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ambassadors and other members of the executive departments (the
Departments of State, Defense, Commerce, Justice, etc.). Each head
of an executive department holds the title of secretary and together
they form a council called the Cabinet.
The vice president, elected from the same political party as the
president, acts as chairman of the Senate, and in the event of the death
or disability of the president, assumes the presidency for the balance
of his term.
The legislative branch is made up of two houses: the Senate and
the House of Representatives. The 435 seats in the House of
Representatives are allocated on the basis of population, although
every state has at least one representative. Each state elects two
members of the 100-member Senate; a senator's term of office is six
years.
Both houses must approve a bill for it to become law, but the
president may veto, or refuse to sign it. If so, Congress reconsiders the
bill. If two-thirds of the members of both houses then approve it, the
bill becomes law even without the president's signature.
The judicial branch is made up of federal district courts (at least
one in every state), 11 federal courts of appeals and, at the top, the
Supreme Court. Federal judges are appointed by the president with the
approval of the Senate; to minimize political influences, the
appointments are for life. Federal courts decide cases involving
federal law, conflicts between states or between citizens of different
states. An American who feels he has been convicted under an unjust
law may appeal his case all the way to the Supreme Court, which may
rule that the law is unconstitutional. The law then becomes void.
In order to amend the Constitution, Congress must pass the
proposed amendment by a two-thirds majority vote in each house, and
three-fourths of the states must concur. In more than 195 years, the
Constitution has been amended 26 times. The first 10 amendments -
the Bill of Rights - guarantee individual liberties: freedom of speech,
religion and assembly, the right to a fair trial, and the security of one's
home. Later amendments chronicle America's struggle for equality
and justice for all of its people. These amendments abolish slavery,
prohibit any denial of rights because of race, grant the vote to women
and to citizens of the District of Columbia, and allow citizens to vote
at age 18.