Checks and Balances Review Game

What check does the Legislative Branch have on the president?

• Overriding Vetos

• Appointing Judges

• Declaring laws unconstitutional

• Impeaching Judges

The passage below is from Federalist No. 47, written by James Madison in 1788.
. . . Montesquieu was guided . . . in saying “There can be no liberty where the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or body” . . . he did not mean that these departments ought to have . . . no CONTROL over, the acts of each other.
Based on this passage, which constitutional principle does Madison describe?

• Separation of Powers
• Checks and Balances
• Popular Sovereignty
• Judicial Review

The statement below was written by John Adams in April 1776.
"A representation of the people in one assembly being obtained, a question arises, whether all the powers of government, legislative, executive, and judicial, shall be left in this body? I think a people cannot be long free, nor ever happy, whose government is in one assembly."
- Letter of John Adams 
  
Which basic principle of American government is John Adams describing in this statement?

• separation of powers
• individual rights
• natural laws
• civic virtue

Which principle does the U.S. Supreme Court apply when it declares an act of Congress unconstitutional?

• Separation of Powers
• Checks and Balances
• Advice and Consent
• Executive privilege

In the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, what is the meaning of the phrase “We the People”?

• The people express their will through political parties

• The people express their will by directly creating laws

• Government receives taxes from the people and exists to serve them

• Government receives its power from the people and exists to serve them

Read the following excerpt from the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution and answer the questions that follow.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

—Preamble to the U.S. Constitution

What information does the Preamble provide?

• The reasons for establishing the U.S. Constitution

• The weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation

• The arguments for American independence

• The rights of the American people

According to the Preamble, who created the Constitution?

• Posterity

• The union

• The people

• The government.

How can the U.S. Senate check the president?

• Overriding vetoes

• Appointing Judges

• Declaring laws unconstitutional

• Refusing to confirm appointments

The system in which each branch of government is able to restrain the powers of the other branches of government is known as:

• Rule of Law

• Separation of Powers

• Checks and Balances

• Freedom of Speech

Which branch of government has the power to enforce laws?

• Executive Branch

• Judicial Branch

• Legislative Branch

• Federal Branch