hey there and welcome back to heimlich history in this video we're going to look at the next foundational document for ap government namely the united states constitution so if you're ready to get them brain cows milk republican style well then let's get to it okay so let's start by reminding ourselves of the historical context into which this document was written now prior to the writing of the constitution the governing document for the united states was the articles of confederation and if you want to watch a video explaining that document it's right over here anyway what you need to remember about that system of government is that most of the power was held by the states and the central government which was made up of only a legislative branch was exceedingly weak and then because of all the cascading difficulties under the articles including congress going broke and events like shae's rebellion delegates gathered in philadelphia in 1787 to draft a new governing document and that is how we got our constitution and the big idea when it comes to the constitution is that it established a republican-style government in contrast to the confederacy established by the article now republican government is one in which representatives do the work on behalf of the people just in case you don't know now structurally the constitution begins with a preamble which is then followed by seven articles and here you can see the overarching topic of each article now we're not going to consider every article in detail but i especially want to emphasize how this document solves the problems of the articles of confederation and basically the way that it solved those problems was by investing the central government with a metric but load more power than it had under the article so let's see how they did it article 1 deals with the form and powers of congress of the legislative branch of the federal government just let me add that article 1 is the longest section in the constitution and that should tell you something and what it should tell you is that most important to this new form of government was the branch that represented the people okay so what power does congress have well in a word legislative or law making powers and you can see it right up front in article one all legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a congress of the united states which shall consist of a senate and a house of representatives so right off the bat you can see a major difference between the articles and the constitution under the constitution the congress would be formed into a bicameral legislature which means that there would be two houses in the senate each state is represented equally with two senators per state and then in the house of representatives they are apportioned by population and the most important section in article one that you need to know is section eight in which the enumerated powers of congress are explicitly outlined here it says that congress has the power to lay and collect taxes to borrow money to coin money to declare war to raise and support armies and maintain a navy there's a lot more there but you get the idea but probably the most important part of this section comes at the end and it's known as the necessary and proper clause or you might hear it called the elastic clause same thing it says that congress has the power to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers and all other powers vested by this constitution in the government of the united states or in any department or officer thereof now i cannot emphasize enough just how explosive that sentence is especially among those who liked the government under the articles what this sentence is saying is that okay here are all the powers of the federal congress and we're going to name them explicitly so congress doesn't get the idea that i can just make laws on anything its little heart desires but then the necessary improper clause comes around and says yeah but if congress needs to make any other laws that are necessary and proper to all of these powers it has the power to do that now if that sounds vague it very much is and it was that vagueness that really baked the biscuits of those who opposed giving the federal government more power they fear that the necessary and proper clause would give congress the latitude to pass any law they wanted even if it was not explicitly listed in section 8. okay now we'll leave that there for a moment and move on to article 2 which outlines the provisions for the executive branch or the president first it talks about the method of electing the president which is by means of the electoral college and then it goes on to list the explicit powers of the president the first power of the president is as follows in section 2. the president shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the united states and the militia of the several states so the president can't declare war that power belongs to congress but the president is the highest in the chain of command of the military okay then in section 3 it says that the president shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed so congress passes laws and the president is there to execute or enforce them additionally the president is the final step in the law making process like once a bill passes through both houses of congress the president must sign it for it to become a law okay and then article 3 deals with the judicial branch and it says that 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 the constitution provides for one federal supreme court and then gives congress the power to establish other courts which it did in the judiciary act of 1789. now with respect to how the supreme court works it's important to know what kind of jurisdiction it is granted jurisdiction just indicates what kind of disputes are within the realm of the court's power to decide and article 3 says that the court has two kinds of jurisdiction first in all cases affecting ambassadors and other public ministers and consuls and those in which a state shall be party the supreme court shall have original jurisdiction so in these cases the court has original jurisdiction which means that the supreme court can hear that case for the first time however in all the other cases before mention the supreme court shall have appellate jurisdiction appellate jurisdiction means that the court cannot hear a case for the first time but can only hear appeals from the lower courts and most of the cases the supreme court hears are appeals from lower courts so we've said that the legislative branch is the one who makes the laws and then the executive branch the president executes the laws and then the judicial branch interprets the laws and whether or not they are constitutional now that is called judicial review and it doesn't really say that in the constitution that comes a little bit later in marbury versus madison but there it is okay now article four talks about the federal government's relationship to the states and the relationships among the states themselves and then we come to article five which indicates the process for amending the constitution it establishes a two-part process for the amendment there's proposal and then there's ratification an amendment can be proposed in two ways either two-thirds of both houses of congress can propose it or two-thirds of state legislatures and then in order to ratify the amendment into law three-fourths of the states have to agree now three-fourths or 75 percent is a very high number which is why out of the hundreds of amendments proposed we only have 27. but remember that under the articles of confederation any amendment to the document required unanimous consent of all the states so article 5 made that process more achievable okay then in article 6 there's another bombshell you need to know about and it's called the supremacy clause and it goes a little something like this this constitution and the laws of the united states which shall be made in pursuance thereof and all treaties made or which shall be made under the authority of the united states shall be the supreme law of the land in other words if the federal government makes a law and a state government makes a contradictory law the federal law will always trump state law federal law is supreme and again this got the anti-federalists who oppose the constitution all kinds of twitchy because if you combine the supremacy clause and the necessary and proper clause what couldn't the federal government do and furthermore if national law always trumps state law then doesn't that make all state laws null and void anyway that was the argument and i have other videos that explain the outcome of that argument so what we have seen is that the constitution put way more power into the federal government than the articles of confederation did and in doing so it established a republican-style government in which power was divided between three branches which were capable of checking each other's power but even with those checks and balances in place it didn't quell the fears of those who opposed the document what ultimately got them to sign off on it was the guarantee of a bill of rights which would outline specific individual liberties upon which the federal government could not trample and they got what they asked for okay that's what you need to know about the u.s constitution click right over here for more videos covering the foundational documents for ap government if you want help getting an a in your class and a five on your exam it may then click right over here and grab my review packet as always if you want me to keep making these videos then you can let me know that by subscribing heimler out