Where can checks and balances be found in the constitution?

Answer 1

Generally, the system of checks and balances that is in place due to our Constitution is to ensure that all of the power of the federal government is evenly dispersed. The accumilation of power into merely one of the three branches of the federal government (those branches being the legislature, the executive, and the judicial branch) is thought to be a precursor to tyranny (it is listed as such in The Federalist Papers).

An easy example of the checks and balances in place from the express language of the Constitution is found in Article I section 8 in various clauses. Article I deals with the power of the legislature (aka Congress.... the joint power of the Senate and the House).

Congress has the power to:

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

This means that the legislature and not the judiciary gets to create and determine the structure of our federal courts system. The Constitution itself only requires that there is a Supreme Court. However, because so many legal issues arrise between citizens of different states Congress created the federal district courts which can rule on legal issues arrising between citizens of different states.

Second:

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

The executive branch is generally the branch that executes national objectives. For example, the executive branch contains the Armed Forces. However, according to the strict language of the Constitution, the President can not declare war and go to battle on his own. Instead for any "war" it takes approval by the legislature to go to war. However, in modern times the executive branch gets around this by declaring police actions or defensive measures ( see what we are doing in Iraq) in lieu of declaring all out war. Therefore, the legislature should be able to check the judiciary in the first example and the executive branch in the second example to balance the power of the federal government between the three branches.

Answer 2

Checks and balances means the three branches relying and balancing on each other.Since the founding fathers made the constitution to replace the articles, they made a more stable system by including it.

Answer 3

Articles 1-3 share ideas and procedures for the idea of checks and balances

Answer 4

articles 1-3