POLS 2311 1st Edition Lecture 9 Outline of Last Lecture I. The Preamble II. U.S. Constitution Article IV, Section 1III. Article IV, Section 3 Outline of Current Lecture I. Article IV, Section 3II. Article IV, Section 4III. Article V Proposal IV. Article V Ratification V. Article VI Current LectureI. Article IV, Section 3- Congress is the state legislature for all protectorate territories. o Citizenship? o Representation rights? A territory elects one to represent it before Congress. Normally cannot vote.  2007 House restored delegate limited voting rights (amendments only). o What are the U.S. Territories? D.C., Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Samoa, Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Northern Marianas Islands, Palau, US Minor Outlying Islands. Some 110,000 people live in te U.S. Virgin Islands and 3.9 million in Puerto Rico. More than 306,000 live in the U.S. Pacific territories of Guam, American Samoa and Northern Marianas. o These territories get one nonvoting delegate to represent them in the House of Representatives. o Our capital is a territory not a state. It is federal territory. o If the people of these territories wanted to fly into the U.S. to vote they could do so since they are citizens, but they can’t vote from where they are they must come to us. II. Article IV, Section 4- States must have a republic form of government. o Ingredients?  Cannot be a monarchyThese 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. Often based on a constitution  Representative democracy- Based on the Constitution. There has to be some sort of higher law that is strict and can’t be violated. The U.S. constitution can’t be changed or modified it can just be addedto, but other constitutions can be modified or bent, which allows dictatorship. - It can never be a monarchy. Great Britain is a type of monarchy. III. Article V Proposal - To propose amendments to the U.S. Constitution: o 1. Propose amendments by 2/3 votes in the House (291 of 435), and 2/3 votes in the Senate (67 of 100). o 2. Or when 2/3 (33 of 50) of the state legislatures apply to form a constitutional convention for the purpose of proposing amendments (changing the constitution)  700 state applications in history; some efforts nearly meet threshold. o They had to accept imperfection in the constitution and learn that they could improve them. We improved the constitution with an addition of 27 amendments. o Without the amendments women, blacks, and young adults still might not have the right to vote. o The president has noting to do with constitutional law making. They just have a preacher’s pulpit. o The authors of the constitution put certain freedoms in our constitution and allowed poor white males who may not understand what the constitution is saying, so they wanted to make sure that they allowed for change since it was an imperfect document being instilled by imperfect people. o Ronald Reagan wanted to do away with the 5th amendment because he thought that we shouldn’t give criminals rights. He was shut down. o The method of changing the constitution is setting the bar really high so that a majority has to reach a decision in order to achieve changing it. o Women have been mad for a long time because women on average get $.77 for every dollar for doing the same job men do. The men in power wouldn’t do anything about it, so the women wanted an amendment and said that they would start voting them out of office until they gave it to them. Corporate America stepped in and said that it was against the law to do that because it was basically a bribe/blackmail. o When we want an amendment passed we don’t put restrictions on it. If we don’t want an amendment passed then we put a time restriction on it. For example the women’s equal rights amendment they put a 7 year deadline on it and at the end of 7 years they were a couple of states away from getting it ratified.o Which of the following are the correct methods for proposing amendments is a question that might be asked about this. o This is just the suggestion stage. There is not a lot to be afraid of. IV. Article V Ratification - Who ratifies amendment proposals? What is the role of Congress? o 1. Approval by ¾ (38) of state legislatures (to do this Texas would need to pass a joint resolution by 2/3). Congress gets to choose. o 2. Approval by ¾ (38) of the state conventions. What are they?  While there have been over 11,000 attempts to propose and ratify, only 27have succeeded. o State legislations can demand for a law to be passed at the state level but Congress still has the authority to say heck no you will vote our way. V. Article VI- Section 1: o Debts before the Constitution are valid