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| Bills that benefit the home districts of Congress members |
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| An unwritten custom in which individual senators, belonging to the same political party as the president, exercise an informal veto power over presidential appointments in their states. |
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| A concept, as defined by the 18th century British statesman Edmund Burke, that legislators should act according to their “enlightened conscience” and should not sacrifice their “mature judgment” to the wishes of their constituents. |
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| A representative who automatically mirrors the will of the majority of the representative’s constituents |
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| The presiding officer of the House of Representatives. |
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| Legislative leaders of each party who are responsible for rounding up party members for important votes in the House and the Senate. |
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| A device used by the House of Representatives when it considers legislation that deals with taxes and spending. When the House sits as a Committee of the Whole, it is able to conduct business with fewer restrictions on debate, and with a quorum of only 100 members. |
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| The position of each member is noted and published in the Congressional Record. |
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| The process by which a single senator, or a group of senators, can talk a bill to death. Usually, the filibuster is employed to defeat a bill by tying up the Senate so long that the measure will never come to a vote. |
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| A maneuver to stall action on bills or nominations. |
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| A Senate procedure that allows a filibuster to be ended by a vote of three-fifths (60 members) of the entire Senate. |
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| The permanent committees that consider bills and conduct hearings and investigation. |
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| Committees composed of both representatives and senators. |
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| Committees composed of both representatives and senators. |
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| The system in which committee chairs are appointed, based on length of service on a particular committee. |
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| Drawing the lines of congressional districts, or of any other political district, in order to favor one party or group over another. |
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| Drawing the lines of congressional districts, or of any other political district, in order to favor one party or group over another. |
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| The recommended levels of funding for federal programs. |
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| Legislation that allows for the spending of federal money. |
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| A provision of law in which Congress asserts the power to override or strike down an action by the executive branch. |
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| A law that Congress passed over President Nixon’s veto in 1973 in an attempt to limit presidential war-making power. The law provided that the president could not send armed forces into combat abroad for longer than ninety days without the permission of Congress. The law has not effectively restricted presidential military power. |
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| Units of government under the president within the executive branch that are not part of a cabinet department. |
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| The principle of presidential authority over the military, embodied in the constitutional power of the president as supreme commander of the armed forces. |
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| military-industrial complex |
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| A term often used to describe the ties between the military establishment and the defense-aerospace industry. |
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| International agreements between the president and foreign heads of state that, unlike treaties, do not require Senate approval. |
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| A doctrine under which presidents have claimed the inherent right to withhold information from Congress and the judiciary |
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| The constitutional power of the president to disapprove a bill and return it with his objections to Congress. |
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| The power of the president to kill a bill by taking no action, if Congress adjourns during the 10-day period after the president receives the bill. |
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| The presidential power to veto parts of appropriations bills, within certain restrictions. Congress enacted a law in 1996 giving this power to the president for eight years, starting in January 1997. |
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Term
| National Security Council (NSC |
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Definition
| A White House council created in 1947 to help the president coordinate military and foreign policy |
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| The theory that human beings, living in a state of nature, possessed certain fundamental rights that they brought with them into organized society. |
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| The theory that human beings, living in a state of nature, possessed certain fundamental rights that they brought with them into organized society. |
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| The cumulative body of decisions, often based on custom and precedent, of judges who dispensed law, beginning in 12th century medieval England . |
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| A Latin phrase meaning “stand by past decisions.” This principle is often used by judges in deciding cases. |
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| The law enacted by Congress, or by state legislatures or local legislative bodies |
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| A legal principle of fair dealing that may provide preventive measures and legal remedies that are unavailable under ancient provisions of common law. |
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| Court cases that concern relations between individuals or organizations, such as a divorce action, or a suit for damages arising from an automobile accident or for violation of a business contract. |
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| Court cases that concern crimes committed against the public order. |
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| The rules and regulations made and applied by federal regulatory agencies and commissions. |
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| The power of the Supreme Court to declare acts of Congress or actions by the executive branch—or laws and actions at any level of local, state, and federal government—unconstitutional. |
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| A philosophy, often associated with Justices Frankfurter, Brandeis, and Holmes, that requires the Supreme Court to avoid constitutional questions where possible, and to uphold acts of Congress unless they clearly violate a specific section of the Constitution. |
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| The philosophy that government should interfere as little as possible in the affairs of business. jurisdiction The kinds of cases that a court has the authority to decide. |
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| The right of the Supreme Court, under the Constitution, to hear certain kinds of cases directly, such as cases involving foreign diplomats or cases in which one of the fifty states is a party. |
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| A writ that, if granted, means that the Supreme Court will hear a case. The majority of cases presented to the Supreme Court come in the form of petitions for a writ of certiorari. |
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| Minor criminal offenses, such as speeding. |
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| Serious crimes, such as murder, arson, or rape |
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| A finding by a grand jury that there is enough evidence against an individual to justify a criminal trial |
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| A finding issued by a judge, used often in the states, that there is enough evidence against an individual to warrant a criminal trial |
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| A finding issued by a judge, used often in the states, that there is enough evidence against an individual to warrant a criminal trial |
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| The proceeding before a judge in which the formal charges against the accused are read. |
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