Unit 2: Interactions Among Branches of Government

22 terms. Say what each one means, then open the card to check.

• Enumerated powers

  Powers the Constitution lists by name for Congress in Article I, Section 8, such as taxing, borrowing and declaring war.

  Example. Congress uses an enumerated power when it sets a tax on imported steel, because the power to tax is written in the text.

• Necessary and proper clause

  The clause at the end of Article I, Section 8 that lets Congress pass laws needed to carry out its listed powers, the basis of implied powers.

  Example. Congress created a national bank, which the Constitution does not name, as a means of carrying out its powers to tax and borrow.

• Advice and consent

  The Senate's power to approve or reject the president's major appointments by majority vote and treaties by a two-thirds vote.

  Example. A president names a new Supreme Court justice, and the nominee joins the Court only after a majority of the Senate votes to confirm.

• Filibuster

  A Senate tactic of extending debate to delay or block a vote on a bill, possible because Senate rules allow long debate.

  Example. A group of senators who oppose a mining bill keep debate going for days so that the bill never comes to a final vote.

• Cloture

  A Senate vote to end debate on a bill. For most legislation it takes three-fifths of the full Senate, which is 60 senators.

  Example. Supporters of a highway bill gather 61 votes for cloture, ending a filibuster and allowing a final vote.

• House Rules Committee

  The House committee that sets the terms of floor debate for most major bills, such as time limits and which amendments are allowed.

  Example. The Rules Committee sends a farm bill to the floor under a rule allowing only two amendments and one hour of debate.

• Trustee model

  A view of representation in which a lawmaker votes by personal judgment about what is best, even when voters back home disagree.

  Example. A senator votes for a tax change most of her state opposes because she believes it will help the national economy.

• Gerrymandering

  Drawing district lines to give one party or group an advantage, often by packing opposing voters together or splitting them up.

  Example. A state legislature draws its map so the other party's voters are crowded into two districts and outvoted everywhere else.

• Pocket veto

  A veto that happens when the president does not sign a bill within ten days and Congress has adjourned, so the bill dies without an override vote.

  Example. Congress passes a parks bill and adjourns for the year; the president leaves it unsigned and the bill dies.

• Executive order

  A directive from the president to the executive branch about how to carry out laws, with the force of law unless courts or Congress undo it.

  Example. A president orders all federal agencies to buy only electric cars for their fleets starting next year.

• Executive agreement

  A pact between the president and a foreign leader that does not need a two-thirds Senate vote, an informal power not named in the Constitution.

  Example. A president and a neighboring country's leader agree to share weather data without sending a treaty to the Senate.

• Signing statement

  A written note the president issues when signing a bill, saying how the executive branch will read or carry out parts of it.

  Example. On signing a defense bill, a president writes that one reporting rule will be applied only where it fits presidential powers.

• War Powers Resolution

  A 1973 law requiring the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of sending troops into combat and to withdraw within 60 days without approval.

  Example. After ordering air strikes abroad, a president sends Congress a report two days later, starting the 60-day clock.

• Bully pulpit

  The president's ability to use public attention and speeches to persuade voters, and through them to pressure Congress.

  Example. A president gives a prime-time address urging viewers to call their senators in support of a stalled school-safety bill.

• Judicial review

  The power of courts to strike down laws or government actions that conflict with the Constitution, set out in Marbury v. Madison (1803).

  Example. A federal court rules that a state law banning a newspaper from printing an article violates the First Amendment.

• Stare decisis

  The practice of following precedent, so courts decide new cases the way earlier similar cases were decided unless there is strong reason to change.

  Example. A lower court applies an earlier Supreme Court ruling on school speech to a new case about a student's online post.

• Judicial restraint

  A view that judges should defer to elected branches and follow precedent, striking down laws only when they clearly break the Constitution.

  Example. A justice votes to uphold a state's new voting law she dislikes because she finds nothing in it that plainly violates the Constitution.

• Judicial activism

  A label for judges who are more willing to overturn laws or precedent and to read the Constitution as setting broad policy.

  Example. Critics call a ruling activist when the Court overturns a decades-old precedent and strikes down laws in many states at once.

• Rule-making authority

  The power Congress gives agencies to write detailed regulations that carry out a broad law and have the force of law.

  Example. A law tells an agency to keep tap water safe, and the agency sets the exact limit for lead allowed in drinking water.

• Iron triangle

  A lasting alliance among a congressional committee, a federal agency and an interest group that all gain from the same policy.

  Example. A House farm subcommittee, the agency running a crop program and a growers' group work together to keep the program funded.

• Merit system

  Hiring and promoting government workers by tests and qualifications instead of party loyalty, begun by the Pendleton Act of 1883.

  Example. An applicant gets a federal inspector job by passing a skills exam, not by working on the winning campaign.

• Congressional oversight

  Congress's review of how the executive branch carries out laws, through hearings, investigations, reports and control of funding.

  Example. A Senate committee calls an agency director to testify about why disaster aid reached families months late.