Preview

Essay On Checks And Balances

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
427 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Essay On Checks And Balances
The US Constitution was written well over 200 years ago. For these few centuries, it lead the advancement of US the Government organizations and has provided the basic requirements for political stability, freedom for each individual, and growth economically and socially. In the US Constitution, it has the framework for our government. The Framers split the government up into three different branches: Legislative, Judicial,and Executive. The Legislative branch, headed by Congress, includes the House of Representatives and the Senate. This branch’s powers include passing laws, originating spending bills, impeaching officials, and approving treaties. The Judicial branch, headed by the Supreme Court, is in charge of deciding the meaning of laws, …show more content…
This way of balancing the powers was called checks and balances. The legislative branch can check the executive branch by: refusing to pass a bill the president wants, passing a law over the president's veto, using the impeachment powers to remove the president from office, refusing to approve a presidential appointment, and refusing to ratify a treaty the president has signed. It can also check the Judicial branch by: changing the number and jurisdiction of the lower courts, using the impeachment powers to remove a judge from office, and refusing to approve a person nominated to be a judge. The Executive branch can check the Legislative branch by vetoing a bill it has passed. It can also check the Judicial branch by nominating judges. The Judicial branch can check the power of the Legislative branch by declaring a law unconstitutional. It can also check the power of the Executive branch by declaring actions by him or his subordinates to be unconstitutional or not authorized by law. In conclusion, the Framers were smart by making a three branch government and very smart by adding the checks and balances system with them. Without this system, each branch would be able to pass any laws they would like, but because of this, each law goes through an extraneous process to be passed. These processes will eliminate awful laws that one branch could try to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    In the United States government, there are three branches: The Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. The Legislative Branch consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate, which forms the United States Congress. The Executive Branch is basically just the President and the Vice President heading over the armed forces, coming up with and enforcing laws written by Congress, and the Vice President assumes the Presidency if needed. The Judicial Branch is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate; Congress makes the shape and structure of the federal judiciary. All three branches are very important to the structure of the United States government.…

    • 1511 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The system of checks and balances is an important part of the United States Constitution. The three branches of the government representing the separation of powers – executive, legislative, and judicial – each hold specific responsibilities. Checks and balances is a method set in place so that no branch of the government can become to powerful by allowing each branch to limit the powers of the others. This is accomplished by each branch checking the powers of the other branches to ensure the balance between all three. “The rationale of the separation of powers is often elided with the rationale of checks and balances and with the rationale of the dispersal of power generally in a constitutional system” (Waldron).…

    • 799 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Checks and balances is the way that each branch of government verifies another branch’s decisions. It limits the government’s power and makes sure one branch does not have and cannot gain too much power. The Legislative Branch checks the Judicial Branch by proposing constitutional laws to override judicial decisions and they can impeach supreme court justices. Impeaching is to “vote or bring charges of serious crimes against the president” (Deverell). The Executive Branch checks the Legislative Branch by vetoing bills and may adjourn congress in some situations. To veto is to deny or cancel a law or amendment. The Judicial Branch checks the Executive Branch by declaring executive actions unconstitutional. An unconstitutional law is one that…

    • 219 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ty·rant (noun) a cruel and oppressive ruler.When the colonies broke free from Great Britain they had to make a new government and they didn’t want it to be exactly like Britain. They needed to guard from tyranny for the new country.The Constitution helped to guard from tyranny because everything has balanced power, clear structures, and a series of checks and balances on each branch in the National Government.…

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The three branches in the government were set up to be strong. The branches consist of a Legislative branch, Executive branch, and lastly a Judicial branch. First, we have the Legislative branch which is the system of representation the colonist created, they make the laws for our country. Next, we have the Executive branch which has the president, vice president, cabinet, and the executive agencies, and they make sure that the nation follows its laws. Lastly we have the Judicial branch and they are responsible for deciding if the laws are enacted by congress, or in line with the constitution.…

    • 151 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    For example, the Executive Branch can veto bills from the Legislative Branch, who can then in turn vote to override the veto with a majority approval. The Judicial Branch may review laws proposed by either of the other branches and declare them unconstitutional if applicable. Judicial power is balanced by the act of appointment into position by the other two branches of government. Should a representative of the judicial branch overexert their influence their appointment may be removed. (congressforkids.net,…

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To ensure no single branch would have too much power the three branch system came with a series of check and balances. The executive branch enforces the laws, the legislative branch makes the laws, and the judicial branch interprets the…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Checks And Balances

    • 154 Words
    • 1 Page

    Checks and Balances is a form of government that has multiple branches to prevent a single person or group of people from obtaining and abusing their power. As each branch has the ability to negate the other from violating the Constitution of the United States. The United States created the Checks and Balances system because they were being oppressed from a Monarch and determined that separating the powers of the government would prevent corruption. Consequently, the founders of the Constitution were inspired by a philosopher named John Locke that preached separating the powers of government. The Judicial branch checks both the legislative and Executive branch as it can determine if any of their actions are unconstitutional and void their…

    • 154 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    To begin with, the constitution works because of checks and balances. Checks and balances is the system which the framers developed that would limit the power of one branch becoming too powerful. Balances give each branch some role in actions and power of the other branches. Checks give one branch the power to block the proceedings of the other branch. For example, Congress has the power to pass laws, but the President has the power to veto it. As a result, Congress can override the veto by a two-thirds vote in both houses. Then the judicial branch can…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “..the constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that they may be a check on the other…(The three branches) should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other,”(James Madison, Federalist Papers #51). This basically tells us that they use a system of checks and balances to divide the power to make it all equal. James Madison does believe that there can by tyranny in democracy if someone has more than one set of powers like if someone was in the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court. That one person would have too much power and could mess up the whole government system to get what he/she wants. The system of checks and balances keep each branch in order, so everybody has a say in what’s going on. One way the Legislative Branch checks the Executive Branch is by approving Presidential nominations and one way Legislative checks the Judicial is by impeaching and removing judges from office. One way Executive Branch checks Legislative Branch is the president vetoing Congressional legislation and one way they check Judicial Branch is by nominating the judges when there’s a spot open. Lastly, one way Judicial Branch checks Legislative Branch is by declaring laws unconstitutional and they check Executive Branch by declaring presidential acts unconstitutional. Using Checks and Balances, all three branches share equal…

    • 940 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Madison also stated that if an individual group of people had power in more than one branch, then that was tyranny. They would be able to manipulate and unbalance the branches. Others agreed with him because no one wanted to end up like the country they left. They wanted everything to be equal, and they didn’t want any supreme power. Furthermore, the Constitution and it’s creators state that the three branches of the government have power over each other in different ways to keep each other balanced. For example, the legislative branch, or Congress, can impeach the president if they are not doing their job well. The president can veto laws that Congress vote on if he or she thinks the law should not pass for whatever reason they have. But, if Congress still believes the law should pass, they can vote again and the law will pass automatically if more than two thirds of congress is for the law. In this way the Legislative and Executive branches are balancing each other by keeping laws and the president in check. The Judicial branch also helps balance the other branches. The Judicial branch can declare laws and acts of the executive branch unconstitutional. Congress can impeach judges and agree/disagree on the president’s choices of the…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The United States Constitution was created to be an outline for the American government by the founding fathers. However, it can be very complicated. On many occasions, it has influenced the United States as well as the society of America. Two constitutional principles are the Bill of Rights and Checks and Balances.…

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The government of the United States is made up of three branches: the executive branch, judicial branch, and the legislative branch. The legislative branch, called Congress, is responsible for making laws. Congress is made of two houses; the Senate and the House of Representatives. Although they have many differences, they share some similarities too.…

    • 303 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Constitution of the United States established the three branches of government, the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch to assure that our government is doing their job and to protect the citizen’s rights. The executive branch has the main purpose of carrying out and enforcing the law. The executive branch has three main components, the president, the vice president, and the cabinet. The president is the leader of the U.S, the vice president assists the president, and the cabinet advises the president. The second branch of government is the legislative branch, in which it creates the law. The legislative branch is composed of the Congress, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. The Congress…

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Democracy Dbq

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Constitution was created to have three parts of the federal government, which is the Executive, Legislative, and the Judicial branch, and this one of the democratic aspects of the Constitution when the Constitution tries to promote democracy. These three branches do checks and balances on each other, and has the power to correct one another if one makes a mistake. “… to prevent the misuse of power by any of the three branches” (Lapsansky-Werner et al 155). For example, the House of Representatives…

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays