American Government 3.3 Amending the Constitution

DRILL: In your own words, write the definition for:
Elastic Clause & Enumerated Powers
Elastic Clause – allows the government to stretch its powers.
Enumerated Powers – powers listed in the Constitution

LESSON OBJECTIVE
Students will describe the ways of proposing and ratifying amendments to the Constitution by researching the details of formal & informal constitutional changes. 

I. The Amendment Process 
A. Article V describes how Congress and the states can change the Constitution.
B. Congress proposing amendments and the states ratify them.
II. Informal Changes 
A. Congress has passed laws that have changed many provisions of the Constitution.
B. Congress has shaped the Constitution 
III. Informal Presidential Changes 
A.	Presidents can use executive agreements with other nations 
B. These agreement do not require the approval of Congress.
IV. Supreme Court Decisions 
A. The Supreme Court uses judicial review to interpret the Constitution.
B. The Supreme Court’s rulings can change to reflect the changing condition of the times.
V. Changes Through Custom and Usage 
A. Political parties are an example of customs that have changed the Constitution.
B. Political parties are not mentioned in the Constitution but they play a vital role.

Odds & Ends
1. Ratification is needed for amendment approval
2. A petition is an appeal
3. To accuse the president is to impeach
4. A treaty is an agreement between nations
5. Chief Justice Earl Warren was famous for his judicial activism
6. The only method of amending the Constitution that has been used to date is by two-thirds vote of each house.
7. The Equal Rights Amendment caused questions when states revoked their ratification.
8. Congress has set the limit of seven years on state ratification of an amendment.
9. An executive agreement between heads of state does NOT require Congressional approval.
			American Government 3.3 Amending the Constitution

1. D 			6. C
2. E 			7. D
3. A 			8. B
4. C 			9. A
5. B 			10. A	

11. The first person to succeed to the presidency was William Tyler. He was William Henry Harrison’s vice president.

Case Analysis/Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 1819
1. Dartmouth College remained a private institution and was protected under Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution from interference by the state. The trustees were reinstated to administer the college, and the college records, the corporate seal, and other corporate property were returned to the trustees by the state treasurer.
2. Chief Justice Marshall explained that if a state or other sovereign—here the British crown—granted a charter of incorporation, the charter has “every ingredient of a complete and legitimate contract.”
3. The Dartmouth case established that a corporate charter granted by the state comes under the protection of the contract clause that prohibits states from making any laws which impair the obligation of a contract, therefore businesses could flourish without being subjected to interference by the state.
4. If states wanted to provide higher education, they had to provide publicly funded institutions because  the Dartmouth decision prohibited the states from taking over private institutions. 
5. The Dartmouth decision weakened the power of the states by ruling that even though states have the power to charter corporations, corporations are protected from interference by the states because they are protected under the contract clause in Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution which prohibits states from making any laws which impair the obligations of a contract.
Summary: In today’s lesson we described the ways of proposing and ratifying amendments to the Constitution. We discovered that William Henry Harrison was president of the United States for only one month. 

Homework: Impeach  & Petition
Impeach  - to accuse a government official of a crime.
Petition – to request a hearing

Name _________________________________Class ___________ Date______________

American Government  3.3  Amending the Constitution

Match each item in Column A with the items in Column B. Write the correct letters in the blanks. 
Column A
_____1. amendment approval
_____2. petition
_____3. accuse
_____4. agreement between nations
_____5. Chief Justice Earl Warren
	Column B
A. impeach
B. judicial activism
C. treaty
D. ratified
E. appeal

In the blank at the left, write the letter of the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question. 
_____6. One way the Founders provided for change in the Constitution was to describe how
A. to provide judicial restraint. 			C. to amend the Constitution.
B. to ratify the Constitution. 			D. to impeach presidents.
_____7. The only method of amending the Constitution that has been used to date is by
A. judicial activism. 				C. national convention.
B. petition.						D. two-thirds vote of each house.
_____8. This proposed amendment caused questions when states revoked their ratification.
A. Eighteenth Amendment 			C. Presidential Impeachment Amendment
B. Equal Rights Amendment 			D. Civil Rights Amendment
_____9. In modern times, Congress has set this limit on state ratification of an amendment.
A. seven years 					C. six months
B. two years 					D. 30 days
_____10. This action between heads of state does NOT require Congressional approval.
A. executive agreement 				C. impeachment
B. ratifying treaties 				D. petitioning

11. William Henry Harrison was president of the United States for only one month. He died of pneumonia in March of 1841, just weeks after his inauguration. He had ridden on horseback in bitter cold weather up Pennsylvania Avenue to take his oath as president. Harrison was also the first president to die in office; his vice president. Who was the first person to succeed to the presidency?

Supreme Court Case Study
The Meaning of a Contract/Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 1819
Dartmouth College originally had been granted a charter by the British crown in 1769, prior to American
inependence from Great Britain, for the purpose of educating Native Americans and promoting learning generally. In the early 1800s the college had become involved in state politics on the side of the
Fderalists. In 1815 the Dartmouth College trustees decided to remove the president of the college. The state legislature, now controlled by Republicans, sided with the college president against the Federalist trustees and sought to grasp control of the college away from them. In 1816, after independence, the legislature passed a series of statutes that had the effect of converting Dartmouth, a private college, into a state university under public control. 

3.3 Supreme Court Case Study..The Meaning of a Contract/Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 1819
The highest court of New Hampshire sustained the state statutes.The trustees appealed the case to the United States Supreme Court, arguing that the New Hampshire statutes impaired their contractual rights in violation of the Constitution. They had as one of their attorneys the great statesman and orator, Daniel Webster.
Constitutional Issue 
Under common law—the principles and rules established through court decisions over the years—a contract was an agreement between two or more parties to perform certain actions. Under Article I, Section 10, of the Constitution, states were prevented from impairing the obligation of a contract.
The Supreme Court’s Decision 
Chief Justice John Marshall wrote the Court’s opinion, which held that the state acts placing 
Dartmouth under state control constituted an impairment of contract, and thus was unconstitutional.
The state treasurer, Woodward, was required to return college records, the corporate seal, and other corporate property to the trustees. The core of the decision was the Court’s ruling that a charter for a private corporation, granted by the British crown before independence and the adoption of the Constitution, was protected by Article I, Section 10, of the Constitution. Marshall granted that this clause was not specifically designed to protect charters, creating charitable, educational, or other non-profit corporations of incorporation. “It is more than possible,” he wrote, “that the preservation of rights of this description was not particularly in the view of the framers of the constitution when the clause under consideration was introduced into that instrument.”
On the other hand, according to Marshall, the contract clause provided no exceptions with respect to private, nonprofit entities. “It is not enough to say that this particular case was not in the mind of the convention when the article was framed, nor of the American people when it was adopted,” Marshall wrote. Therefore, he continued, since there was no proof that the language of the Constitution would have been changed if charters incorporating nonprofit entities had been considered, the case fell under the prohibition of state interference with contracts. “There is no expression in the constitution, no sentiment delivered by its contemporaneous expounders, which would justify us in making it.” If a charter of incorporation is lawfully bestowed, the charter has “every ingredient of a complete and legitimate contract and is protected from state infringement by the contracts clause.” 
The Dartmouth College decision made it clear that states were not permitted to take over private institutions, such as a private educational institution, and make them public. States, therefore, began to establish their own state universities. By protecting nonprofit entities, the Court was essentially protecting all corporations. As the economy of the United States grew, the corporate form of business organization became more and more common. 
Corporate charters, granted by state governments, were increasingly used to establish manufacturing and commercial businesses. The Dartmouth College case provided a protection for owners and management interests and a climate of legal stability that promoted economic growth.

DIRECTIONS: 
1. What effect did the Supreme Court’s decision have on Dartmouth College?
2. The Constitution did not mention corporations in Article I, Section 10, so how did Justice Marshall justify ruling that Dartmouth’s charter was a contract?
3. Why is the Dartmouth case considered to be important in the economic history of the United States?
4. Historians point out that the Dartmouth decision had an effect on the growth of state universities.
Why do you think states established state universities after this decision?
5. Justice John Marshall believed in a strong central government. How did the Dartmouth decision relate to this belief?
In your own words, summarize today’s lesson