Private, no accountPrivacy details: browsing privately, no account needed
You're browsing privately, no account needed. Your region stays in this session and your precise location is never stored.What we store
Executive power

Make treaties

The President negotiates with foreign nations; the Senate decides whether the nation is bound. A ratified treaty joins the Constitution and federal statutes as supreme law of the land.

Article II, Section 2, Clause 2

Read the clause itself, verbatim and in plain language, in the in-app Constitution.

Held by

The President, with two-thirds of the Senate

President of the United States

How it works in practice

The President (through the State Department) negotiates and signs; the Senate consents by supermajorityAny threshold above half: three-fifths for Senate cloture, two-thirds to override a veto or convict on impeachment, three-fourths of states to ratify an amendment.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) of members present, often attaching reservations; the President then ratifies. Because two-thirds is brutal arithmetic, most modern international commitments are executive agreements or congressional-executive agreements (majority of chamberOne of the two houses of a legislature. Congress has two: the House of Representatives and the Senate. A bill must pass both, in identical text.Read the full definition (opens a new tab)), which bind, but which a later President or Congress can exit far more easily.

The answering checks
The SenateTwo-thirds consent, or the treatyA binding international agreement the President negotiates and the Senate approves by two-thirds. Once ratified, it is part of the supreme law of the land.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) never binds.
CongressTreaties needing money or implementing law still need ordinary legislation.
A later PresidentCan withdraw from treaties, a power judiciaryThe branch of government made up of the courts and judges. The federal judiciary is the Supreme Court plus the courts Congress created beneath it.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) have left largely unreviewed (Goldwater v. Carter).
See it in the app
Source

U.S. Senate, About Treaties

Terms to know: ratificationFinal approval that gives a measure legal force: states ratify constitutional amendments (3/4 required); the Senate consents to treaties (2/3).Read the full definition (opens a new tab) · advice and consentThe Senate's shared role in appointments and treaties: nominations need a Senate majority; treaties need two-thirds.Read the full definition (opens a new tab)

Plain-language civic education, not legal advice. The live boundaries of this power are set case by case; the sources above and the constitutional text control.