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Constitutional Courts vs. Supreme Courts: Two Models of Constitutional Review When people hear the terms constitutional court and supreme court, they often assume they describe the same institution. They do not. A constitutional court is generally a specialized judicial body whose principal responsibility is to determine whether laws, governmental acts, or sometimes constitutional amendments comply with the constitution. A supreme court, by contrast, is ordinarily the highest court in a country’s judicial hierarchy and may Read more

Constitutional Law and the Electoral Process The electoral process is one of the principal mechanisms through which constitutional democracy operates. Elections determine who will exercise public power, but the process itself is governed by constitutional rules concerning voting rights, representation, candidacy, political expression, election administration, federalism, and judicial review. In the United States, there is no single constitutional provision containing a complete code for elections. Instead, the electoral process is governed by a constitutional framework Read more

Constitutional Protection of Elections and Democracy Elections are the mechanism through which citizens participate directly in representative government. They determine who exercises legislative and executive power, allow citizens to replace public officials, and provide the central democratic connection between the people and their government. But the United States Constitution does not protect elections through one single provision called a “right to democracy.” Instead, constitutional protection of elections is built from a network of structural rules, Read more

Federalism in Practice: Who Has the Power? One of the most important questions in American constitutional law is deceptively simple: Who has the power to do this? Can Congress regulate it?Can a state regulate it?Can both?Can the federal government prohibit a state from doing something?Can a state refuse to participate in a federal program?And when federal and state governments appear to have authority over the same subject, how do we determine where one government’s power Read more

The Supremacy Clause and Federal Constitutional Hierarchy The Supremacy Clause is one of the central structural provisions of the United States Constitution. Found in Article VI, Clause 2, it establishes that the Constitution, valid federal laws enacted pursuant to it, and treaties made under federal authority constitute the supreme Law of the Land. It also expressly requires state judges to follow that supreme federal law even when a state constitution or state statute says otherwise. Read more