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We the People of the United States,
in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote
the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish the Constitution
of the United States of America.
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Constitutionalism- a government of laws, not of people. This means that
those who exercise governmental power are restricted in their use of it by a higher law. A constitution legally establishes
government authority. It sets up governmental bodies, such as the House of Representatives, the Senate, the presidency, and
the Supreme Court in the United States. It grants them powers, determines how their members are to be chosen, and prescribes
the rules by which they make decisions.
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Constitutional decision making is deciding how to decide; it is not policy making itself. Policies will be decided later,
according to the rules set forth in the constitution. A constitution cannot be changed by the ordinary acts of governmental
bodies. The U.S. Constitution is superior to ordinary laws of Congress, orders of the president, decisions of the courts,
acts of the state legislatures, and regulations of the bureaucracies. The Constitution is "the supreme law of the land."
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Curtousy of Politics in America by Thomas R. Dye
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