuse to pass the amendment because of pressure from powerful groups that were against alcohol. In other words, Congress did not think that the state legislatures would vote the way the people of the United States would want. This example shows why the Founding Fathers included the "ratifying convention" option in the amendment process. If the state legislatures get too powerful, or do not represent what the people who elected them want, the people have the power to pass amendments too.
Between 1789 and December 16, 2014:
Article Five protects two clauses in Article One from being amended until 1808. These clauses are:
Article Five also puts one absolute limit on Constitutional amendments. It completely protects Section 3, Clause 1 of Article One. This clause says that every state will have the same number of United States Senators. It does not set a time limit on how long this clause is protected for. It just says: "no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate." As of 1808, when the protections on the other two clauses expired, this is the only limit that the Constitution puts on suggested amendments. Any amendment, about anything else, could be suggested.
Article Five gives all of the power for creating Constitutional amendments to the Legislative Branch: the United States Congress and the state legislatures. The President of the United States cannot amend the Constitution. He has no part in the process of changing the Constitution. The United States Supreme Court confirmed this in a 1798 case called "Hollingsworth v. Virginia". In its decision, the Court wrote: "[T]he President ... has nothing to do with the proposition, or adoption, of amendments to the Constitution." However, the Supreme Court cannot create an amendment either.
This is an example of the separation of powers (also called "checks and balances") that the Founding Fathers built into the new American government. If the President or the Supreme Court could change the Constitution any time they wanted to, they would have too much power. One person (or nine Supreme Court Justices) could make decisions that would affect every American.
Instead, the Founders gave the job of creating Constitutional amendments to the Legislative Branch. By requiring that two-thirds of both Houses of Congress, and three-quarters of the states, approve of every Constitutional amendment, they made sure that there would have to be a lot of debate, compromise, and thought before an amendment was approved. Also, because so many legislators have to approve every amendment, it is very difficult for small "special interest" groups (like people who only care about a certain part of the country, or a certain issue) cannot control the vote.
The Founders even put checks and balances on the Legislative Branch's powers. If Congress gets too powerful, the states can make it call a Constitutional Convention. If the states get too powerful, ordinary Americans can vote on a Constitutional amendment through ratifying conventions. As a legal scholar wrote later: "The ratification of the Twenty-First Amendment [by ratifying conventions] might be called one of the most democratic moments in American history. ... Almost all voters in America had the unprecedented opportunity to [support] or condemn a federal constitutional amendment directly. ... The conventions ratified the choices of the people without fail."
Almost right away, the amendments process became very important. North Carolina and Rhode Island refused to ratify the Constitution without a Bill of Rights. This meant they would not be a part of the new United States Government. In 1789, James Madison wrote the Bill of Rights. They were ratified together, as the first ten amendments to the Constitution, in 1791. Having a Bill of Rights convinced North Carolina and Rhode Island to ratify the Constitution.
The amendments process set out in Article Five has allowed for many other important amendments to be added to the Constitution. For example, these amendments have included:
If Article Five had made the Constitution too hard to change, African-American people might still be slaves, and women might still not have the right to vote.
Article Two of the United States Constitution
Article Two of the United States Constitution creates the executive branch of the United States government. The executive branch includes the President; the Vice President; the Cabinet; executive departments, like the Department of State; independent agencies, like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); and other things like committees and commissions.
Section One begins by giving federal executive power to the President only. This is part of the separation of powers that the Founding Fathers built into the Constitution. To prevent any part of the government from getting too powerful, they split the power between three branches. This clause gives executive power to the President. Another clause in Article One of the Constitution gives federal legislative (law-making) power to the United States Congress only. A third clause in Article Three gives judiciary power to the federal courts. No branch is allowed to do a job that the Constitution has given to another branch. For example, the President cannot make laws; that is the Legislature's job.
This clause says the President is the head of the Executive Branch. It also mentions the Vice President, though the Constitution does not give him any executive powers. However, the Constitution does say that the President and Vice President must be elected at the same time, for the same term (amount of time), and by the same constituency. The Founding Fathers wanted to make sure the Executive Branch would survive, and stay independent, if the Vice President had to become the President.
Under the U.S. Constitution, the President and Vice President are chosen by Electors. The Constitution allows each state legislature to decide how they will choose Electors. Since the 1820s, state legislatures have usually chosen Electors through an indirect popular vote. This means that people in the state will get to vote on which Electors they want. The ballot that people use to vote will have the Electors' names on it. Usually, it will also say what Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates they plan to support. This allows the people to choose Electors who support the candidates they like.
Each state has two United States Senators and a certain number of United States Representatives representing them in Congress. (The number of Representatives depends on how many people live in the state.) Each state gets a number of Electors that is equal to the number of Members of Congress the state has. (For example, if a state has 2 Senators and 10 Representatives, they have 12 total Members of Congress, so they get 12 Electors.)
The only people who cannot be Electors are Senators, Representatives, and federal officers. This is meant to make sure that the Electoral College is made up of regular Americans, not politicians.
This clause talks about Electors and how they choose a President. Once they are chosen, the Electors meet in their states to vote for the President and Vice President. Originally, candidates only ran for President; there were no candidates for Vice President. Each Elector voted for two different candidates for President. They had to vote for at least one candidate who did not live in the Elector's home state. The candidate who got more than half of the votes became President. The candidate who got the next highest number of votes (the second-place winner) became Vice President.
This clause gives instructions for several possible problems:
The Twelfth Amendment changed this process in a few ways:
Article Two allows Congress to set a national Election Day.
This clause simply means that to be President, a person must meet three requirements:
If a person does not meet all of these requirements, they cannot be President.
Two later amendments changed these rules about who can be President and Vice President:
This clause talks about the possibility that the Presidency might become "vacant". This might happen because:
If the Presidency becomes vacant, the Vice President becomes President. If the Vice President is "also" unable to be President, Congress can decide who will become President. Whoever takes over the Presidency will act as President until the actual President gets better (if he is sick or disabled), or until a President is elected in the next Presidential election.
Congress has come up with a "line of succession" a list of the people who would become President, and in what order, if both the Presidency and Vice Presidency became vacant. As of 2016, the order is: the Speaker of the House of Representatives; the President "pro tempore" of the Senate; and then the fifteen Cabinet Secretaries, in order of when their Departments were first created.
This clause was partially changed by the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967. That Amendment creates a process for filling a vacancy in the office of the Vice President. It also says that the Vice President can become Acting President (temporary President) if:
If the President declares himself unable to discharge his duties, he can take the Presidency back at any time. For example, in 2002, George W. Bush became the first President to formally use the Disability Clause. He gave power to his Vice President for about two hours while he had a medical test which required anesthesia. Once he felt ready to be President again, Bush took back the Presidency.
If the Vice President and the Cabinet say a President is unable to do his job, the President can still try to take control back. However, if the Vice President and the Cabinet still think the President cannot do his job, they can challenge the President's return. If two-thirds of both the House and Senate agree, the President is declared unable to discharge his duties and the Vice President stays in control of the Presidency.
This means the President can receive a salary. However, the salary cannot be changed during the President's four-year term in office. Also, the President cannot receive any other salary, either from the federal government, or from any state government.
Before he becomes President, Clause 8 requires the new President to take an oath, promising that he will do his best as President, and will also do his best to protect and defend the Constitution. Usually, the Chief Justice of the United States gives the oath ("swears in" the new President) at the President's inauguration.
Section 2 talks about the powers that Article Two grants to the President.
The Constitution gives the President the most powers in areas that have to do with national security and protecting the country.
The President is the military's Commander-in-Chief. However, as part of the system of checks and balances in the Constitution, Article One says that only Congress can declare war. Still, the President can take actions like sending soldiers to certain places without needing Congress's approval, or a declaration of war.
The President may ask the "principal (head) officer" of any executive department to give him advice in writing. The Constitution actually does not require a formal Cabinet. However, America's first President, George Washington, organized his principal offices into a Cabinet, and every President has done the same since.
The President may grant pardons or reprieves to people who were convicted of crimes (except when the person was impeached). A "reprieve" cancels or changes a punishment for example, changing a death sentence to a sentence of life in prison.
This part of Section 2 is called the "Advice and Consent Clause". It gives the President powers, but he has to use them with the "advice and consent" (agreement) of the Senate. This is another example of checks and balances in the Constitution.
Here, the Constitution gives the President the power to make treaties with other countries. However, two-thirds of the Senators must agree with the treaty for it to take effect. If two-thirds of the Senate does not agree with the treaty, it is not approved, and there is nothing the President can do about it.
The Constitution does not say how the United States can "end" a treaty. Since the Constitution has passed, the government has done this in a few ways. In 1798, the first time the government wanted to end a treaty (the 1778 Treaty of Alliance with France), Congress passed a law ending the treaty. Other times, in the 1800s, a few Presidents ended treaties after Congress asked them to. The first time a President ended a treaty without Congress's approval was in the 1970s, when President Jimmy Carter ended a treaty with the Republic of China. In a lawsuit called "Goldwater v. Carter", members of Congress asked the Supreme Court to clarify whether a President could end a treaty on his own. The Supreme Court could not agree on a decision, and the case was dismissed (ended without a decision).
The President may also choose judges, ambassadors, consuls (diplomats), ministers, and other officers; but again, he needs the advice and consent of the Senate.
If Congress chooses, it can let the President, heads of executive departments, or the courts appoint less important officials on their own, without needing Congress's approval.
Once the Senate gives advice and consent to the President (approves the President's choice for a job), and that person is given the job, the Senate cannot go back and change its mind. It cannot take away its advice and consent once the person gets the job.
However, after the Senate grants advice and consent, the President "can" change his mind, and decide not to give the job to the person he nominated.
It is not clear whether the President can fire a person who was hired with the advice and consent of the Senate. Congress has limited this power many times. For example, during the Reconstruction Era, President Andrew Johnson wanted to fire people that Congress had approved. Congress passed a law saying he could not do that, but Jackson ignored the law. Later, Congress impeached him, but the Senate did not convict him.
A Supreme Court case called "Bowsher v. Synar" (1986) decided that Congress can fire a person it approved. Congress can do this by repealing the law that gave the President permission to appoint that person.