Checks_And_Balances

Checks And Balances Through the separation of powers and the system of checks and balances, the Constitution is able to limit the powers of government in order to protect individual rights. The Founders built these two principles into the Constitution to deal with this dilemma. Through the separation of powers, the Constitution distributes powers of national government among the three branches. The Founders believed that creating separate branches of government would help limit the powers of the national government and prevent tyranny. Therefore, the legislative branch has power, under the Constitution, to make laws. The executive branch, headed by the President, executes or carries out laws. The Constitution established the Supreme Court to head the judicial branch, which interprets and applies the law in federal court cases. The Founders also created a system of checks and balances. This granted each branch of the national government powers to “check” or “balance” the actions of the others. Under checks and balances, each branch plays some role in the actions of others. For example, Congress can impeach and remove the President from office, the President can veto bills passed by Congress, but Congress can override a Presidential government, powers, national, constitution, state, power, people, branch, rights, federal, laws, governments, among, act, president, others, money, gave, each, court, congress, checks, balances, actions, violate, through, tax, states, separation, protect, individual, however, founders, directly, cannot