The Legislative branch creates the national laws, confirms or rejects a President, and has the ability to declare war on another country. The legislative branch is made up of 2 bodies of government called the House of Representatives and the Senate. Both these bodies together are called Congress, Congress works together to make laws for our country. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members from all 50 states. The number of Representatives from each state is chosen based on the state's population. Each state gets one representative per about every 700,000 people and is guaranteed at least one representative. California currently has the most with 53 representatives while there are seven states that only have one. To be a Representative you must be at least 25 years old, a citizen of the U.S. for at least 7 years, and you must live in the state you represent. Representatives are voted for in each state every 2 years. The house is in charge of representing the people and what they want, they try to pass bills and laws that reflect what the people want. Besides just passing laws they have the responsibility to impeach a President when necessary, initiate revenue bills, and elect the President in the case of a tie in the electoral college. The Senate is made up of 100 Senators, 2 from each of the 50 states. The Senators used to be chosen by the State legislature but now are chosen by a popular vote and serve for 6 years. It is broken up so that about ⅓ of the Senate is up for reelection every 2 years. To be a Senator you must be at least 30 years old, have been a citizen of the U.S. for at least 9 years, and must live in the State you are a Senator for. The Vice President is the President of the Senate and is the tie-breaking vote if the Senate ties in a vote. The Senate has the power to help pass bills, ratify treaties and approve appointments made by the President. The Senate also is in charge of trying the impeachments. The legislative branch is checked by both the Executive branch and the Judicial branch, while also checking them. The Executive branch can check the legislative branch by vetoing a bill they pass. But, the legislative branch can check the executive by overriding the veto with a ⅔ vote. The legislative branch also can impeach a president, control the budget, and approve Presidential nominations. This makes sure that the executive branch doesn’t get too much power. The Senate and House of Representatives also check each other. One example of this is that the Senate tries the …show more content…
There are currently 9 Supreme Court Justices serving that oversee the major cases in America. They are chosen by the President and serve until either; death, retirement or impeachment. If there is no proof of harm then they do not try the case. There must be solid evidence and an important case for it to be heard by the Supreme Court. The federal courts interpret the law and the Constitution and make rulings accordingly. Once a ruling is made by the Supreme Court there is no one besides them that can reverse that ruling. The Supreme Court usually doesn’t truly hold trials, they interpret the law and decide how it should be applied then a lower court holds the trial and decides the outcome based on what the Supreme Court says. In other words, the Supreme Court is in charge and tells the lower courts what to do and how to do it, then the lower courts apply what the Supreme Court