Aminat Awosanya American Government 1101 Homework Assignment S.

Waymon, Professor

The requirements of becoming a president are stated in the constitution. The requirements are that the potential candidate should be at least thirty-five years old, a natural-born citizen, and also a resident of the United States for at least fourteen years. The presidents roles are: to act as the symbolic leader (chief of state), to establish new laws (chief Executive), appoint federal key officials, running of the armed forces, peace negotiation with other countries, signs or vetoes laws (chief Diplomat), establish new laws, works on budgets with congress and grants pardons. The White House staff: organize the presidents schedule, set priorities and work with congress. The White House staff is usually made up of the presidents closest friends and trusted advisors. A pocket veto is a veto of a bill brought about by the presidents failure to sign the bill within ten days. The president has emergency powers, meaning they can be exercised in times of need for example; President Abraham Lincoln spent money without congress approval. A successful president should have political by having the ability to persuade people.

The U.S. congress is made up of two chambers: the upper chamber is known as the Senate and the lower chamber is known as the House of Representative. The House of Representative is known as the peoples house, as it most responsive to public opinion. Each states representation is based on the population as they get at least one member, with California having the most members (54). Each member of the house represents a district within a state and so the membership in the house is about 435. The requirement to be a member of the house is that the person must be at least twenty-five years old, and a resident of the state or representative of the state. House members face re-election every two year. The senate was envisioned to make decisions based on experience and wisdom. Each state has two senators, who are required to serve six-year term in order to allow them to act independently. Senators appointed by the represented state legislators. Filibuster is a tactic in which a senator in the minority on a bill holds the floor indefinitely aiming to block all senate business until the majority backs down. Congress is granted enumerated powers such as having the power to declare war and levy taxes. Both the house and the senate must jointly decide to exercise the power granted to them, but there are some situations that they can wield powers alone. Under the constitution the house is granted unique powers such as proposing all tax bills and impeaching a federal official. The unique powers of the senate are: approval of presidential appointments to key federal offices, confirming all federal judicial appointment, ratifying treaties and attempt to impeach officials. Cloture is a motion aimed at bringing debate to a quick end. Senatorial courtesy is an unwritten political custom where the president

consults the senior U.S. senator of his political party before nominating any candidate to a federal vacancy within that senators state. A whip is a member of the leadership of a legislative body who is responsible for counting votes. Senatorial courtesy is tradition in which the senator (if part of the presidents party) gets input on the nominees for federal judgeships in his or her state. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land, mostly functioning as an appellate Court. Writ of certiorari is a legal document issued by the Supreme Court ordering the lower court to send a case to the Supreme Court for review. Once justices are appointed, justices have life tenure unless they resign, retire or are impeachment. The requirements to be a member of the justices are: there are none in terms of age, experience, or citizenship status; and also candidates do not need to have a law degree. A judicial restraint is a theory of judicial interpretation that encourages judges to limit the exercise of their own power. Judicial activism describes rulings based on personal or considerations rather than on existing law. The Marbury V. Madison case helped define the difference between the executive and judicial branches of government.