Article I - The Legislative Branch Note (This is on the Separation of Powers)
Section 1 - The Legislature
All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
Section 2 - The House
The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.
No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.
(Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.) (The previous sentence in parentheses was modified by the 14th Amendment, section 2.) The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five and Georgia three.
When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.
The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.
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This provides for a House of Representatives and is apportioned directly from the number of people we have in the United States. It provides for a counting of the people every ten (10) years and currently there are 435 Members of the House. I can remember discussing this with my fifth grade class one year. Our text book said "There are even 5 women who were members of the House of Representatives." - This was in the 90's. I asked the kids "About what percentage of our population are women? They thought about 49%. I suggested that it was actually a little higher about 52%. I then asked them to figure out how many women SHOULD be in the House of Representatives. (About 227 should be women if they are really representative. As of 2009, 441 members of Congress are male (83%) and 92 are female (17%) - I think I made my point and I told the girls in the class that they should begin preparing to run for office. Things are better now but not where they should be although it is nice to see a powerful Democrat sitting as the Speaker of the House for the first time. -
1 comment:
No discussion of slaves being counted as 3/5ths of a person?
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