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62 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Bicameral Legislature |
A legislature with two houses |
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Gerrymandering |
the drawing of congressional districts to favor a party or candidate |
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Apportionment |
process of allocating congressional seats to each state according to it's proportion of the population, following a census occurring every ten years |
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Majority/Minority Whip |
People who "whip" their parties to vote |
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Incumbent |
the current person in office |
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Redistricting |
process of redrawing congressional districts to reflect increases or decreases in seats allotted to the states, as well as population shifts within the state |
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Speaker of the House |
Leader of the house |
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Majority Party |
Party who holds a majority of people in the House |
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Minority Party |
Party who holds a minority in the House
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Standing Committee |
permanent committees that specialize in a particular area of legislation |
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Joint Committee |
permanent committees comprised of members from both chambers |
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Special Committee |
committees charged with conducting a specific study of investigation under a fixed time frame
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Filibuster |
formal way of halting Senate action on a bill by means of long speeches or unlimited debate |
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Cloture |
the only way to end a filibuster |
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Impeachment |
a way to remove elected officials from office
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Pocket Veto |
when the president ignores the bill to veto it |
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Party Unity |
this is measured by the percentage of Democrats and Republicans who stick by their party when voting on bills |
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Divided Government |
when one party controls the presidency and another party controls House or the Senate |
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Unified Government |
the same political party controls the presidency and Congress |
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22nd Amendment |
Limits the President to two four-year terms |
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25th Amendment |
Gives the president power to appoint a new VP |
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Cabinet |
the body of the presidential advisers who head the fifteen executive departments |
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Line-item veto |
power to disapprove of individual items within a spending bill rather than vetoing an entire bill |
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War Powers Resolution |
limits the president's authority to introduce American troops into hostile lands without congressional approval |
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Pardon |
an executive grant releasing an individual from punishment or legal consequences of a crime before or after conviction |
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Executive Privilege |
allows the president and other high officials of the executive branch to keep certain communications private |
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Posse Comitatus Act |
prohibits the use of the military in the role of domestic law enforcement outside of the cases listed here helps prevent the president from encroaching on state police powers |
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"Going public" |
have to reach out to the public to gain support |
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Executive Order |
make laws by sidestepping Congress |
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Office of Management and Budget |
prepares the president's annual budget proposal |
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White House Staff |
personal assistants to the president |
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Veto |
authority to reject bills passed by both houses of Congress |
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Executive Office of the President |
staff that helps the president oversee programs |
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Federal bureaucracy |
federal government agencies and institutions that implement and administer federal laws and programs |
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Spoils System |
selecting employees on the basis of party loyalty |
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Pendleton Act |
established merit system of federal employment based on competence, neutrality, and protection from partisanship |
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Merit System |
employment system based on qualifications, test scores and ability, rather than loyalty |
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Government corporations |
performs functions in a business-like manner |
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Independent agencies |
deal with a narrow, specific set of issues |
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Independent regulatory commissions |
agencies outside of the cabinet departments that make and enforces rules and regulations |
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Hatch Act |
prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity, including running for public office, soliciting campaign funds, or campaigning for or against a party or candidate |
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Implementation |
process by which policies legislated by Congress are put into operation |
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Regulation |
involves the development of formal rules for implementing legislation |
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Administrative discretion |
discretion is greatest when cases do not exactly fit established rules or when more than one rule might be applied to the same case, resulting in different outcomes |
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Whistleblower |
federal employees who report government waste, mismanagement, or fraud |
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Original jurisdiction |
the jurisdiction of courts that hear the case first, usually in a trial. |
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Appellate jurisdiction |
the power vested in particular courts to review and/or revise the decision of a lower court |
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U.S. district court |
"trial" courts; have authority to try cases |
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U.S. courts of appeal (circuit courts) |
intermediate federal courts of appeal |
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Judicial review |
the power to invalidate laws of Congress, the executive, or of the states, that conflict with the U.S. Constitution |
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Writ of Certiorari |
a request for the Supreme Court to order up the records from a lower court to review the case |
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Rule of four |
at least four judges must vote to hear the case |
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Amicus Curiae |
friend of the court |
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Precedent |
decisions of higher courts generally establish a binding precedent that lower courts are compelled to follow |
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Marbury v Madison |
the U.S. Supreme Court claimed the power of judicial review for itself |
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Majority Opinion |
sets out the legal reasoning justify the decision |
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Dissenting opinion |
something justices write when they disagree with the majority |
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Concurring opinion |
something justices submit when they agree with the vote but not the reasoning |
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Judicial activism |
court should use their power broadly to further justice |
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Judicial restraint |
courts should allow decisions of other branches to stand |
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Strict constructionist |
an approach to constitutional interpretation that emphasizes interpreting the Constitution as it was originally written and intended by the Framers |
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Legal Requirements for Congress |
25 for House; 30 for Senate Citizenship for 7yrs; 9yrs inhabitant in the state |