Reference Sheet: Key Terms

Study the definitions and examples below to examine the principles of the separation of powers, checks and balances, and federalism.

The separation of powers refers to the fact that the Constitution distributes political power between three branches of government: a legislative branch (Congress), an executive branch (led by a single president), and a judicial branch (headed by a single Supreme Court).

Article I of the Constitution establishes the legislative branch of the national government, Congress. The legislative branch is responsible for creating the nation’s laws. Article II establishes the executive branch, headed by a single president. The executive branch is responsible for enforcing the nation’s laws. Finally, Article III establishes the judicial branch, headed by a Supreme Court. The judicial branch is responsible for interpreting the nation’s laws.

The Constitution sets up a system of checks and balances—granting each branch of government the power to check abuses by the other branches.

Each branch has the ability to check abuses by the other branches. Congress can impeach and remove the President or a Supreme Court justice for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” The President has the power to veto congressional legislation and nominate justices to the Supreme Court. (The Senate then either approves or rejects the President’s nominees.) And the Supreme Court can rule that actions by either the President or Congress are unconstitutional.

Federalism is the word used to describe the Constitution’s system of dividing political power between the national government and the states.

The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution specifies that “[t]he powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”