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Check and Balances of the Government Essay

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Introduction-
Power is “the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events” (Webster dictionary).The federal system is able to balance powers of the executive, judicial and the legislative branches through the process of checks and balances.This is important because it spreads out the government’s power. If we did not have the check and balance system, everything would be based off of one opinion or branch, which would make our government weaker.

Body-
The Legislative branch has power over the Judicial branch. One example of their power is that they can impeach and remove federal judges. In other words this means the federal judges can get kicked out of office for committing a crime. This has …show more content…

This shows what the Executive branch can do with acts.

Finally the Judicial branch has power over the Executive branch. The federal judges, which are appointed for life, are free from executive control. This means the judges do not have to depend on the Executive branch. This also means the Executive branch has no say in how the judges rule after they are appointed by the president. A recent example of this is Elena Kagan, who was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Obama. Even when President Obama is no longer the president, the Executive branch can not change that she is a judge for life.

The Judicial branch has power over the Legislative branch as well. They can declare acts of congress unconstitutional. This means the Judicial branch can say something that the congress did is against the constitution. This does not happen a lot, but in 2013, the supreme court overruled an act that happened in 1996 called the Defense of Marriage Act. So that is how the Judicial branch has power over the Legislative branch.

Conclusion-
The Legislative branch, Executive branch, and Judicial branch all share their power through the checks and balances act. Now you see why it is so important that they do this. If they did not, one branch would be able to overpower the others, which is not the point of the United States government. So this is why the United States government is set up the way that

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