Do You Know All About The Articles?
By: Joe Femia
Mnemonic Device to Remember the Order of The Articles
Let
Eric
Just
Stay in
A
Simple
Routine
Article I
The L stands for the Legislative Branch. The Legislative Branch is the lawmaking branch. The is the longest article in the entire Constitution. Congress is part of the Legislative Branch. Congress has some restrictions to what the laws can be about. For example Congress can't make a law about collecting taxes.
Article II
The E stands for the Executive Branch. The Executive Branch executes and enforces the laws. Article II outlines the the powers of the Executive Branch. The President is the head of the Executive Branch. The President has some specific duties such as to negotiate treaties with other countries. The article also describes who qualifies to be the president, the powers that the office has, and the consequences for a president if the misbehave. It also explains the Electoral College, the process of how the president is selected.
Article III
The J stands for the Judicial Branch. The Judicial Branch interprets the laws and decide weather the laws have been followed in some specific cases. The Supreme Court is part of the Judicial Branch. This branch deals the the United States laws and not the laws set by the states. Article III also gives directions to what cases the Supreme Court and federal courts can hear. The judges are appointed and not elected. The judges stay there until they retire, die, or misbehave.
Article IV
The S stands for States Rights. The article focuses on state relationships, admitting new states, and how state government should be run.
Article V
The A stands for the Amendment Process. The article explains how the Constitution is amended because our Founding Fathers knew that down the line we would need to make changes.
Article VI
The second S stands for Supremacy of the Constitution. This article declares that the Constitution is the "Supreme Law of the Land".
In Clause 2 of the Article it contains the "Supremacy Clause" which means that the federal law over the state law. A law that comes from the federal government goes for all states.
Article VII
The R stands for Ratification. It had stated that 9 out of the 13 states must ratify the Constitution for it to go into effect.