GPOSC 225 1st Edition Lecture 14Outline of Last Lecture I. Nationalisation of the Bill of RightsII. Slaughterhouse CasesIII. Selective Incorporationa. 1st caseb. 2nd casec. 3rd cased. Gideon V WainwrightIV. Intro to Civil RightsOutline of Current Lecture - CongressII. Congress - Structurea. House of Representativesi. Qualificationsii. Single member districtsb. Senatei. Qualificationsii. Why ⅓ up for re-election annually? III. Congress - Origin and Powersa. Originb. Powersc. Unique PowersIV. Federalist 57V. Federalist 62Current Lecture - CongressStructure: bicameral with 2 chambers● House of Representatives○ Qualifications: are few but spelled out in Article 1 section 2○ You must be 25 years old○ You must be a citizen of 7 years○ 2 year terms○ no term limits○ Resident of the state you representThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.How do we vote for candidates in the House? We elect house members to 435 seats by our single member district or congressional district. SINGLE MEMBER DISTRICTS: We don’t have to elect this way, per the constitution, but we have since 1842 (after state legislatures no longer elected members of congress). - Gerrymandering often an issue under the structure because district lines are redrawn according to party affiliation. - Representatives must be residents of the state they represent, but not of the district. Note it is legally permissible but probably not very politically possible since districts would not be likely to vote for someone who didn’t live in their district.- Therefore, you can run for office as long as you establish residency, but its also hard to do (when running for the House especially) if you are a recent resident.ALL of the house is up for election every 2 years. ● Senate○ Qualifications spelled out in article 1 section 3○ YOu must be 30 years old○ citizen of 9 years○ 6 year terms○ Resident of the state you represent.Why do the framers require senators to be older and have been a citizen longer?- they have more power and responsibility in affairs of domestic AND foreign policy (The chief concern) so they wanted older and therefore hopefully wiser senators with more life experience. ⅓ of the seats in the Senate are up for reelection every year. This started by the original congress drawing straws and some of them only serving a 2, 4 or then 6 year term to get the cycle going.- why do the framers do this? They didn’t want it to be easy to have a wholesale change all at one time. - Ensures greater stability- Requires slow deliberate change from voters- makes congress more conservative. Origin and PowersOrigin: Models for the US congress include british parliament and colonial legislatures.NOTE pp 267-68 in Jillson textbook and doctrine of LEGISLATIVE SUPREMACY. The legislative branch is the most important, yes the branches of government are equal, but the framers intended congress to be chief among equals. Powers: ● Article 1 S 8 ○ 8 clauses which include taxation, commerce, naturalization, patents, postoffices.○ 7 clauses: foreign/military affairs, power to declare war, establish and equip armies and navies, punish violation of international law.○ Create inferior federal courts○ authority over the nations capital (note they did not know yet where it would be)○ Necessary and proper clause. Unique PowersHouse: ● All bills for raising revenue (aka taxing) must originate in the house (though they had to pass both chambers)Senate:● power to “try” all impeachments. Impeachments were voted in the House by a 50% + 1 majority, but a president is not removed from office until the senate tries and votes to remove from office with a 2/3rds majority. ● power to ratify treaties with 2/3rd of Senators present to to ratify. ● confirm presidential nominations (high level appointments and federal judges) by majority.Federalist Paper 57Anti federalist argument: The house will be too small and controlled by the wealthy or “monied few”Madison’s response (in 57) is that yes if that’s true, that would be a bad thing but 1. NOT TRUE. The rich have no legal advantage to run for office, candidacy has nothing to do with wealth, religion, birth, etc. 2. VOTERS. If you can vote in your state you can vote in your national government. Aka, the constitution creates no barriers to run for office nor to vote for candidates based on a person’s wealth.3. INHERENT SECURITIES. There are inherent securities that make sure elected representatives look out for all citizens, not just the rich ones? Why?a. Character: Madison had some confidence in voters to choose candidates of upstanding characterb. Gratitude: representatives would have gratitude towards voters that got him/her into office.c. Self-Interest: If a representative alienates his/her constituents they won’t get re-elected.d. Frequent Elections; If the voters don’t like it, they can throw representatives out of office. Federalist Paper 62Antifederalist objection: the number of senators is too small and they serve way too long(6 years), to the point that this begins to lo like a hereditary institution because people could serve until they died (life expectancy of the day was only 50/60 y.o.)Madison’s argument in return:1. The senate provides security against the House doing damage. 2. Single assemblies (aka unicameral legislature) tend to have “sudden and violent passions” so we must create space for slow reasonable deliberate debate (aka long terms of office).a. a larger senate is more prone to passing bad laws just like the athenian assembly when they killed socrates, regretted it, and immediately began erecting statues in his honor. 3. Longer terms mean less susceptible to these violent impulsesa. longer time to study/watch policies implemented in office to makesure they really work the way you want the tob. therefore better policy choices, because you know the history4. Senate will be more stable because of the ⅓ reelection rule, inhibit mutabilitya. frequent turnover would mean lots of new and revised laws or “mutability”b. mutability leads to i. loss of respect in foreign countriesii. loss of confidence of the people. If a law is a rule of action but if it grows/changes the people cannot keep track of it.in fact IF laws change this often, this does benefit the rich because they are the only ones with time