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Government Checks And Balances

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The United States government is made up of three branches: the legislative, executive, and judicial. In order to make sure no branch has too much power, the government uses a system of checks and balances. Each branch checks the other, all the branches work together. Examples of these checks and balances are found everywhere and in almost every decision made by our government. The main job of the legislative branch is to write and vote on laws. The legislative branch also must check the other branches. When congress sends a bill to be enacted into a law, the president can veto that bill. However, the legislative branch can check the executive by overriding that veto and creating the law without the president’s consent. Although, this is difficult because congress needs a ⅔ vote. An example of this was on the 7th and 8th of July in 1856 when Franklin Pierce was in office and the 49th Congress was in session. The bill was to make appropriations for deepening the channel over the St. …show more content…

Just as the other branches check the judicial branch, the judicial branch checks the executive and legislative. The supreme court can declare laws congress passes unconstitutional. This happened in 1954 during the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case. The Supreme court ruled that, in public schools, the idea separate but equal should not be practiced. While the president appoints the judges of the Supreme court, congress creates the lower courts and can remove judges through impeachments. The only judge that has been impeached was Samuel Chase, but he remained in office due to a vote of the senate. In conclusion, checks and balances are what help make our government run smoothly. Without this system, it would be much more possible that our government could result in a tyranny, with one branch having much more power than the other. That is why our system of checks and balances are so important to our

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The executive branch includes and is led by the President of the United States of America. Furthermore, this branch also includes the cabinet, executive, and independent agency departments. The President is able to veto the proposition of a new law and designate federal judges and federal posts. The President is also given the power to grant forgiveness to a crime that has been committed. As well as negotiate with foreign countries and treaties about situations and certain topics.

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In a perfect world the three branches would work seamlessly, as the writers of the Constitution had intended, but with over 430 members of the House of Representatives, 100 members of the Senate, and nine justices serving on the Supreme Court begs for convolution and, at sometimes, chaos. After the law has been proposed, carried out, and evaluated the President has the option to pass or veto the law. One would think that because the head of the American government, elected by the people, has made the order, the process would stop there. But because of the Constitution, Congress, really having all the power, are able to take Presidential veto and overturn

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In document C there are the 3 branches of government and arrows pointing from one to the other telling us how each branch checks one another. Some of these are, the president can veto different laws if he does not like them, but Congress can override this veto and pass the law anyways if they have a majority vote to override it. The Courts can declare acts of either branch as unconstitutional. Congress can also impeach members of any other branch and can remove them from office. All of this means that whatever one branch does, it must go through the other two so no corrupt laws can be passed.

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