CHECKS AND BALANCES The men who wrote the Constitution wanted to be certain that no one person or group of per- sons could ever seize power and control the new American government. To ensure that this never happened, our United States government under the Constitution was divided into three parts: the legislative, the executive and the judicial. Each of these three branches has checks of power over the other two branches. These checks provide a system of balances in our government and that is why we call the system one of checks and balances. These are the most important of the checks and balances: The executive branch can check the legislative branch by vetoing laws. The legislative branch can check the executive branch by passing laws over the veto by achieving a two-thirds majority vote in each house of Congress. The judicial branch can check both the legislative and executive branches by declaring certain laws passed as being unconstitutional and thus invalid if they do not fall within the framework of the Constitution. Obviously, this is not the whole system, but it is the main idea. Other checks and balances in- clude these: Executive over judicial-The President appoints all federal judges. Legislative over executive-The legislative branch must approve all appointments made by the President. The Senate must approve treaties made by the President, and the legislative branch must investigate certain irregularities in the executive branch (like the uncover of Watergate). Legislative over judicial-The legislative branch must approve of the President's choices for judicial appointments (judges). Legislative over executive and judicial-The legislative branch has the power to im- peach and remove from office all important federal officers. Other Checks and Balances There are other checks and balances in the American government besides those between the three branches of government. They include: Senate and House of Representatives-The Senate and the House can check each other by rejecting bills passed by the other house. The House has the added check of the sole power to introduce revenue bills. Checks on the People: A President is not elected directly by the people; only one-third of the Senate is elected at any one time; judges are not elected by the people. Federalism: Another check is the theory of Federalism. This is a division of power be- tween the national government and the state governments. In many ways this is a very natural division of power. Local affairs are handled by local governments; national af- fairs belong to the federal government. The Constitution lists certain specific powers that belong to the federal government. These are called enumerated powers. In addi- tion Congress has the authority to pass laws that are "necessary and proper" in order to fulfill the purposes of the Constitution. Powers under this authority are called im- plied powers. Since the Constitution does not list in detail the powers belonging to the states, there have been many conflicts over their respective powers. The Constitution does say that any "powers not delegated by the Constitution