The word “civics” comes from the Latin word civicus, meaning “relating to a citizen.” Specifically, civics relates to the behaviors, obligations, and privileges of citizens regarding their communities, developments, and relationship with their governments, from political, practical, and theoretical perspectives. Laws, codes, and duties of citizenship are also included in the definition.
In the modern education system, the subject of civics has gradually been phased out with the introduction of the U.S. Department of Education in the 1970s. The subject of “social studies” combines aspects of history and civics, as well as subject of more experiential learning, such as values, social justice, and inter-community relationship not pertaining to government.
For the purpose of this column, we will look to revive the subject of civics from an objective perspective, specifically outlining the levels and divisions of government, the governmental rules, relations, and duties to its constituents, and how citizens are enfranchised by local laws all the way up to the U.S. Constitution.
As an introductory piece, we will briefly outline the three levels of government, a basic tenet of American civics usually introduced to students in middle school.
Federal
The three branches of the federal government are the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. In short, the Executive branch consists of the Presidency and most of his Cabinet members. The Executive branch’s main role is to enforce the laws of the United States, including, but not limited to, international diplomacy and commerce, dealing with state governments in relation to funding, disasters, and other means of organization, security, and the handling of the economy at-large. Cabinet members range from secretaries of Commerce, Transportation, Health and Human Services (HHS), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Education, State (foreign policy and relations), Homeland Security, among other departments and sub-departments. The Attorney General functions as the nation’s leading prosecutor and example for legal enforcement.
The President also enjoys the responsibilities of appointing Justices to the Supreme Court, the nation’s highest bench, as well as federal judges across Thirteen Circuits, eleven for states and territories, one for the District of Columbia, and one for the nation at large. New York is part of the Second Circuit, along with Connecticut and Vermont, and the Circuit Justice is Sonia Sotomayor. New York is divided into four Federal Court Districts; Suffolk County is located in the Eastern District.
Presidential terms are limited to two four-year terms or ten years of service, whichever comes first. This is to account for possible Vice Presidential succession mid-term.
Legislative
The Legislative Branch of the government is concerned with creating the laws. This is the responsibility of Congress. Congress is the collective term for the two chambers of government: The U.S. House of Representatives (the lower chamber) and the U.S. Senate (the upper chamber). Together, they create a bicameral (two-chamber) legislature. The two chambers ensure a hybrid form of government, in which citizens receive representation proportional to their state and district populations in the House, while they also receive equal representation in the Senate.
The House is made up of 435 Congressional Districts. The number has been capped since 1960 when Alaska and Hawaii became states in 1959. Every ten years, the Census is conducted to count the population and gauge which states gain and lose Congressional districts.
The state with the highest population, California, at about 33,000,000 people, has the most Congressional districts, fifty-two. Seven states are at-large Congressional districts, meaning the population is low enough that the entire state is its Congressional district, giving it just one Representative in the House: Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming.
New York just lost a Congressional district after the 2020 Census, giving twenty-six seats. Democrats hold sixteen seats, while Republicans hold ten, the highest number for the GOP in New York since 2000. Congressman Nick LaLota (R-Amityville) represents the First District (NY-01), encompassing the entire Towns of East Hampton, Riverhead, Shelter Island, Smithtown, Southampton, and Southold, as well as most of Huntington, and northern and eastern Brookhaven.
Congressman Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) represents NY-02, which includes the entire Towns of Babylon, Islip, and parts of southwestern and central Brookhaven. NY-02 also includes parts of the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County.
Congressman Tom Suozzi (D-Great Neck) represents NY-03, which includes northern Queens, most of Nassau County, and a few hamlets and villages of Huntington Town in Suffolk.
A majority in the House is 218 seats. Members then nominate Representatives to serve as Speaker of the House, the primary point of legislative agenda and third in line for Presidential succession. Currently, Republicans have a bare-minimum majority of 218 seats, a number that will slowly tick up when four solidly-Republican districts hold special elections. The majority party of the House not only has a chance to elect a Speaker of their party, although there is no Constitutional obligation that the Speaker hails from the majority party, but also receives the chairmanship of all committees of the House. Committee control can be a serious gate for legislation to make it to the House floor for a full vote. Committees’ areas of focus include Agriculture, Armed Services, Budget, Energy and Conservation, Ethics, Financial Services, and many other categories of governance. Subcommittees are even more specific in scope and can be formed on an ad hoc basis, such as the Subcommittee of Ethics that investigated the alleged fraud perpetrated by former Congressman George Santos (R-Queens).
Citizens can elect a U.S. Representative every two years. Resignations, deaths, or expulsions result in open seats, which can affect House business if one party has a thin enough majority. Special election dates are declared by the governor of a state in which the vacancy occurs and state laws vary as to when the special election must be set. In some jurisdictions, if a vacancy occurs within close proximity of the regular election, the seat will remain vacant until that election.
The five territories each receive one non-voting delegate to the House. Delegates can sponsor legislation and sit on committees but cannot cast floor votes.
When legislation makes it out of committee, it heads to the House floor for a full vote. Debate on the House is limited due to the large body of legislators. Once the legislation passes the House, it heads to the upper chamber.
The Senate receives two Senators per state, each up for re-election every six years, ensuring that each state receives equal representation. Since the Senate only consists of 100 members, debate is much more flexible, allowing Senators to “filibuster” legislation, a long-winded speech against legislation that can last hours or even days. The Senate consists of committees similar to the House, with the majority party receiving the chairmanship of each committee and the coveted post of Senate Majority Leader.
Fifty-one seats is required for an outright majority, although the same party that controls fifty seats as well as the Vice Presidency gains control of the Senate, as the V.P. is the President of the Senate. This scenario occurred after the 2020 elections. Democrats currently control the Senate with fifty-one seats.
Control of the Senate is much more difficult to see down the road than that of the House, as six-year terms mean that certain Senate maps are aligned with presidential and midterm years. House elections occur every two years and are more susceptible to partisanship and down ballot voting.
Neither the House nor the Senate currently have term limits.
Judicial
The Judicial Branch includes the Supreme Court and other federal court systems, as outlined in the Executive Branch section. There are nine Justices on the Supreme Court. Justices are appointed by the President and interviewed and either confirmed or rejected by the Senate. Justices serve life-time appointments until death or resignation. While technically nonpartisan, conservative-appointed Justices currently control the bench with six seats to the liberal-appointed Justices’ three.
The purpose of the Judicial branch is to interpret the laws, with the conflicting doctrines of “strict” or “loose” constructionism of the Constitution a major point of their decisions. The two ideologies treat the Constitution somewhat differently, with strict constructionism offering little to no room for interpretation outside the text, while loose constructionism offers for more debate on the Founding Fathers’ original intentions, as well as inclusions of recent precedents. Cases can be referred to higher courts or knocked down to lower courts based on scope, jurisdiction, or precedent. Judicial precedent is a massive part of the branch’s job. Precedent is essentially a pathway to a legal decision based on previous decisions, court rulings, or overturnings.
States are divided into Federal Court districts and are represented by Presidential-appointed judges.
