The tasks below go beyond what is required for the exam, but they are good preparation for the synoptic (drawing together several topics you have studied), comparative questions that appear in Section C of Paper 3.
Bookmark this page and revisit these activities at the end of your studies.
Extension activity 1: separation of powers and checks and balances diagram
Design a labelled diagram showing the three branches of federal government and the checks each one holds over the other two. Use at least three recent, real-world examples to illustrate the checks in action, rather than describing them only in the abstract.
| Recent event (2025-2026) | Branches involved | Check being exercised |
| Trump v. Barbara (30 June 2026): the Supreme Court ruled Donald Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship (the rule that anyone born on US soil automatically becomes a citizen) unconstitutional | Judiciary vs Executive | Judicial review of an executive order against the Fourteenth Amendment |
| Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump (20 February 2026): the Supreme Court ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not let the President impose tariffs (taxes on imported goods) | Judiciary vs Executive, with Congress’s taxing and commerce powers also at stake | Judicial review restraining a claimed executive power over trade policy |
| Trump v. Slaughter (29 June 2026): the Supreme Court struck down legal protections for independent agency heads (officials who run regulatory bodies partly shielded from direct presidential control), letting the President remove the head of the Federal Trade Commission | Judiciary and Executive vs Congress | A check being loosened, showing the balance of power can shift in the executive’s favour as well as against it |
Add a fourth example of your own from your independent reading, and try to include at least one instance where a check failed or was weakened, not just one where it succeeded.
Further reading: Trump v. Barbara, official Supreme Court opinion (supremecourt.gov)
Extension activity 2: comparing the US and UK constitutions
The nature of the UK constitution is covered in detail elsewhere in your A Level and elsewhere on this site, but it is worth starting to compare the two systems now, since Section C of Paper 3 regularly asks synoptic, comparative questions.
● Codification: the US Constitution is codified; the UK constitution is uncodified, drawn from statute, common law, convention and authoritative works.
● Entrenchment: Article V entrenches the US Constitution; the UK constitution has no equivalent single entrenching mechanism, since Parliament can, in theory, change any part of it by a simple majority.
● Source of authority: the US Constitution derives its authority from popular ratification by the states in 1787 and 1788; the UK constitution rests on the principle of parliamentary sovereignty.
A note on wording: “convention” in US poliitcs usually means a formal assembly (as in a ratifying convention).
In UK politics, “convention” usually means something different: an unwritten constitutional rule that is followed by tradition rather than law. Keep the two meanings separate when you compare the two systems.
Using the three prompts above as a starting point, produce your own two-column comparison table of the nature of the US and UK constitutions. Add a short paragraph reaching a judgement on which is more effective at balancing stability with the ability to adapt.
Further reading: House of Commons Library briefing, Parliamentary sovereignty (commonslibrary.parliament.uk)
Extension activity 3: profiling a failed amendment
Below is a worked example profiling one amendment that passed Congress but failed to be ratified: the Flag Desecration Amendment. Use the same format to profile either the Equal Rights Amendment or the Balanced Budget Amendment as your own extension task.
| Year | Event |
| 1989 | In Texas v Johnson, the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that burning the US flag as a form of political protest is protected speech under the First Amendment. |
| 1989 | Congress responded with the Flag Protection Act, an ordinary statute attempting to ban flag burning. |
| 1990 | In United States v Eichman, the Supreme Court struck down the Flag Protection Act on the same First Amendment grounds, confirming that only a constitutional amendment could override the ruling. |
| 1995-2005 | Versions of a Flag Desecration Amendment passed the House of Representatives several times, but repeatedly failed to reach the two-thirds threshold in the Senate. |
| 2006 | The Senate voted 66 to 34 on the amendment, one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed to send it to the states. |
Research the key legal or political turning points, the congressional votes, and any recent developments for either the Equal Rights Amendment or the Balanced Budget Amendment, and present them in the same Year / Event format. Then write a short paragraph explaining what your chosen amendment’s failure reveals about the advantages and disadvantages of the Article V process discussed earlier in this document.
Further reading: Congress.gov record of S.J.Res.12, the Flag Desecration Amendment, 109th Congress (congress.gov)
