The Three Branches Gain Too Much Power

When the founders were creating the Constitution for the new nation they wanted to keep the freedoms of the United States but wanted to have a strong government. They thought the best way to get a strong government but to keep the people’s rights were to create the three branches of government. The three branches of government are Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branch. Legislative makes laws, Executive enforces the laws, and the Judicial branch explains the laws. Know we will key on the Legislative Branch.

The legislative branch is the most powerful branch in government. The legislative branch is in charge of making and passing laws. They have the power to override a president’s decision, stop laws from being passed, and basically control all decisions the governments makes. The legislative branch, also called the congress, consists of the House of Representatives and the senate. The reason for two houses of congress is to balance out the concerns of smaller but more populated states against states that are larger but with less population (www.Usgovinfo.com).

Checks and balances help prevent tyranny. Each branch checks each other to make sure each one doesn’t get too much power. For example, one way that the legislative branch checks the executive branch is to override vetoes and impeach the President. Also, one way the executive branch can check the judicial branch is by nominating judges into the Supreme Court. One way the judicial branch can check the legislative branch is when they can declare a law unconstitutional. This way, our central government is each divided in

When forming the three branches, James Madison knew they each had to be separated, but have equal power, thus giving different jobs to each and solving the issue of one possibly gaining too much power(Document B). The job given to the legislative branch is to illustrate, or make, laws and consists of the Senate and House of Representatives(Ibid). The executive branch now enforces those laws and the power is in the hands of the President(Ibid). The judicial branch is powered by the Supreme Court and has the job of forming courts and making sure laws are dealt with correctly(Ibid). This separation of powers guards against tyranny by balancing power so one branch is not higher than

In order to protect against tyranny, a system of checks and balances was designed to keep any one of the three branches from gaining more power than another branch. According to James Madison, “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 braches) should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other.” (Doc C) He thought each of the three braches could watch one another and keep them in check. They have the ability to control portions of the other branches. If one branch does something unacceptable, another branch can step in and overrule the branch in question. An example of this is that the President has the ability to veto legislation if Congress passes a law that is too extreme. At the same time, the Legislative branch has the power to override a veto by the President or even impeach the President. (Doc C) Without a system of checks and balances, one of the three branches could gain control over the others allowing tyranny. This structure framed into the constitution gave assurance that the powers would oversee each other and not allow major shifts among

The founders also set up checks and balances to keep an equal amount of power between the three branches. Scholastic wrote an article called “Cand a President be Too Strong?” (Doc B). This article talks about how checking and balancing power between the president and congress is important to the founders. Executive privilege was set up by the framers so the president can protect his privacy.

According to James Madison, “…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.” (Doc. C). This means that the three branches can check on each other and keep each other balanced and that the powers among each branch is equal. In the constitution it states, “that court can declare laws unconstitutional.” (Doc. C). This is an example of how the judicial branch can check the legislative branch so each branch has a way to check the other branches. The system of check and balances guards against tyranny because without a system of checks and balances, one branch of government may become overpowered and there may be a

By doing this they set up a system of checks and balances to make sure no branch of government had more power than another. “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” (2009 DBQ Project Page 105). This quote by James Madison explains what a check and balance system does. It is the responsibility of each branch of government to check on the other two branches to make sure all the branches are equal. For example, if the legislative branch passes a bill that the President thinks is not feasible the President has the right to veto that bill and send it back to the legislative branch.

This allows the three branches to not have complete separation from each other. The different branches can tell each other whether they like the law or if they disagree that they should have it. For example in Document C it shows that the legislative branch can override the president's veto. If one branch overpowers the others then that may be considered tyranny in which one branch has more control over the government then the other branches. Using checks and balances may help the Constitution stop

Checks and balances prevents any one branch from having too much power by making three branches work together. Document C is an excerpt from the Federalist Paper #51 by James Madison explaining that each branch has the right to check one another. According to Document C, “...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…” This quote shows that each branch has the power to check another branch. The president can nominate judges to be apart of the court (executive checks judicial). The court can declare laws unconstitutional (judicial checks legislative). Last but not least, congress can override a president’s veto with ⅖ of the votes and can impeach the president.

[Checks and balances prevents any branch from having too much power by making three branches work together. Each branch has some power over the other branches. Doc C is a chart that shows how power is divided and the government needs to check with each other to make their laws. James Madison was the author of the Federalist papers #51.] According to doc C “The constant aim is 2 divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that they maybe a check on the other…( The three branches) should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other”.

Third of all, Checks and Balances guards us from tyranny. James Madison says, “...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”(Doc C). Although, we have separate branches with separate powers, the branches shouldn’t be so far apart that they can do whatever they want. In addition, the other branches should be able to check on each other and approve of each other's doings. For instance, in Document C, The President can veto congress, but if two thirds of Congress disagree with the President's decision the Congress can override it by voting against the President’s choice. Checks and Balances ensures that the executive branch doesn’t overpower the legislative branch given that Congress can override the President's decision if it has enough votes. All in all, by having branches not too far apart. It lets each branch check on each other, so that one branch can’t just do anything they want. Having constitutional control keeps power in balance and makes sure not one branch has more power than the

Back in 1788, when the official Constitution of the United States was ratified, the Framers had certain goals in mind when creating the three branches of government to help keep balance between the three branches or better known as the Checks and Balances system. Why is this so imperative? Each of the three branches, the legislative, the judicial, and the executive branches were given certain powers to keep one another from becoming too powerful or the people of the United States of America from becoming powerful as well. The Framers created the legislative branch, also known as Congress, the most powerful branch, but over time, that power has shifted, despite the amount of explicit and inherent powers Congress may possess to ensure to do

The three big articles of the Constitution are Article I, Article II and III. Article I, which has the longest text of the three articles defines and tells our Congress what it can do. Article II, the second largest text defines and tells the President of the United States what he or she can do and Article III, the smallest of three articles defines and tells the United States Supreme Court what they can do. By looking at the Articles by size (number or words), this lends to believe that of the three powers the Legislative branch has the most power and essentially the three branches are not equal. As we had discussed in earlier discussions, Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist 78, that not possessing “either the sword or the purse…

The constitution was established by men who had experienced the dictatorships of Europe and had escaped from its grasp. They sought to establish a form of government that would never allow a dictatorship or tyrant ruler to hold power over the people like in the places they had fled. With their creation of the foundation of what our government is today they created a system where 3 branches were all of equal power and each could be overruled by another which prevented any branch becoming superior of another. The separation of powers provides a system of shared power called Checks and Balances.(2) The three branches are legislative, judicial and executive and they each have specific powers to