Block I: Introduction US and its Federal System

= a constituent political entity

• Each state has its own government structures, various forms of legislative structure (and various names for it)

• The head of the executive is always called the ‘Governor’ of the state

• parts of the US not (yet) organized as states

• all except the original 13 states became territories first

• today, all territories are islands outside the continental

• have fewer political rights than a state

• does not belong to any state

• fewer political rights than a state

• reports directly to Congress Art. I 8

• Seat of Federal Government: Congress, White House, Supreme Court etc.

• Upper house = Senate => all states are represented by two senators

-> elected every six years

-> are elected by the states

• Lower House = House of Representatives => each state gets at least one representative; for every 30,000 inhabitants one representative

-> elected every two years by the congressional districts (one district = 30,000 inhabitants)

-> House of Representatives has the sole right to conduct impeachment proceedings

• US has no nationally elected legislators

• No national party lists

• No-one votes for ‘Democratic Party’ or ‘Republican Party’: always for a particular individual for the House or the Senate

• This often means strong state loyalties

• smaller states wanted equal votes to elect the president (Senate); larger states wanted votes proportional to population (House of Representatives)

• compromise => Electoral College seats = Senate seats + House seats + three for Washington D.C. (determined by the 23rd Ammendment in 1964)

  • currently 538 electors

• Representatives and senators may not be electors

• usually loyal party members with other political duties

• the winner in the electoral college becomes the president

  • If there isn`t a clear winner, the issue is resolved in the House

• You need to win a majority of Electors (key number: 270 votes in te Electoral college)

• in rare cases: ignore the election result and the state regulation and make their own decision (= faithless electors)

• the only nationally elected mandate

• Presidential system

• President = executive

• four-year term of office

• Elected together with the Vice President

• Requirements: born in the USA, at least 35 years old, resident in the USA for 14 years

It was like the EU under the first US constitution, Articles of Confederation.

Like an intenational treaty all states had

• full sovereignity, independence, every power, jurisdication and right, as longs as its not delegated.

• Therefore each state could withdraw if it choosed (as with Brexit, under TEU Art 50)

But the Articles of Confederation were replaced in 1789 by the second US Constitution

• has no equivalent of state sovereignty provision in Art 2.

• It is passed in the name of ‘We the People of the US’, not the 13 states.

• any amendments => agreement from most of the states.

• Senate: whoever wins the state gets the seat

• House: whoever wins the district gets the seat

• Presidency: usually, whoever wins the state gets all its Electoral College votes

=> First-past-the-post electoral rules favour two-party systems.

• Separation of government power = not a US-American idea => comes from "celebrated" Montesquieu

• ultimate sovereignty = people, (therefore the president is directly elected)

  • no part of the government has a higher claim to power

  • The executive and both legislative houses have their own electoral mandates

  • the most important things cannot be done by one branch of power alone => mutual control of the branches of power

• When tea was served hot, a shot was poured onto the saucer because it cooled down quicker, so people could drink it before drinking from the cup

  • Senate = cooling saucer

  • House of Representatives = hot cup

• US Supreme Court => final authority for all legal questions

  • only the SC is constitutionally required

  • case citations contain ‘US’

• Underneath Supreme Court, Circuit Courts of Appeal (Appeal instance for the SC)

  • currently 13 Circuit courts.

  • case citation contains ‘F.2d’ or ‘F.3d’

• District courts: lowest level of federal courts.

  • currently 94 district courts.

  • case citation including ‘F. Supp.’

• All federal courts have jurisdiction to hear constitutional cases

  • US does not have a direct individual complaints mechanism for rights issue, rights cases start in District Court

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=> In Germany, the court system is ‘integrated’

• Lower courts run by Länder, higher courts by the federal government

• One court system, partly run by federal and partly by state government

=> In US, the court system is not ‘integrated’

• Each state has its own separate judicial system

• In addition, there is a federal court system

• state courts have the last word on the interpretation of their own state law

• federal law is binding => supremacy clause

=> can be transferred to a federal court (doesn`t have to be)

• if a case in state court raises a federal question…

• if the disputing parties are mixed

• … or it can be decided by the state court, with the possibility of appeal

=> 2/3 support in Congress to propose + support of 3/4 of states to ratify…

=> Or convention, 2/3 of state legislatures to propose + support of 3/4 of states to ratify

first ten amendments as a package = Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791

1. freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, neutrality of the Confederation in religious matters

2. militia as an alternative to the army => right of citizens to own weapons and defend themselves

3. no quartering of soldiers in houses without the consent of the owner or statute => never used

4. inviolability of the home

   5-8. rights in criminal prosecution

   9. the enumeration of certain rights in the Constitution shall not be construed to deny or diminish other rights of the people.

-> Criticism: Rights are only reduced to the Amendments, hence 9th Amendment => There are other rights

1. reservations of power for the states and the people

• Questions: Interpreted by whom? => Those who wrote or ratified it, those who applied it, or those who lived before

• History => essential to constitutional debates in the US

• And it is very important that the constitutional text has often not been changed, even though society has changed a lot.