Mistretta v. United States

The Constitution provides for the separation of powers and a system of checks and balances to prevent the rise of a single branch of government over the other two. Each branch--executive, legislative, and judicial--acts as a check on and balances the power of the other two. The powers of the branches are mixed in such a way that no one branch is completely separable from the others. The framers of the Constitution designed a lock-and-alarm mechanism to prevent any faction or individual from "stealing" the government. Control of the executive branch, for instance, does not mean control of all executive functions, because the Senate must approve all presidential appointments of Cabinet officers, judges, and ambassadors. Congress does not hold all legislative power; the president, through the exercise of the veto, can override the vote of the legislature in certain cases. Both the executive and the legislative branches can be overridden by a decision of the judiciary, whose members are appointed by the executive branch and approved by the legislative.