The Doctrine of Separation of powers is that political power should be divided among several bodies as a precaution against tyranny. The ideal is opposed the absolute sovereignty of the Crown, Parliament, or any other body. The blueprint for United States' separation of powers is laid out in the U.S. Constitution and expanded upon in the Federalist Papers. The checks and balances of the US government involve the horizontal separation of powers among the executive (the Presidency), the legislature (the two houses of Congress themselves arranged to check and balance one another), and the judiciary (the federal courts). There is also a vertical separation between the federal government and the states. Defenders of separation of powers insist that it is needed against tyranny, including the tyranny of the majority. Its opponents argue that sovereignty must lie somewhere, and that it is better, and arguably more democratic, to ensure that it always lies within the same body. The United States wanted to instate a government structured in such a way that each branch was separate but equal. We will see, however, that it is not always a black and white arrangement and

Judicial Review is a distinctive power associated with the Supreme Court that is not specifically mentioned in the Constitution. Chief Justice John Marshall in Marbury v. Madison asserted the major principle on which judicial review rests by saying that, "[i]t is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is." Through judicial review the Court most dramatically asserts its authority to determine what the Constitution means. This power to interpret the law becomes the determining factor in the most powerful branch of government. The argument against the ability to exercise judicial review is that it gives judges the power to legislate. If the court believes that a law is fundamentally unconstitutional it can rule so thus overturning legislation. Many argue that the court was never intended to have this kind of power and that it interferes with the will of the people to decide what is right and wrong through legislation. This is when the court moves out of the black and white area and into the gray. On the other hand, congress still retains the power to override a Supreme Court decision by passing an amendment, but has only done so in four instances.

Finally, Article III deals with the judicial powers of the United States. It states that the judicial powers shall be vested in one supreme court, and in such inferior courts as Congress may establish. This becomes a check of Congress of the judicial branch. Judges are to serve as long as they are considered to be in good behavior and that too is to be monitored by the other branches. In addition the income of judicial employees is to be determined by congress.

that the judicial branch has often found itself in the gray area of sovereignty.

Madison suggested in The Federalist that neither monarchy nor the masses were the motivation for separation of powers but rather human nature, as they understood it. In their view, mankind is led less by reason than by passion. In Federalist no. 15, Alexander Hamilton put it: "Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint." Ch

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Approximate Word count = 1471
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)