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Learning Objective: LO 2.1: Describe the basic structure of
the Constitution and its Bill of Rights.
Page Reference: 50
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
Diiculty Level: Easy
87. Opposition to the __________ was led by Phyllis Schlaly, a
prominent spokesperson for conservative causes.
Topic: Changing the Letter of the Constitution
Learning Objective: LO 2.5: Describe the processes by which
formal changes to the Constitution can be made.
Page Reference: 68
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
Short Answer Questions
88. Why was the Electoral College created? Does it fulill the
purpose for which it was intended?
1. Explain that the Electoral College was a provision of the
Constitution meant to provide a bufer against the “whims
of the masses,” and the Framers intended it to be a group
of independent citizens who would elect the president
rather than leaving the job to ordinary citizens.
2. Discuss how almost from the beginning the Electoral
College did not work that way; rather, voters have actually
selected the president because the presidential electors
that the voters choose pledge in advance to cast their
electoral votes for their party’s candidates.
3. Note that there have been exceptions and occasionally
presidential candidates have won the national popular
vote but lost the vote in the Electoral College (e.g., Al
Topic: Checking Power with Power
Learning Objective: LO 2.2: Analyze how the Constitution
grants, limits, separates, and balances governmental power.
50
Page Reference: 56
Skill Level: Analyze It
Diiculty Level: Diicult
89. Explain the process for amending the Constitution.
1. Identify the two processes for proposing an amendment
—two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress or national
constitutional convention called by Congress at the
request of two-thirds of the states.
2. Identify the two processes for ratifying an amendment—
by legislatures in three-fourths of the states or by ratifying
conventions in three-fourths of the states.
Topic: Changing the Letter of the Constitution
Learning Objective: LO 2.5: Describe the processes by which
formal changes to the Constitution can be made.
Page Reference: 64 – 67
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
90. What happens when partisanship is intensiied and government
is divided?
1. Identify that Congress is inclined to monitor the
executive branch more closely, there is more conlict, and
the inluence of special-interest groups is increased.
2. Explain that in spite of the conlict, just as much
important legislation is passed as when the government is
uniied.
3. Note that more signiicant investigations are produced,
and there is a greater impetus toward improving
government performance.
Topic: Checking Power with Power
Learning Objective: LO 2.2: Analyze how the Constitution
grants, limits, separates, and balances governmental power.
Page Reference: 55 – 56
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
51
91. Describe the system of checks and balances created by the
Framers.
1. Indicate that the powers of the government were
divided into three branches.
2. Identify the ways in which the Constitution allocates the
power to make, interpret, and enforce laws among the
three branches.
3. Explain the ways in which each branch has a role in the
actions of the others.
Topic: Checking Power with Power
Learning Objective: LO 2.2: Analyze how the Constitution
grants, limits, separates, and balances governmental power.
Page Reference: 53 – 55
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
92. Describe the factors that have led to a growth in the power of
the chief executive.
1. Explain that the president’s power has increased
because problems in other countries have often created
crises for the United States that required immediate
emergency action.
2. Note that media coverage of the president’s actions
during headline-generating events and summit
conferences with foreign leaders has contributed to
raising the president’s status.
3. Identify that national security concerns such as
terrorism have contributed to assertions of greater
executive authority in the Bush and Obama
administrations.
Topic: Checking Power with Power
Learning Objective: LO 2.2: Analyze how the Constitution
grants, limits, separates, and balances governmental power.
Page Reference: 57 – 58
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Diiculty Level: Diicult
93. Deine judicial review, and explain its origins and development.
52
1. Describe judicial review as the power of the judiciary to
decide whether laws and other governmental actions are
constitutional.
2. Recognize that the Constitution does not explicitly
reference the power of judicial review.
3. Explain that the power of judicial review was irst
asserted in Marbury v. Madison and gained legitimacy
over time.
Topic: Judicial Review and the “Guardians of the Constitution”
Learning Objective: LO 2.3: Explain how the use of judicial
review strengthens the courts in a separation of powers system.
Page Reference: 58 – 60
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
94. Compare and contrast the originalist and adaptive approaches
to constitutional amendment.
1. Describe the originalist approach as based on the idea
that the Constitution has a ixed meaning that can be
determined through either the text or an examination of
the Framers’ intent, whereas the adaptive approach
understands the Constitution as a lexible document that
is responsive to the needs of diferent times.
2. Note that the originalist approach means that
amendments must be adopted in order to create
constitutional change, while the adaptive approach makes
the Supreme Court more powerful in creating such
change.
3. Detail that both approaches have diiculties: The
originalist approach does not allow for the diferences in
the times of today compared to when the Constitution was
written, but the adaptive approach relies heavily on judges
whose selection is only indirectly democratic and who
have lifetime appointments and could therefore hold too
much power.
Topic: Informal Change: The Unwritten Constitution
53
Learning Objective: LO 2.4: Assess how the Constitution has
evolved through changes in the informal, unwritten
Constitution.
Page Reference: 63
Skill Level: Analyze It
Diiculty Level: Diicult
95. Explain why, when the Constitution is so central to American
government, changes to it are allowed.
1. Explain that the Framers of the Constitution made it
adaptable and lexible so that the general purposes of
government (e.g., to promote justice and provide for the
2. Explain that the Framers knew that future experiences
would call for changes in the Constitution and that it
would need to be amended, as needs change with the
times.
Topic: Changing the Letter of the Constitution
Learning Objective: LO 2.5: Describe the processes by which
formal changes to the Constitution can be made.
Page Reference: 64
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Diiculty Level: Diicult
96. How has the power to amend the Constitution been used to
change the power of the government and the people? Provide
examples.
1. Explain that amendments have been used to increase or
decrease the power of the national government (e.g., the
2. Discuss how amendments have been used to limit state
power or to make structural changes in government (e.g.,
3. Describe how amendments have been used to expand
the electorate and its power (e.g., the Seventeenth
Topic: Changing the Letter of the Constitution
Learning Objective: LO 2.5: Describe the processes by which
formal changes to the Constitution can be made.
Page Reference: 66
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Diiculty Level: Diicult
97. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the uniied and
divided systems of government?
1. Deine the divided and uniied systems of government.
2. Identify the strengths of both systems.
3. Identify the weaknesses of both systems.
Topic: Checking Power with Power
Learning Objective: LO 2.2: Analyze how the Constitution
grants, limits, separates, and balances governmental power.
Page Reference: 55 – 56
Skill Level: Analyze It
Diiculty Level: Diicult
98. What can a president who disagrees with decisions by Congress
do?
1. Note that the president has the power to issue
executive orders that do not require congressional
approval, although they are subject to challenge.
2. Explain that the president has the power of executive
privilege, which allows the president to keep executive
communications conidential, especially if they relate to
national security.
3. Identify that the president can also exercise the power
of impoundment, which allows the president to stop an
