U.S. Constitution
What it says
The blueprint: separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism, the amendment process, and — through the Bill of Rights and later amendments — the guarantees every required case interprets.
How the exam uses it
Every SCOTUS Comparison FRQ turns on a constitutional provision; Articles I–III structure all of Unit 2.
Live legislation where this document matters (27)
An act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of H. Con. Res. 14.
Article I, Section 8 taxing-and-spending power is the entire constitutional basis of a reconciliation package.
Rescissions Act of 2025
Article I, Section 9: no money leaves the Treasury except by appropriation — rescission is Congress un-appropriating its own prior decision.
Laken Riley Act
The Fifth Amendment's due process guarantee is the core objection to mandatory detention triggered by arrest rather than conviction.
SAVE Act
Article I, Section 4 — the Elections Clause — gives Congress power to override state rules for federal elections, which is exactly what this bill does.
Digital Asset Market Clarity Act
Federal market regulation — SEC and CFTC alike — rests on the Article I commerce power.
Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act
The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments are the constitutional hooks for any congressional remedy for slavery's legacy.
TAKE IT DOWN Act
The First Amendment is the measuring stick for any federal law criminalizing a category of images and compelling platforms to remove content.
GENIUS Act
Article I's coinage and commerce powers are the constitutional roots of federal authority over private dollar-pegged currency.
Providing congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency relating to "California State Motor Vehicle and Engine Pollution Control Standards; Advanced Clean Cars II; Waiver of Preemption; Notice of Decision".
The Supremacy and Commerce Clauses are why a California tailpipe rule becomes everyone's problem — and why Congress can end it.
A joint resolution disapproving the rule submitted by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection relating to "Overdraft Lending: Very Large Financial Institutions".
Bicameralism and presentment (Article I, Section 7) are why the CRA — unlike the old one-house legislative veto — survives constitutionally.
NORRA of 2025
Article III gives Congress real power over lower-court jurisdiction and remedies — the bill tests how far that power reaches.
Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025
Article I, Section 9's appropriations requirement is why the government shuts down when this kind of bill fails.
Social Security Fairness Act of 2023
The spending power funds Social Security; House procedure (the discharge petition) decided whether repeal ever got a vote.
Treat and Reduce Obesity Act of 2023
Medicare coverage rules are spending-power policy; changing them is a budget question before it is a health question.
SAVE Act
Article I, Section 4 — the Elections Clause — is the power this bill invoked to impose a federal registration rule on every state.
Border Act of 2024
Congress holds plenary immigration power under Article I — the bill's failure shows the Senate's internal rules deciding whether that power gets used.
John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2025
The Fifteenth Amendment's Section 2 enforcement power is the entire constitutional basis for federal preclearance of state election changes.
21st Century ROAD to Housing Act
Article I, Section 7's ten-day rule is why this bill is law without a signature — the clause every student memorizes and almost none ever sees fire.
Sunshine Protection Act of 2025
Congress has set the nation's clocks under the commerce power since the Standard Time Act of 1918 — the authority is old and undisputed.
SAVE America Act
The Elections Clause (Art. I, §4) is the claimed power; the Presentment Clause (Art. I, §7) is where the leverage campaign for it just failed.
Homeland Security and Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026.
Article I, Section 9: no money without appropriation — this bill is that clause used surgically, funding a department while zeroing out two of its agencies.
Secure America Act
The same Article I purse power the DHS appropriations fight weaponized — exercised here through the one Senate process the minority cannot filibuster.
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026
Article I, Section 8 gives Congress — not the President — the power to raise, support, and make rules for the armed forces; the NDAA is that power exercised annually.
Health and Location Data Protection Act of 2026
The Fourth Amendment restrains government searches — but data brokers are private actors, so the liberty at stake here has no constitutional text protecting it, only statute.
DISCLOSE Act of 2026
The First Amendment powers both sides: spending as protected speech, and anonymous association as protected assembly.
Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2025
The Second Amendment supplies the right; the Commerce Clause must supply the congressional power — and the fit between them is the whole fight.
PRESS Act
The First Amendment's press clause is the backdrop — but the Supreme Court has held it grants no reporter's privilege, so the protection must be statutory.