Week 3- Constitutional: Separation of Powers

Directions: View the video below (rough transcript provided) and then take the 10-question quiz. There is no time limit and you may attempt the quiz up to two times. Your highest score will be recorded.

Separation of Powers

Talking Points

• Separation of Powers is a model for the governance of a state. The model was first developed in Ancient Greece and Rome. Under this model, the state is divided into branches, each with separate and independent powers and areas of responsibility so that no branch has more power than the other branches.

• In the United States, the national government, which we can also refer to as the federal government, comprises three branches: Legislative, Executive, Judicial.

• Most people say them in that order because that is the order in which you will find them in the Constitution. Article I outlines the Legislative branch, Article II outlines the Executive branch, and Article III outlines the Judicial branch. Lazy Elephants Jump! Legislative, Executive Judicial.

• Let’s break ‘em down:

• Legislative, or law-making, power lies with Congress. Congress is the legislative branch. Our Congress is bicameral, which is a fancy word for saying that it consists of two houses: the House of Representatives and the Senate.

• Remember: this structure was the result of the Great Compromise at the Constitutional Convention between the large states and the small states.

• The role of the Legislative branch is to...well, legislate. That’s a fancy word for “make laws.” In order for Congress to pass a law, it must pass in both houses. Then it goes to the President who signs it...or doesn’t.

• Executive powers lay with the President. He or she is the executive, the head-of-state, the Commander in Chief, the boss, the Grand Poobah...you get the picture.

• From a theoretical understanding, the role of the executive is to enforce the laws, and that is something the President of the United States, also known as POTUS, does.

• Remember in 1957...well, I know you don’t remember, but surely you learned about it in history class...when the governor of Arkansas deployed the Arkansas National Guard to prevent a group of African American students from enrolling at Little Rock Central High School after the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that school segregation was unconstitutional. Remember that? Well here’s a great example of executive enforcement. Do you also remember that President Eisenhower ordered the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army to Little Rock and federalized the entire 10,000-member Arkansas National Guard. Boom! Enforcement.

• Judicial power lies with the Supreme Court and lower courts. Collectively, they are known as the judiciary or the judicial branch. Under the doctrine of the separation of powers, the judiciary does not make law (which is the responsibility of the legislature) or enforce law (which is the responsibility of the executive), but rather interprets law and applies it to the facts of each case.

• This branch of the state is often tasked with ensuring equal justice under law. So going back to our Little Rock school integration example, the Supreme Court ruled that schools that were legally segregated by race were a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.