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.