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U.S. CONSTITUTION · Module 2

Module 2: Article I, Congress

What Article I builds, how a bill becomes law, what Congress may do and may not do, and the cases that drew the lines.

Last Updated: October 13, 2026 | Reading Time: 23 minutes | U.S. Const. art. I; McCulloch v. Maryland; NFIB v. Sebelius

How We Got Here: A Congress Built to Fix the Last One

The Congress of 1787 was the problem. Under the Articles of Confederation, "each State shall have one vote" in Congress, so Delaware counted the same as Virginia. Congress could not tax anyone. Congress asked. The states decided whether to pay. Borrowing money or appropriating it took the assent of nine States.1

The Convention began its working sessions in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787.2 Four days later Edmund Randolph's Virginia Plan proposed that the national legislature "legislate in all cases to which the separate States are incompetent."3 The Convention did not adopt that language. It wrote a list instead, and the list is Article I, section 8.

Then came the fight over who gets represented, and how. Large states wanted seats by population. Small states wanted an equal vote. On July 16, 1787, the Convention passed the report that gave the House population-based seats and gave the second branch an equal vote for each State. Madison's notes count five States for, four against, and Massachusetts divided.4 The same report carried the ancestor of the Origination Clause, which the final text narrowed to "Bills for raising Revenue" and softened by letting the Senate "propose or concur with Amendments."

Senators were a separate argument. James Wilson, James Madison and George Mason wanted them elected by the people. They lost, and the Framers gave the choice to state legislatures.5

Section 9 owes something to bad experience. On August 22, Gerry and McHenry moved to bar bills of attainder and ex post facto laws. Carroll answered the doubters that experience "overruled all other calculations," because state legislatures "had passed them, and they had taken effect." The attainder ban carried with no objection. The ex post facto ban passed seven States to three, with North Carolina divided.6

The Text: Article I in the Framers' Own Spelling

The quotations below come from the National Archives transcription, which keeps the 1787 spelling and capitals. Where a long clause is trimmed, the cut is marked [...].7

Vesting, Qualifications, Seats

"All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives."

U.S. Const. art. I, § 1

Only powers "herein granted" go to Congress, and no bill passes without both chambers.

"No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen."

"No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen."

U.S. Const. art. I, § 2, cl. 2; art. I, § 3, cl. 3

"Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers [...]. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative [...]."

U.S. Const. art. I, § 2, cl. 3 (the bracketed cuts are the three-fifths formula and the list of first-Congress seats)

"The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote."

U.S. Const. art. I, § 3, cl. 1, superseded by amend. XVII

Later amendments changed these clauses. The Fourteenth Amendment, section 2, now says "Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State." The Seventeenth now reads "two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years." The Sixteenth lets Congress tax incomes "without apportionment among the several States."8

Making Law

"All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills."

"Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated [...]. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law."

"If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law."

U.S. Const. art. I, § 7, cls. 1-2

The Powers

Section 8 begins "The Congress shall have Power" and then lists. These are the clauses this lesson covers.

"To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;" (cl. 1)

"To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;" (cl. 3)

"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;" (cl. 8)

"To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;" (cl. 11)

"To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof." (cl. 18)

U.S. Const. art. I, § 8

The Limits

"The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it." (cl. 2)

"No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed." (cl. 3)

"No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time." (cl. 7)

"No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State." (cl. 8)

U.S. Const. art. I, § 9

"No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility."

U.S. Const. art. I, § 10, cl. 1

Members, Speech and Impeachment

"Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members [...]."

"[...] and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place."

"The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment." "The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present."

U.S. Const. art. I, § 5, cl. 1; § 6, cl. 1; § 2, cl. 5; § 3, cl. 6

Who Sits in Congress: Seats, Qualifications and Elections

The House has 435 voting seats, and the Constitution did not pick that number. The text sets a floor of one Representative per State and a ceiling of one per thirty thousand people. On September 17, 1787, the last day, the draft still said forty thousand. Gorham moved to change it to thirty thousand, Washington spoke for the change, and it passed unanimously.9 The size of the House came later. Congress passed the Permanent Apportionment Act in 1929, which capped membership at 435 and set up automatic reapportionment after each census. After the 1920 census the House had failed to reapportion at all.10

The census is the engine. The Constitution orders a count every ten years "in such Manner as they shall by Law direct." The 2020 count gave Idaho an apportionment population of 1,841,377 and two House seats, the same number as before.11 The original clause counted "three fifths of all other Persons," a formula that tied political power to slavery. The Fourteenth Amendment replaced it in 1868 (see Module 10).

Age, citizenship and residency are the only qualifications in the text: 25, 7 years and the State for a Representative; 30, 9 years and the State for a Senator. Each House judges "the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members," and may expel a member with a two-thirds vote. The Court has read the first power narrowly. In Powell v. McCormack (1969) the House could not exclude a member-elect who met the written qualifications,12 and in U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton (1995) a State could not add its own.13

Senators run the other way. Two per State, whatever the population, so Idaho and California match. Terms run six years. Until 1913 state legislatures chose them. Between 1891 and 1905, 45 deadlocks occurred in 20 states, and in 1899 Delaware's legislature failed to send a senator to Washington for four years.14

Liberty Perspective: Who Lost When Senators Went to the Voters

The Framers expected state legislatures, by choosing senators, to "cement their tie with the national government," in the Senate's own words.14 A senator who owed his seat to a legislature had reason to listen to it.5 The Seventeenth Amendment cut that link in 1913. The reasons were real: deadlocks, vacant seats, and nine bribery cases before the Senate between 1866 and 1906. So was the cost, because state governments lost their formal hold on the Senate. Module 6 covers how amendments happen.

Common Misconception: The Constitution Fixes the House at 435

It does not. The number is a statute. The 1929 Act could be amended tomorrow by an ordinary vote of both chambers and a signature, and the House temporarily held 437 members from 1959 to 1963 after Alaska and Hawaii became states.10 The only constitutional limits are one seat per State and no more than one per thirty thousand people.

The Twenty-seventh Amendment, proposed in 1789 and ratified May 7, 1992, says a pay raise cannot take effect until an election of Representatives has intervened.8

How a Bill Becomes Law, and How It Dies

A bill has to pass both chambers in the same form. Then it goes to the President, who has three choices: sign it, veto it, or sit on it. If he signs, it is law. If he does nothing for ten days, Sundays excepted, while Congress is in session, it becomes law without his signature. If he vetoes, the bill goes back to the chamber where it started with his objections, and two thirds of each chamber must vote to override. The votes must be recorded by yeas and nays, and the names entered in each house's journal.

The trapdoor is at the end of the clause. If Congress adjourns before the ten days run, the President can simply decline to sign, and the bill dies. That is the pocket veto. Congress cannot override it and must pass the bill over again.15

Idaho copies the structure and shortens the clock. The governor has five days, Sundays excepted, where the President has ten.16 If you work with the legislature or a county that lobbies it, that difference decides when a bill is dead.

The Origination Clause says revenue bills start in the House. The final clause is limited to "Bills for raising Revenue." The Supreme Court has held that a "special assessment" on criminal defendants was not a revenue bill, since it funded a specific program and not the general government. That case, United States v. Munoz-Flores (1990), also rejected the idea that courts must stay out of Origination Clause disputes.17

Two cases tell Congress it cannot shortcut Section 7. In INS v. Chadha (1983) the Court struck a provision that let one House veto an executive decision, because that is lawmaking and needs both chambers and the President.18 In Clinton v. City of New York (1998) it struck the Line Item Veto Act, since canceling pieces of an enacted bill amends a law without Article I's procedure.19

Common Misconception: The Senate Can't Touch Tax Bills

The Senate cannot start a bill for raising revenue. It can amend one, and the Constitution says so in the same sentence. And the Court has read "Bills for raising Revenue" to exclude a charge that funds a particular program. In the Affordable Care Act case the four-Justice joint dissent cited the clause as a reason courts should not rewrite a penalty into a tax.20

What Congress May Do: The Section 8 Powers

Section 8 is a list, and the list is the point. Madison told ratification readers that "the powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite."21

Taxing, Spending, Borrowing

Clause 1 holds a power to tax and a power to spend "to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare." Madison read "general Welfare" as a heading for the powers listed after it. Hamilton read it as a separate power. In United States v. Butler (1936) the Court took Hamilton's side, holding that the spending power "is not limited by the direct grants of legislative power found in the Constitution," and then struck the Agricultural Adjustment Act anyway.22 The modern test for strings on federal money comes from South Dakota v. Dole (1987). Congress may attach conditions if they serve the general welfare, are stated unambiguously, relate to a national concern, break no other constitutional rule, and stop short of coercion.23 In NFIB v. Sebelius (2012) seven Justices found the coercion line crossed by the Medicaid expansion.20

Clause 2, borrowing, once took nine States' assent. Now it takes an ordinary bill.

Liberty Perspective: Money With Strings

The Framers gave Congress the purse, and the purse comes with a lever. Justice Stone's dissent in Butler argued that the power to tax and spend "includes the power to relieve a nationwide economic maladjustment by conditional gifts of money." Chief Justice Roberts, in the part of his NFIB opinion joined by Justices Breyer and Kagan, put the case for a limit: an offer a State cannot afford to decline is "a gun to the head." Much of what a county does runs on grant conditions Congress wrote. Read the agreement before you sign it.

Commerce

"Among the several States" carries more of modern federal law than any other phrase in the document. Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) read "commerce" to include navigation: "Commerce, undoubtedly, is traffic, but it is something more: it is intercourse." Marshall left "[t]he completely internal commerce of a State" to be "reserved for the State itself."24

The line between the two moved in steps. Wickard v. Filburn (1942) held that even local activity "may still, whatever its nature, be reached by Congress if it exerts a substantial economic effect on interstate commerce."25 United States v. Lopez (1995) struck a federal ban on guns in school zones, because the law "neither regulates a commercial activity nor contains a requirement that the possession be connected in any way to interstate commerce."26 Gonzales v. Raich (2005) sided with Wickard and upheld federal marijuana law as applied to the local growing and medical use that California's own law allowed.27 In NFIB the Chief Justice wrote that the commerce power "presupposes the existence of commercial activity to be regulated." Five Justices concluded the power did not reach the insurance mandate, and four would have upheld the mandate under it.20

Liberty Perspective: "Few and Defined" and the Wheat Farmer

Compare Federalist No. 45 with Wickard. A farmer's 239 bushels of wheat grown above his allotment fell within the commerce power, because many farmers doing the same would move prices, the Court reasoned. In Lopez, Justice Thomas wrote separately that "our case law has drifted far from the original understanding of the Commerce Clause." The Raich majority treated Wickard as controlling, and

The Smaller Powers

Naturalization must follow "an uniform Rule," so no State runs its own. Coining money belongs to Congress, and section 10 takes it from the States. The copyright and patent clause is the only power in section 8 that states its purpose and sets a limit on itself: "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" and only for "limited Times." Congress cannot grant a perpetual copyright.

War

Clause 11 gives Congress the power "To declare War." On August 17, 1787, the draft said Congress would "make" war. Madison and Gerry moved to insert "declare" in its place, "leaving to the Executive the power to repel sudden attacks." Gerry said he "never expected to hear in a republic a motion to empower the Executive alone to declare war." The change carried seven States to two, with Massachusetts abstaining.28

Liberty Perspective: The Last Declaration Was in 1942

Congress has declared war on 11 occasions, and the Senate's own history page lists the last ones, against Bulgaria, Hungary and Rumania on June 4, 1942. Since then, the Senate says, Congress has authorized force by resolution and shaped policy through appropriations.29 The text and the August 17 debate put the decision to start a war in the legislature and leave the Executive the power to repel sudden attacks. Practice since 1942 runs on other instruments. Whether those instruments fairly read "declare" or drift from it is a matter of judgment; the gap is a matter of record.

Necessary and Proper

Clause 18 does the heavy lifting. Madison defended it in Federalist No. 44.30 McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) gave it its working rule. Congress could charter a national bank, though "bank" appears nowhere in the text: "Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the constitution, are constitutional."31

Common Misconception: "General Welfare" and "Necessary and Proper" Let Congress Do Anything

Neither clause is a free-standing grant. "General Welfare" modifies the power to tax and spend. Even the broad Hamilton reading the Court adopted in Butler concerns spending, and Dole still requires a link to a national concern. "Necessary and proper" reaches only laws "for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers." A law needs a section 8 power underneath it.

What Congress May Not Do: Sections 9 and 10

Habeas corpus. The clause forbids suspending the writ except in rebellion or invasion, but it sits in Article I, among the limits on Congress, and that placement matters. In Ex parte Bollman (1807) Chief Justice Marshall wrote that suspension is "for the legislature to say."32 Idaho's Constitution has a near-twin, adding that suspension can happen only "in such manner as shall be prescribed by law."33

Attainder and ex post facto laws. In Calder v. Bull (1798) Justice Chase described bills of attainder and the related "bills of pains and penalties" as "legislative judgments," and listed what makes a law ex post facto, starting with "Every law that makes an action, done before the passing of the law, and which was innocent when done, criminal; and punishes such action." He confined the clause to criminal laws.34Section 10 puts the same ban on States, and adds a bar on laws "impairing the Obligation of Contracts." Idaho's own constitution repeats all three.33

The purse. The July 16 resolution already said "no money shall be drawn from the public Treasury, but in pursuance of appropriations." The Appropriations Clause keeps that rule and adds a duty to publish "a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money." Madison called the power over the purse "the most complete and effectual weapon with which any constitution can arm the immediate representatives of the people."35

Titles of nobility. Hamilton wrote that the ban "may truly be denominated the corner-stone of republican government." The clause's second half bars federal officers from accepting presents, offices or titles from foreign states without the consent of Congress.36

Limits on States. Section 10 shuts States out of treaties, coinage, bills of credit, and a legal tender other than gold and silver. Interstate compacts need congressional approval. How far these limits stretch into everyday state-federal relations is the subject of Module 5.

Impeachment, Expulsion and the Speech or Debate Clause

Congress polices itself and the executive branch with three tools. The House holds the sole power of impeachment. The Senate tries the case, and conviction needs two thirds of the members present. The sanction is limited: "removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States," though the convicted person remains liable to indictment and trial. What counts as a high crime or misdemeanor is covered in Module 3.37 Each House can expel a member by a two-thirds vote. It cannot, under Powell, refuse to seat one who meets the written qualifications.

The Speech or Debate Clause protects members from being "questioned in any other Place." Its ancestor sits in the Articles of Confederation.1 Gravel v. United States (1972) extended the protection to a senator's aide for acts that would be protected if the senator did them, but held it did not cover arranging private publication of the Pentagon Papers.38 Hutchinson v. Proxmire (1979) held that press releases and newsletters are not protected.39 Idaho's Constitution gives its legislators a similar shield.33

Common Misconception: Members of Congress Can't Be Sued for Anything They Say

The clause covers speech or debate "in either House," meaning the legislative process. In Hutchinson a senator's newsletters and press release about a scientist's federally funded research were outside the protection. A statement on the Senate floor is shielded. The same words in a press release are not.

Landmark Cases

Eight decisions carry most of the doctrine. Votes appear only where the opinions state them. Some Justices wrote separately in nearly all of these, and the notes below name the opinions rather than any camp.

Case, citation, yearWhat happenedHoldingWhy it matters, and what has moved
McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316 (1819)31Maryland taxed notes issued by the Baltimore branch of the Second Bank of the United States, chartered by Congress in 1816.Unanimous, by Chief Justice Marshall. Congress could charter the Bank under its enumerated powers read with the Necessary and Proper Clause, and a State could not tax it.Base rule for implied powers: "we must never forget that it is a constitution we are expounding."
Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1 (1824)24New York gave Livingston and Fulton an exclusive right to run steam vessels on its waters. Gibbons ran boats under a federal license.The New York grant was repugnant to the Commerce Clause as applied to federally licensed vessels. "Commerce" includes navigation.Set the broad meaning of "commerce." Later cases kept moving the line Marshall drew at "completely internal commerce."
Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111 (1942)25Roscoe Filburn, an Ohio farmer with an 11.1-acre wheat allotment, planted 23 acres and harvested 239 bushels over the limit. The penalty was $117.11.Justice Jackson for the Court: local activity may be regulated if it "exerts a substantial economic effect on interstate commerce," taken together with that of many others similarly situated.The farthest reach of the commerce power. Lopez called it "perhaps the most far reaching example," and Raich relied on it.
Powell v. McCormack, 395 U.S. 486 (1969)12The House voted 307 to 116 to exclude Adam Clayton Powell Jr., elected by New York in 1966, though he met the age, citizenship and residency rules.Chief Justice Warren for the Court: Congress "is limited to the standing qualifications prescribed in the Constitution." Justice Stewart dissented on mootness.Exclusion and expulsion are different powers. Term Limits (1995) applied the same reading to the States.
South Dakota v. Dole, 483 U.S. 203 (1987)23Congress told the Transportation Secretary to withhold a share of highway funds from States allowing purchase of alcohol under 21. South Dakota let 19-year-olds buy 3.2 percent beer.Seven to two, Chief Justice Rehnquist for the Court. The condition was valid spending. Justices Brennan and O'Connor dissented.Source of the test for grant conditions, including a limit where "pressure turns into compulsion." NFIB found that limit crossed.
United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995)26A San Antonio twelfth-grader carried a concealed handgun into school in 1992 and was charged under the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990.Five to four, Chief Justice Rehnquist for the Court. The Act exceeded the commerce power. Justices Stevens, Souter and Breyer dissented, with Justice Ginsburg joining Justice Breyer's opinion.Names three categories Congress may reach: channels, instrumentalities, and activities with a substantial relation to commerce.
Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005)27Angel Raich and Diane Monson used doctor-recommended marijuana under California law. DEA agents destroyed Monson's six plants.Justice Stevens for the Court; Justice Scalia concurred in the judgment. Congress had a "rational basis" for covering local marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act. Justices O'Connor and Thomas wrote dissents, and Chief Justice Rehnquist joined Justice O'Connor's.Federal drug law applies in States with medical-use laws. Justice O'Connor's dissent argued the ruling cannot be squared with Lopez.
NFIB v. Sebelius, 567 U.S. 519 (2012)20The Affordable Care Act required most people to buy insurance or pay a penalty, and expanded Medicaid on pain of losing existing federal funds.Five Justices held the commerce power did not support the mandate, and five held it valid as a tax. Seven held the Medicaid expansion, as written, coercive.The joint dissent observed that the Court had "never found a law enacted under the spending power to be coercive."

Where This Shows Up for Officials, Reporters and Citizens

The oath. Every Idaho officer swears to "support the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of Idaho." The form is in Idaho Code § 59-401, and legislators take a nearly identical one under Idaho Const. art. III, § 25.40

A county commissioner is handed a federal grant agreement with a new reporting condition on page 14. Dole says conditions must be stated unambiguously and tie to a national concern. If a staff member says "federal law requires this," ask under which power: taxing, spending or commerce. That answer decides whether the board faces a mandate or an offer.

A sheriff holds a person in the county jail and is served with a writ of habeas corpus. The writ is mirrored in Idaho Const. art. I, § 5, and the jailer must answer it.

A county clerk fielding a question from a would-be candidate for Congress cannot invent a qualification the Constitution never set. Term Limits and Powell say the written rules are the whole list. Article I, section 4 lets each State's legislature prescribe the "Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections" for Congress, but "the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations."7

A reporter covering a tax bill checks where it started. Revenue bills begin in the House, so a story saying the Senate "introduced a tax bill" deserves a second look, though a bill that funds one program, as in Munoz-Flores, is not a revenue bill. The Appropriations Clause guarantees a published statement and account of public money, so asking for it is asking for something the Constitution promises.

A citizen at a meeting asks whether the county can ignore a federal rule. The answer starts with which of three things the rule is: a condition on money, a regulation of commerce, or a demand that local officials carry out federal law. The third raises the questions in Module 5.

Idaho watchers will find the parts of this lesson mirrored at home. The governor's veto clock is five days, not ten.16 The 1890 election of Idaho's first senators produced a contest that the U.S. Senate settled in 1892.41 And Idaho's two House seats rest on the census.11

Pictures, Numbers and Infographics

Article I sets the House at seats apportioned by population and gives Congress the lawmaking power, subject to the veto. The numbers show how many people each House member now answers to and how small a share of introduced bills ever become law.

Painting of the House of Representatives chamber at night, with members gathering under a large chandelier being lit
Samuel F. B. Morse, The House of Representatives, 1822, probably reworked 1823. The chamber is the one now called Statuary Hall in the Capitol. Morse painted it at night as the great chandelier was lit, with members and staff assembling for an evening session. Credit: Samuel F. B. Morse, National Gallery of Art. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

By the numbers

People per House seat, by census 1910 210,328 1920 241,864 1930 280,675 1940 301,164 1950 344,587 1960 410,481 1970 469,088 1980 519,235 1990 572,466 2000 646,952 2010 710,767 2020 761,169 433 seats after the 1910 census; 435 after every census since.
Every census since 1910 has packed more people into each seat, because the House stopped growing at 435. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Historical Apportionment Data (1910 to 2020), 2021.
Bills and resolutions in 2024, by chamber Senate House Introduced 7,121 Passed 1,294 Became law 78 + 159
In 2024 the two chambers passed 1,294 measures between them, against 7,121 introduced, and far fewer became public law. Senate and House shares are stacked; the law bars are too short to read at this scale. Source: Résumé of Congressional Activity, Second Session, 118th Congress.

Verify Independently

Every citation, quotation and case in this course should be verified independently against the official source (the U.S. Reports or the Court's own opinion, the National Archives transcription, the statute book) before you rely on it, quote it or act on it.

Check these in particular:

  • The pocket veto statement rests on the Constitution Annotated, not on the Pocket Veto Case or Wright v. United States themselves.

Sources & Further Reading

Primary Sources

Government History and Data

Related Training Modules

Knowledge Check

Test your understanding of Article I. No scores are saved: this is for your own review.

1. What did the Convention settle by its vote on July 16, 1787?

2. What does Article I say about the size of the House?

3. What rule did Wickard v. Filburn (1942) state about the Commerce Clause?

4. Under Powell v. McCormack (1969), what could the House do about a member-elect who met the age, citizenship and residency requirements?

5. Congress is in session. A bill reaches the President, who neither signs nor returns it, and ten days (Sundays excepted) pass. What happens?

Reference Materials

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Footnotes

  1. Articles of Confederation (1781), art. V (each State one vote; freedom of speech and debate in Congress), art. VIII (expenses paid from a common treasury supplied by the States, taxes laid by state legislatures), art. IX (nine States must assent to borrow or appropriate money). Avalon Project, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/artconf.asp.
  2. Avalon Project, Notes on the Debates in the Federal Convention (index of Madison's notes by date; the first full session listed after the opening week is May 25, 1787), https://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/debcont.asp.
  3. Madison's Notes, May 29, 1787, Randolph's resolutions, no. 6, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_529.asp.
  4. Madison's Notes, July 16, 1787 (vote on the report and its resolutions on House origination of money bills and equal state votes in the second branch), https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_716.asp. See also Constitution Annotated, The Great Compromise of the Constitutional Convention (adopted July 16, 1787), https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-1/the-great-compromise-of-the-constitutional-convention.
  5. Constitution Annotated, Selection of Senators by State Legislatures (Wilson, Madison and Mason favored popular election; the Framers chose state legislatures; senators who owed their seats to legislatures had reason to heed them), https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-3/clause-1/selection-of-senators-by-state-legislatures.
  6. Madison's Notes, August 22, 1787 (Gerry and McHenry motion; remarks of Wilson, Ellsworth and Carroll; the vote on ex post facto laws was New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia aye; Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania no; North Carolina divided), https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_822.asp.
  7. National Archives, The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription, https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript. Article I was compared word for word against this transcription. Section 4 is quoted from it in the practice section.
  8. National Archives, The Constitution: Amendments 11-27, https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/amendments-11-27: Fourteenth Amendment (ratified July 9, 1868), Sixteenth (Feb. 3, 1913), Seventeenth (Apr. 8, 1913), Twentieth (Jan. 23, 1933), Twenty-seventh (proposed Sept. 25, 1789; ratified May 7, 1992).
  9. Madison's Notes, September 17, 1787 (Gorham's motion to change "forty thousand" to "thirty thousand," the President's remarks, and the unanimous vote), https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_917.asp.
  10. U.S. House, History, Art & Archives, The Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929, https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1901-1950/The-Permanent-Apportionment-Act-of-1929/ (capped membership at 435; House failed to reapportion after the 1920 census; signed June 18, 1929); The 1911 House Reapportionment, https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1901-1950/The-1911-House-reapportionment/ (temporary increase to 437 from 1959 to 1963).
  11. U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census Apportionment Results, https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2020/dec/2020-apportionment-data.html (435 seats; method of equal proportions adopted 1941); Table 1 data file, https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial/2020/data/apportionment/apportionment-2020-table01.xlsx (Idaho: apportionment population 1,841,377; 2 seats; change 0).
  12. Powell v. McCormack, 395 U.S. 486 (1969) (argued Apr. 21, decided June 16, 1969; Warren, C.J., for the Court; Douglas, J., concurring; Stewart, J., dissenting), https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/395/486. The House votes (248 to 176 on the amendment, 307 to 116 on the resolution) are from the opinion's statement of facts.
  13. U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, 514 U.S. 779 (1995) (argued Nov. 29, 1994, decided May 22, 1995; Stevens, J., joined by Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer, JJ.; Thomas, J., dissenting, joined by Rehnquist, C.J., and O'Connor and Scalia, JJ.), https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/514/779.
  14. U.S. Senate, Direct Election of Senators, https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/Direct_Election_Senators.htm (nine bribery cases 1866 to 1906; 45 deadlocks in 20 states 1891 to 1905; Delaware 1899).
  15. Constitution Annotated, Veto Power, https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-7/clause-2/veto-power, discussing The Pocket Veto Case, 279 U.S. 655 (1929), and Wright v. United States, 302 U.S. 583 (1938). Those two cases are cited from the Annotated text and were not separately pulled.
  16. Idaho Const. art. IV, § 10, https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idconst/ArtIV/Sect10/ (five days, Sundays excepted).
  17. United States v. Munoz-Flores, 495 U.S. 385 (1990) (Marshall, J.; argued Feb. 20, decided May 21, 1990), https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/495/385. A "special assessment" funding the Crime Victims Fund was not a "Bil[l] for raising Revenue," and the Origination claim was not a political question.
  18. Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919 (1983) (reargued Oct. 7, 1982, decided June 23, 1983; Burger, C.J., for the Court; Powell, J., concurring in the judgment; White, J., dissenting; Rehnquist, J., dissenting, joined by White, J.), https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/462/919.
  19. Clinton v. City of New York, 524 U.S. 417 (1998) (argued Apr. 27, decided June 25, 1998; Stevens, J., joined by Rehnquist, C.J., and Kennedy, Souter, Thomas and Ginsburg, JJ.), https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/524/417.
  20. National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, 567 U.S. 519 (2012) (argued Mar. 26-28, decided June 28, 2012), https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/11-393; also Harvard Caselaw Access Project, https://static.case.law/us/567/cases/0519-01.json. Opinion of Roberts, C.J. (Parts I, II and III-C for the Court; Part IV joined by Breyer and Kagan; Parts III-A, III-B and III-D for himself); Ginsburg, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part; Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas and Alito, JJ., dissenting. The joint dissent states: "Seven Members of the Court agree that the Medicaid Expansion, as enacted by Congress, is unconstitutional."
  21. The Federalist No. 45 (Madison), https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed45.asp. Justice Rehnquist quoted the same passage in Lopez.
  22. United States v. Butler, 297 U.S. 1 (1936) (argued Dec. 9-10, 1935, decided Jan. 6, 1936; Roberts, J., for the Court; Stone, J., dissenting, joined by Brandeis and Cardozo, JJ.), https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/297/1.
  23. South Dakota v. Dole, 483 U.S. 203 (1987) (argued Apr. 28, decided June 23, 1987; Rehnquist, C.J., joined by White, Marshall, Blackmun, Powell, Stevens and Scalia, JJ.; Brennan and O'Connor, JJ., dissenting), https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/483/203.
  24. Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. (9 Wheat.) 1 (1824) (decided Mar. 2, 1824; Marshall, C.J.), https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/22/1.
  25. Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111 (1942) (reargued Oct. 13, decided Nov. 9, 1942; Jackson, J., for the Court), https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/317/111.
  26. United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995) (argued Nov. 8, 1994, decided Apr. 26, 1995; Rehnquist, C.J., joined by O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy and Thomas, JJ.; Kennedy and Thomas, JJ., concurring; Stevens, Souter and Breyer, JJ., dissenting), https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/514/549. Current text: 18 U.S.C. § 922(q)(2)(A), https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/922 (amended generally by Pub. L. 104-208, Sept. 30, 1996).
  27. Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005) (argued Nov. 29, 2004, decided June 6, 2005; Stevens, J., joined by Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer, JJ.; Scalia, J., concurring in the judgment; O'Connor, J., dissenting, joined by Rehnquist, C.J., and Thomas, J. except Part III; Thomas, J., dissenting), https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/03-1454.
  28. Madison's Notes, August 17, 1787 (Butler, Madison and Gerry, Sherman, Mason; vote to insert "declare" in place of "make": Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia aye; New Hampshire and Connecticut no; Massachusetts abstaining), https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_817.asp. Compare Constitution Annotated, https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-1/make-war-and-declare-war-at-the-constitutional-convention.
  29. U.S. Senate, About Declarations of War by Congress, https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/declarations-of-war.htm (11 declarations; last on June 4, 1942).
  30. The Federalist No. 44 (Madison), https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed44.asp.
  31. McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. (4 Wheat.) 316 (1819) (February Term 1819; Marshall, C.J., for the Court, which described its view as "the unanimous and decided opinion of this court"), https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/17/316. The Bank act is dated Apr. 10, 1816 and the Maryland tax act Feb. 11, 1818.
  32. Ex parte Bollman, 8 U.S. (4 Cranch) 75 (1807) (Marshall, C.J.), https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/8/75.
  33. Idaho Const. art. I, § 5 (habeas corpus), https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idconst/ArtI/Sect5/; art. I, § 16 (attainder, ex post facto, contracts), https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idconst/ArtI/Sect16/; art. III, § 7 (privilege from arrest; words uttered in debate), https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idconst/ArtIII/Sect7/.
  34. Calder v. Bull, 3 U.S. (3 Dall.) 386 (1798) (opinion of Chase, J.; judgment affirmed), https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/3/386. Madison's Notes for Aug. 29, 1787 record Dickinson's remark on Blackstone (see note on the August 29 debate).
  35. The Federalist No. 58 (Madison), https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed58.asp.
  36. The Federalist No. 84 (Hamilton), https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed84.asp.
  37. U.S. Const. art. I, § 3, cls. 6-7 (National Archives transcription); Constitution Annotated, Overview of Impeachment, https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-2/clause-5/overview-of-impeachment.
  38. Gravel v. United States, 408 U.S. 606 (1972) (argued Apr. 19-20, decided June 29, 1972; opinion of the Court by White, J.), https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/408/606.
  39. Hutchinson v. Proxmire, 443 U.S. 111 (1979) (argued Apr. 17, decided June 26, 1979; Burger, C.J.), https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/443/111.
  40. Idaho Code § 59-401, https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title59/T59CH4/SECT59-401/; Idaho Const. art. III, § 25, https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idconst/ArtIII/Sect25/.
  41. U.S. Senate, The Election Case of George L. Shoup, William J. McConnell, and William H. Clagett of Idaho v. Fred T. Dubois of Idaho (1892), https://www.senate.gov/about/origins-foundations/electing-appointing-senators/contested-senate-elections/079Shoup_et_al.htm (Senate vote Mar. 3, 1892; Dubois retained his seat).