The Three Branches of Government

Packet 21

The Federal Government has 3 main branches

Legislative Executive Judicial

The Law-making group

Makes sure laws are enforced

Judges whether laws follow the

Constitution

Headed by Congress

(Senate and House of Representatives)

Headed by the President

Headed by the Supreme Court

Legislative Branch (Two branches of Congress)

The Senate The House of Representatives

Each state has 2 Senators (2 each times 50 states = 100 total)

Each state has a different amount

(based on the population of each state: states with more

people have more representatives)

435 in the whole country

19 from Illinois

Duties of the Legislative Branch(The Senate and the House of Representatives)

1. Get, think up, and organize ideas for laws.

2. Discuss how to make these ideas into useful bills (potential laws) – or – decide they weren’t good ideas.

3. The Senate approves or disapproves treaties (agreements) with other countries – the president does this, but the Senate has to agree that his treaties are okay.

4. The Senate approves or disapproves Presidential appointments (for: new Supreme Court justices, ambassadors, cabinet members, federal judges, etc…).

5. Suggest amendments to the Constitution.

6. Hold other special “hearings” – like: baseball and steroids, impeachments, etc…)

The 2 Senators from Illinois:

Dick Durbin Roland Burris

Representative from the 8th District of Illinois: Melissa Bean

Illinois Congressional Districts

Around this area

6th – Henry Hyde 8th – Melissa Bean 9th – Janice Schakowski

10th – Mark Kirk 14th – Dennis Hastert 16th – Don Manzullo

Duties of the Executive Branch (President, Vice-President, the President’s cabinet)

• Approves or disapproves of Congressional bills (law ideas).

• Sees that laws are enforced.• Makes treaties (approved by

the Senate)• Appoints people to

government positions (approved by the Senate).

• Work with Congress on new ideas for laws

• And… other things that come up. • To see the President’s cabinet

members – click below Cabinet members

Duties of the Judicial Branch(The Supreme Court and the court system)

• Headed by the Supreme Court, with 9 “justices” including a “chief justice.”

• Applies the laws to cases that come before it to see if they follow the Constitution.

• Decide if actions taken by the president and/or Congress are constitutional or not.

• Also, the Courts of Appeals, District Courts, Bankruptcy Courts, Court of International Trade, Court of Federal Claims, etc…

• To see a history of Supreme Court Justices, click below

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0101281.html

Seated left to right:

Anthony M. Kennedy, John Paul Stevens, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., Antonin Scalia, David H. Souter (Retired: Summer, 2009)

Standing left to right:

Stephen G. Breyer, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr.

Sonia Sotomayor

(Summer, 2009)