US divison of power

After the American revolutionary war, the revolutionary leaders had to decide how the new founded United States were to be ruled. After seeing what could happen if all power was concentrated into one persons hand, they wanted to create a system were one man cound not obtain all power. When the constitution was signed the new type of government was approved. It divides power into three branches:

- The Legislative Branch which is the congress has the power to create laws. The congress is divided into to parts, one being the Senate and the other being, the House of Representatives.

- The Executive Branch, or the president and his government has the power to carry out the laws, and make vetos on laws voted on by the Congress.

- The Judicial Branch, mainly the Supreme Court, has the power to interpret the laws. If a law is found to unfair and to be working against the constitution, the Supreme Court can rule the law as unconstiutional and have it removed. One example is the Brown v Board of Education case in 1954. The nine members of this branch are nominated by the President, and approved by the Senate.

These branches are independent however, they rely on each other to pass on its ideas. For example: if the Congress (Legislative) has an idea for a new law, they create what is know as a bill. The bills is voted on by the Congress and if its approved by a majority the bill is sent to the President (Executive) who has to sign it for it to become an acctual law. If he dosen´t do it, the law cannot be passed, we call this that the president has put a veto on the law. However if 2/3 of the congress then votes against the veto, the bill becomes a law anyway. This is all so that on man cannot obtain all power.

Even though they are independent they also have to maintain checks on each other, to prevent one from misusing its authority. These checks are the following:

The Legislative Branch has the following checks over the Executive Branch

* May override presidential vetoes with a two-thirds vote
* Has the power over the purse strings to actually fund any executive actions
* May remove the president through impeachment
* Senate approves treaties
* Senate approves presidential appointments

The Legislative Branch has the following checks over the Judicial Branch:

* Creates lower courts
* May remove judges through impeachment
* Senate approves appointments of judges

The Executive Branch has the following checks over the Legislative Branch:

* Veto power
* Ability to call special sessions of Congress
* Can recommend legislation
* Can appeal to the people concerning legislation and more

The Executive Branch has the following checks over the Judicial Branch:

* President appoints Supreme Court and other federal judges

The number of vetoes presidents deliver has varied over time. Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the most vetoes with 635 over his four terms as president.

The Judicial Branch has the following checks over the Executive Branch:

* Judges, once appointed for life, are free from controls from the executive branch
* Courts can judge executive actions to be unconstitutional through the power of judicial review

The Judicial Branch has the following checks over the Legislative Branch:

* Courts can judge legislative acts to be unconstitutional.

The judicial branch's powers are unique in that they can judge actions by the other two branches to be unconstitutional. However, this can only happen when the question is brought up in a court case that has been presented to them.

All the lists with checks can be found at:

http://americanhistory.about.com/od/usconstitution/a/checks\_balances.htm