Question

Explain the concept of Federal checks and balances and give an example how EACH branch of the US government implements it against another branch.

Answer 1

The system of checks and balances:

The checks and balances system is an essential part of the constitution. The constitution has been divided to three main branches- Legislative, Executive and Judicial.

Each of these branches checks the power of the other branches to balance the power between them.

If the Legislative branch introduces a bill and vote on it, then the bill goes to the executive branch and the President may sign the bill and it becomes law, if he thinks the bill is good for the country.

If the President thinks the bill is not good for the country, he will not sign it and this is called Veto. Then the Legislative branch gets another chance and if they give enough of votes, they can override executive branch decision and make the bill a law.

Then the law is implemented and now the people can decide or test it through the court system o Judicial branch. If a citizen files a lawsuit against the law, the case will go on in the court and case may go up to Supreme court. The victory in the court will decide the fate of the law.

So if a legislative branch does not agree with the law, the Judicial branch has made, they can introduce a new legislation. Again the process starts among the three branches.

If the legislative branch makes laws, the Judicial branch can declare it as unconstitutional.

The legislative branch has the power to approve the nominations of President, power to control budget, can impeach the remove the President out of his/her office.

The Judicial branch can interpret laws, but the nomination for Supreme court judges, court of appeal judges, and district court judges are done by the President.

So thus these checks on each other of the branches balances the powers between them.