by Matthew Bransgrove | Jul 20, 2015 | Checks & Balances
The power of the executive to veto legislation is an important check on legislative power. The spectacle of one elected official countermanding a great body of elected officials may seem unbalanced, but it is a purely negative power, and little harm can come from laws...
by Matthew Bransgrove | Jul 20, 2015 | Checks & Balances
When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistracy, there can be then no liberty … Again, there is no liberty, if the power of judging be not separated from the legislative and executive powers. Were it joined...
by Matthew Bransgrove | Jul 20, 2015 | Checks & Balances
Wherever there is interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done. —James Madison. Letter to Thomas Jefferson, New York, October 17, 1788. A well devised constitution will recognize that every official has a natural tendency to exceed and abuse his...
