Shared Powers In Government

Separations of powers is a principle of the United States government, giving powers and responsibilities that are divided among the legislative branch, executive branch, and judicial branch. Checks and balances are certain powers that each branch of our federal government have to check on each other and make sure one branch isn’t doing something against the Constitution. These balances between the branches ensure that no branch becomes too powerful. Preventing this means that all of the branches are equal and balanced and allows a fair federal government for the people.

The authority of the Judiciary—Article III—enables the Supreme Court to rule on all laws and treaties, enabling the branch to oversee and regulate the powers of war. “It is virtually impossible to discuss the national security enterprise without discussing the role of the U.S. Supreme Court.” During the 190 years from the signing of the constitution, to the War Powers Act of 1973, the influence of the Supreme Court greatly enhanced the precedent of executive powers.

Checks and Balances – a system in which each branch of government is able to check/restrain the power of the others.

A. Define Judicial Review- The power of the courts authority to review the actions of the executive and legislative branch and to invalidate if their actions are contrary to the constitutional principles.

-The power of the judicial review is “A court’s power to review statutes to decide if they conform to the U.S. or state constitutions”. It is important to our legal system to have the power of the judicial review as a tool to the disposal of the courts when conflicts arise within the law or constitution.

Judicial Review is one of the court's most important powers and arguably the most powerful one that this branch or any branch has. This is a power that allows the supreme court to make legislative and executive actions subject to review and possible invalidation. The power of Judicial Review was earned in the Supreme Court Case Marbury v. Madison. In this case it was decided that James Madison’s decisions to prevent William Marbury from taking office as justice of the peace was unconstitutional, this has extended the power and now created what is known as judicial review. This has continued to affect laws and acts presently such as in the case of United States v. Nixon when Nixon was denied the powers of absolute executive privilege due to

Have you ever wondered how our government got to be as organized as it is now? Well, it was not always that way; we used to not have 3 branches of government like we do today. They decided that each branch will have certain powers to make our country run smoothly; and this process is called checks and balances. Without the 3 branches powers being balanced, our life as citizens would be completely out of whack and uncontrolled. It is very important to know which branch has what power, and how each one functions and works to make our government successful because with the 3 branches of government being balanced, life would be much more under control than it would be if the branches power was not balanced.

Checks and balances is a significant creation because it let the legislative branch prevent the President from taking all the power. The legislative branch makes and proposes laws, and even though the president can still veto the bill, the legislative branch can still make the bill a law with a two-thirds majority vote. Checks and balances make sure the president can’t just deny everything because the bill doesn’t fit their needs. The separation of powers is also a very beneficial move for the citizens. It still protects against tyranny by not letting any one person control office alone. With the separation of powers they still did not have a situation similar to King George’s tyrannical reign. The separation of powers actually means the separation of the branches, or putting each branch into a separate body of government. This is a great move because it yet again takes all the power from one person and splits it into the branches, which is also protecting us from tyranny. The US Constitution is protecting against tyranny by separation of powers and checks and

When forming the United States government, the former British colonists decided that their new government should be one run by the people. They wanted to create a system that would not give one person, or grouping of people, absolute power. With this idea in mind, they established the three branches of government we have today: The Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial. To keep the branches from over shadowing each other and becoming too powerful, the created checks and balances. Checks and Balances are a “system of rules and practices designed to maintain the separation of powers” between the branches of government (Levy). The framers of the Constitution originally believed that “the American system of checks and balances envisions strong executive and judicial branches…[and] popular legislatures were a greater threat to the separation of powers than were executives or courts” (Levy). They feared all along that the Legislative Branch would become too powerful, and

In the United States constitution we have a very important system called checks and balances. This system was made to control the power of each branch of Government. Without a structure to control the amount of power each branch has our Government would be controlled by one group of people. Checks and balances help prevent tyranny. The system is very simple however complex and overtime has been put into effect. The overall idea of checks and balances is formed on the observation that people act selfishly and seek to increase their own power and wealth at the cost of others.

A significant reduction in power occurred in the legislative branch when the Constitution divided the power of the legislative branch, creating an executive and judicial branch.

d. Judicial review is the courts ability to determine whether or not certain laws or treaties violate the Unites States Constitution, a State Constitution, or preexisting laws. This is part of the checks and balances system in that it allows the judicial branch to supervise the executive and legislative branches. An example of judicial review is Miranda vs. Arizona in 1966. They found that Ernesto Miranda’s conviction had been unlawful because the police never told him of his right to an attorney or his right to say nothing. This led to the Miranda Rights being recited to all suspects.

The system of checks and balances refers to a mechanism designed to limit power of a single individual and is all about the powers of each branch that can be challenged by another branch by their power that is shared between them. Between the three main branches of Legislative, Executive, and Judicial, they all obtain certain jobs and rights. To the Founding Fathers, the concepts of checks and balances were so important because they all have an equal amount of power, but attain distinct positions and rights.

Evolution of Presidential Power Teng Moua California State University of Fresno Author Note This summary paper was prepared for Political Science 153, Presidential Politics, taught by Professor J. Cummins. Evolution of Presidential Power

Separation of Powers: The Role of Checks and Balances There is a system in the United States Constitution, which was made to control the amount of power each branch of the government have. This system is called Checks and Balances and it is very important to our government. This system helps keep the government from having more power over another, the government would be controlled by one group of people. The three branches of the government are legislative branch, executive branch, and judicial branch.