The Legislative Branch’s Senate, Congress, and House of Representatives can impeach the President. Impeach means to charge a public leader with misconduct in office. This limits the Executive’s power to make decisions disapproved by the Legislative. The Senate has to approve all Presidential appointments. This means anybody appointed by the President then has to be approved by Senate.
Gravel v. United States 408 U.S. 606 (1972) Facts of the Case Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska was given a copy of the classified “Pentagon Papers” in 1971. After he received the classified documents, he called a meeting of his subcommittee in the Senate and shared their contents with the others in the subcommittee. He also allegedly arranged to publish the documents through Beacon Press. A federal grand jury, in the process of an investigation of possible federal law violations, subpoenaed one of Senator Gravel’s aides. Senator Gravel protested this subpoena arguing that requiring the aide to testify would be a violation of the Speech and Debate clause.
The idea of checks and balances are central to the federal government. Checks and balances is a system of government in which each branch (executive, judicial and legislative) exercises control over the actions of the other branches of government. The legislative branch of the government (otherwise known as congress) carries out the checks on the executive (the president). An example of this is the power congress have to amend, block and even reject pieces of legislation. An example of this is the events of 2013 when congress blocked Obama’s attempts to control gun ownership.
An enquiry is firstly taken in the House and then if leads to a majority vote then they are trialled before the Senate. If they then vote over a two-thirds majority then the President will be removed from office. The first President to be impeached was Andrew Johnson in 1868 after the civil war. Richard Nixon was set to be impeached, however he resigned from office before he could be removed. Bill Clinton was also impeached.
However, Clarence Thomas, who went through the Senate hearings in October 1991 described them as a ‘high-tech lynching’. Thomas was called back before the committee to answer questions of sexual harassment against a former employee. This can be seen as politically controversial as it can be seen more as political point-scoring and attempting to embarrass or make the nominee look good rather than real questioning of the nominees judicial beliefs and philosophies. Finally, a vote comes from the Senate floor to confirm or veto the candidate for a seat on the court. This can be achieved by a simple majority.
The last is the judicial branch. All are separated and have different jobs assignment but comes together to help resolve issues. Thus, the centerpiece of our systems is the doctrine of Separations of Powers that constitutionally assigned duties to the three branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial to distinct and have checks and balances on each branch to prevent abuse of power from the government; it is to keep a democracy. The legislative branch internally has its’ own way of balancing powers. As you know the Legislative Branch is broken up into two parts or houses of the federal government of the United States of America consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
How do the government control delegated legislation? To delegate the law-making power to another body can be very risky if there is no control. Luckily the government has several methods for controlling that the delegated legislation is relevant and good. First we have The Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments, known as the Scrutiny Committee and it is made up of MPs and peers. It exists to look at each statutory instrument in detail to make sure that it falls within the boundaries set by the Parent Act and to refer provisions requiring further consideration to both Houses of Parliament.
After its final pass through both houses, the bill is sent to the president. If he approves, he signs it, and the bill becomes a law. If he disapproves, he vetoes the bill by refusing to sign it and sending it back to the house of origin with his reasons for the veto. The objections are read and debated, and a roll-call vote is taken. If the bill receives less than a two-thirds vote, it is defeated and goes no further.
Debate over use of the death penalty has been occurring in America since colonial times (DPIC, 2010). Death is irreversible and every effort needs to be taken to ensure the death penalty is applied justly and fairly. This paper offers the argument that the death penalty is not just or applied fairly because of flaws in the judicial process, accused individuals do not receive adequate representation and it discriminates against individuals. Judicial Process Flaw During a speech at an American Bar Association gathering in 2005, United States Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens told those in attendance that he was disturbed by “serious flaws” in capital punishment (Associated Press, 2005). His concerns call into question our criminal justice system and administration of the death penalty.
How a bill becomes a law There is a specific process that takes place to turn a bill into a law. Bills can come from many different sources but mainly from members of congress. “However it is brought to the attention of a member, it must be submitted for consideration by the member. In the House, Representatives need merely drop a copy of a bill into a bin specifically placed to receive new bills. In the Senate, the bill is given to a clerk at the President's desk.”(Constitutional Topic).