FAQ

How to Read a U.S. Supreme Court Opinion

Most Supreme Court opinions look like they were designed to keep ordinary readers out. Dense prose. Latin phrases. Citations stacked like bricks. Then a one-line result that somehow changes the law for hundreds of millions of Americans. But you do not need a law degree to read an opinion...

Federal Sentencing Guidelines Explained

Federal sentencing has a reputation for being mechanical. Plug the crime into a formula, out comes a prison range, and everyone pretends the number was inevitable. Reality is more complicated, and more human. The federal system does use a structured framework called the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines ....

How Supreme Court Oral Arguments Work

Supreme Court oral argument is the part of a case most people can picture: nine justices on a bench, a single lectern, and lawyers trying to answer questions without saying the one sentence that sinks their side. But what the public sees as the event is, for the Court, a very specific tool. Oral...

Amicus Briefs: When Outside Groups Weigh In

You have probably seen the headline version of this: a major case hits the Supreme Court and suddenly a flood of outside groups “weigh in.” States. Trade associations. Civil rights organizations. Retired judges. Sometimes even members of Congress. Those filings are usually amicus briefs , short...

How Small Claims Court Works

Small claims court is the legal system’s fast lane: less formal, cheaper to file, and built for ordinary people who need a judge to settle a money dispute without turning it into a full-blown lawsuit. But “simple” does not mean “automatic.” The court does not investigate your story. The...

Jury Duty: What to Expect

Few envelopes trigger as much immediate bargaining as a jury summons. You scan it as if it were a parking ticket. You check the date. You do the math. You start asking everyone you know: “Can I get out of this?” But jury duty is not a random civic chore invented to ruin your week. It is one of...

How to Become a U.S. Citizen

Becoming a U.S. citizen is both a legal process and a civic turning point. It is paperwork and appointments, yes, but it is also the moment you move from living under the Constitution to helping steer the republic it creates. Naturalization is run by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services...

Savoy’s 20 Questions with Steve Mount Advertisement [Editor’s note: this interview with the Webmaster of this site appeared in the online magazine Savoy in its December, 1998 edition. Savoy is now defunct. This page is a reproduction of that interview. The original is no longer avaliable on the...

Off-topic Links Advertisement This page of links to other sites is intended to hold links that don’t seem to fit on the main Constitutional Links Page for whatever reason. Mostly, these links are related to government or politics, but not directly to the Constitution. If you know of a link that...

Nations of the World The following table is a compilation of data gathered from different sources, but primarily from the data found in the Information Please online databases. See the notes at the bottom of the page for some details about each column. Country Capital Adjective Languages Off?...

Constitutional FAQ Answer #99 | Question Index | Subject Index | Constitutional Index | Next Question>> Q99. “How many electors are there in total?” A. Article 2, Section 1, Clause 2 provides that “Each State shall appoint … a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and...

Constitutional FAQ (Subject Order) Advertisement The U.S. Constitution On-Line has been online in one form or another since 1995. In that time, I have have had a lot of questions asked of me about the Constitution. This page, and the ones it links to, are a compilation of the best of those...

Constitutional FAQ Answer #93 | Question Index | Subject Index | Constitutional Index | Next Question>> Q93. “How is the Constitution a living document?” A. The Constitution has been termed a “Living Document,” but whether you think it is, or rather should be, depends on your interpretation...

Constitutional FAQ Answer #94 | Question Index | Subject Index | Constitutional Index | Next Question>> Q94. “I searched your site and can’t find out when inauguration day is!” A. Inauguration Day is set in the 20th Amendment . For President and Vice President, the term ends, and the next...

Constitutional FAQ Answer #95 | Question Index | Subject Index | Constitutional Index | Next Question>> Q95. “Why has the Constitution endured the last two hundred years when many other countries’ don’t?” A. There are lots of reasons, not the least of which being that the Constitution...

Constitutional FAQ Answer #96 | Question Index | Subject Index | Constitutional Index | Next Question>> Q96. “What government body elects the President?” A. The Electoral College votes for the President and Vice President. Whichever person gets the most votes for President becomes President,...

Constitutional FAQ Answer #97 | Question Index | Subject Index | Constitutional Index | Next Question>> Q97. “How many members of Congress are there?” A. There are 100 Senators and 435 Representatives, so there are 535 members of Congress. The House has several non-voting members that are not...

Constitutional FAQ Answer #98 | Question Index | Subject Index | Constitutional Index | Next Question>> Q98. “The Constitution proscribes an ‘enumeration’ every ten years in a manner proscribed by law, but no more. Aside from telling how many persons in my household, the rest of the questions...

Constitutional FAQ Answer #87 | Question Index | Subject Index | Constitutional Index | Next Question>> Q87. “How long did it take to write the original Constitution?” A. The question is not as straight forward as it might sound. The Constitutional Convention made many drafts and many revisions...

Constitutional FAQ Answer #88 | Question Index | Subject Index | Constitutional Index | Next Question>> Q88. “Can a sitting President be convicted of a criminal offense? Or, must he be impeached first, then tried?” A. There is no easy answer to the question, as it is a matter of interpretation....