US MPA

The United States Constitution is an important document that keeps our great country running. The three main sections (The Preamble, The Articles, and the Amendments) are all important parts of the Constitution and all bring up important rights that we have as Americans. The Preamble unifies all Americans as “We the people” and introduces the Constitution; the Articles explain the 3 branches of government (Legislative, Executive, and Judicial), and the Amendments are written changes to the constitution that help it keep up with the changing times (The Bill of Rights, or the list of rights that us Americans have that can’t be taken away by the government, is located here). This essay will be based mostly on the Federal system, and explaining the powers of each of the three branches. In my opinion, the Judicial Branch has the most power of the three branches.

Let’s start this off with the ever-hated Legislative Branch, home of Congress. The main job of the Legislative Branch is to create the laws that we all abide to. Congress makes up the Legislative Branch, but it is split up into two parts, Senate and the House of Representatives When creating a new law, The House of Representatives and the Senate must have at least 2/3 of their members and the president to agree on the law. Some important powers that congress has are the powers of taxation, the creation and regulation of money, the creation of laws, and even that ability to declare war on other countries! The Legislative Branch uses it’s powers of Check and Balance to keep the Executive Branch in check by being able to deny a President his veto when a law needs to be made (President Nixon’s veto on the Clean Water Act was denied by Congress), and they can also impeach a president if he breaks the code that he swore to on his inauguration (some examples would be Andrew Jackson and Bill Clinton). The Legislative Branch also has power over the Judicial Branch by deciding on who gets to join the Supreme Court (President Obama’s choice of Sonya Sotomayor was interviewed by the Senate for weeks before she was finally accepted) and they also have the power to change the size of the Supreme Court to what they see fit.

The Executive Branch makes up the second branch of government of the United States. In charge of enforcing the laws that congress imposes, it is led by the President of the United States (otherwise known as the Commander-in-Chief). Some important powers that the Executive Branch (mostly the president) has is the power to issue a command to any military officer and have that order followed no matter what, the power to presidentially pardon any person (but himself) of any crimes that they’ve ever committed, and the power to make treaties with other nations. The Executive Branch uses it’s power of Check and Balance to keep the Legislative Branch from becoming too powerful by vetoing any law that Congress might want to pass. Although this doesn’t work forever, it can hinder the bill’s arrival date and even change some key components of the law (President Nixon vetoed the Clean Water Act because he felt like the United States couldn’t afford to waste money on such a trivial matter). The Executive Branch of the United States also keeps the Judicial Branch in check by appointing who gets to be in the Supreme Court (President Obama recently appointed Sonya Sotomayor and Elena Kagan as two more additions to the Supreme Court).

Last but not least, the Judicial Branch makes up the final branch of the United States government. This particular branch of government’s main purpose is interpreting the law. The main power of the Judicial Branch is called Judicial Review, the ability to review laws and execute orders and deem if they are constitutional or not. In other words, if the Supreme Court doesn’t agree that a law will help the well being of the U.S. or throw it into chaos, they can reject the idea and it will never be made into a law. The Judicial branch has perhaps the most power over the Executive and Legislative Branches because of their power of Judicial Review. This power is used to keep the Legislative Branch in check by declaring on if whether or not a law Congress just proposed is constitutional or not. The Judicial Branch also keeps the Executive Branch in check by being immune from any punishment or control imposed by the executive branch. The Judicial Branch can also deem any Presidential acts as unconstitutional, which could help the Legislative branch in impeaching said president.

The fourth and most forgotten branch of the government is the People! You may not know it, but your voice can make a huge difference in what happens to this country. With the Bill of Rights protecting a number of our God-given rights, we can live with the fact the there are some things that the government can’t take away from us. Some of these include the right to peacefully assemble (shown by inspirational leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr.), the right to bear arms, the freedom of speech, and the freedom of the press (which helped expose Nixon for the scumbag he truly was). We have also spoken up to make a numerous amounts of laws passed, such as Miranda Rights and have even got the voting age lowered to 18!

In all, I think that the judicial branch has the most power of the four branches. The power to efficiently shut down Congress’s power to create new laws by never passing them is just too strong of a power. Also, not being able to be harmed by the Executive Branch also seems a bit too powerful. The second most powerful branch would be the Legislative Branch. Having the power to deny the Executive Branch their one veto and even being able to kick out the strongest member of the Executive Branch makes it seem as if the Legislative Branch was made to specifically keep the Executive Branch in check. In 3rd place is the Executive branch, and they rank this low because to me, they basically seem like the Legislative Branch’s lackeys. Their one most redeeming factor is that the Executive Branch can choose who gets to run the Judicial Branch. The people is somewhere in the middle of that strange triangle, where they must meet the need of the other 3 branches of government, and vice-versa. I see that the original goal was for the Judicial Branch to control the Legislative Branch, the Legislative Branch to control the Executive Branch, the Executive Branch to control the Judicial Branch, and the People being a midpoint that power was split between everyone but I think pushing more power to the Executive Branch would help balance out this system.