Checks and Balances
BY: BRANDON CIRILLO, JUDD WHITING,
NATALIE MANN, LUCY SMITH ,PATRICK
KOLOSEUS
What are Checks and Balances?
 The checks and balances are a system in the
united states government where there are
three sections, legislative: makes laws,
judicial: upholds laws, and executive:
approves laws. The system also works to
have each section of the government keep
each other in line and prevent any one
section from having too much control over
the others. Each branch has one or two ways
of controlling the others
Checks and Balances in the Constitution
What the
constitution
basically says is
stated above
The many powers of each section are
given by the constitution like the ones
from Article 1 “The house of
representatives shall choose their speaker
and other officers and shall have the sole
power of impeachment” section 3.6
“senate shall have sole power to try all
impeachments the chief justice shall
persuade no conviction concurrence of
two thirds members present.” section 6.2
“no senator or representative shall be
appointed to any civil office of the united
states nor any person holding office will
be a member of congress during the time
Checks and balances in the Constitution part two
 Article two checks and balances “the President/ Vice
President and all civil offices of the us shall be
removed from office on impeachment for in
conviction of treason bribery and other high crimes
and misdemeanors.”
 Article three “the judicial power shall extend to all
cases, laws and treaties arising under the
constitution between anyone or any groups with in
the U.S.”
Examples of Checks and Balances in the U.S.
 Checks and balances are used all the time like during the
attempted impeachment of Bill Clinton where the
following acts were committed, “The president provided
perjuries, false and misleading testimony to the grand
jury regarding the Paula Jones case and his relationship
with Monica Lewinsky.”
 Second reason of impeachment “The president
obstructed justice in an effort to delay, impede, cover up
and conceal the existence of evidence related to the Jones
case.” and the case was shown to the house of
representatives where they did not get enough votes to
impeach Bill Clinton.
Checks and Balances at work continued
 Congress and the President can act to overturn a Supreme Court




ruling.
President Obama signs into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of
2009.- This new law effectively overturns the Supreme Court’s
infamous 2007 ruling against Ms. Ledbetter in Ledbetter v. Goodyear
Tire & Rubber Co., a ruling that made it much harder for workers
who have been victims of unlawful pay discrimination to obtain
compensation for that discrimination.
.The Supreme Court took that verdict away, holding that Ms.
Ledbetter had sued too late.
-They held that Ms. Ledbetter should have sued when the
discriminatory compensation decisions were first made.
Court’s ruling concerned the interpretation of a law passed by
Congress, Congress had the power to pass a new law essentially
correcting the Court’s misinterpretation of the original statute and
effectively overturning the decision.
citation
 http://theusconstitution.org/text-history/485
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/articles122098.h
tm