Sometimes we forget the roles of the President, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. When I was in in high school, only remember one course and one teacher that really attempted to explain how each of the 3 function … powers and limitations … So, with all the tension today about who has the power to do what … I sought guidance from Wikipedia … may not be the best source, but better than family, friends and neighbors…
Checks and balances…
Legislative Branch
* Writes and enacts laws
* Enacts taxes, authorizes borrowing and set the budget
* Has sole power to declare war
* May start investigations, especially against the President
* The Senate confirms presidential appointments of federal judges, executive department heads, ambassadors, and many other officers, subject to confirmation by the Senate.
* The Senate ratifies treaties
* The House of Representatives may impeach, and the Senate may remove, executive and judicial officers
* Creates federal courts except for the Supreme Court, and sets the number of justices on the Supreme Court
* May override presidential vetoes
Executive
* May veto laws
* Vice president presides over the Senate
* Wages war at the direction of Congress
* Makes decrees or declarations (examples, declaring a state of emergency) and promulgates lawful regulations and executive orders
* Influences other branches of its agenda with the State of the Union address
* Appoints federal judges, executive department heads, ambassadors, and various other officers.
* Has power to grant pardons to convicted persons
* Executes and enforces orders of the court through federal law enforcement
Judicial
* Determines which laws Congress intended to apply to any given case
* Determines whether a law is unconstitutional (The power of judicial review is not expressly granted in Constitution, but was held by the judiciary to be implicit in the constitution structure in Marbury vs. Madison, 1803). Congress meant the law to apply to disputes
* Determines how a law acts to determine the disposition of prisoners
* Determines how a law acts to compel testimony and the production of evidence
* Determines how laws should be interpreted to assure uniform policies in a top-down fashion via the appeals process, but gives discretion in individual cases to low-level judges (The amount of discretion depends upon the standard of review, determined by the type of case in question)
* Polices its own members.
All levels need to function as organized over the years … Some lines appear to be blurred. … Nope, didn’t think about all prior or during my shaving process … this day…
“The U.S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.” Benjamin Franklin
“The framers of our Constitution meant we were to have freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.” Billy Graham
“I would not look to the U.S. Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in 2012.” Ruth Bader Ginsburg
robert g hester
rgh4612@gmail.com
‘910-876-2322
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