hey everybody welcome back today we're talking about principles of American government so be sure to smash that like button and get your notes ready to go [Music] video by telling you that the framers were super suspicious of power and they didn't want any person or any part of the government to have too much power to accomplish this they set up a system of separation of powers and checks and balances please don't use these terms interchangeably because they are not the same thing separation of powers is the idea that each branch of government is assigned a specific job or jobs for example congress makes laws the executive branch enforces laws and the judicial branch interprets laws they each have their own job or their own power so the powers are separated checks and balances refers to the ability that each branch has to limit or to block actions of another Branch so we'll see some kind of interaction between two branches happening for example the president has the power to veto legislation by Congress so congress makes the law that's their power but then the president can check that power by vetoing the bill and blocking it from becoming a law Congress has the power to impeach and remove the president and federal judges the house can impeach which means indict or charge the president with a simple majority vote then the Senate holds the impeachment trial where they can convict and remove the president with a two-thirds vote judicial checks are the easiest because their check is that they can rule things that the other branches did unconstitutional unit 2 is all about the branches and it's even called interaction between the branches so you'll get tons more examples don't worry for now remember the reason why the framer set up separation of powers and checks and balances was to ensure that no one branch or no one per person could have too much power so this was their way of trying to protect the rights of individuals remember that vocab term from the first video limited government this is part of that limit making sure that no part of government could have too much power Federalist 51 is one of your required documents and it is all about separation of powers and checks and balances in federal 51 James Madison points out how difficult it is to establish a government that's strong enough to protect people's rights but not too strong so it could actually take away people's rights a truly limited government his solution was separation of powers and checks and balances it's a little early in the course for this but a thought-provoking question is with the emergence of political parties are we sure that checks and balances still work today as intended because of the Constitution power is decentralized meaning that it's not all concentrated or held in one place not in one person one branch or even in one level of government we have federal state and local governments centralized power is the opposite and obviously from this lesson we know the framers were extremely opposed to the centralization of power where it all be in one place okay so now we're gonna shift gears a little bit and talk about a few specific things in the Constitution specifically three ways that Federal power was limited by the original Constitution When I Say the original Constitution by the way I mean the Constitution before any amendments like the Bill of Rights are passed that's actually important because you'll see that on test questions sometimes it does not mean the Articles of Confederation and I know that sometimes that can trip students up first is the writ of habeas corpus which protects people from being arrested and detained indefinitely if you're arrested you have to be brought to a judge and either informed of the charges against you or released some recent legislation notwithstanding this is an important limit on federal power and a protection of individual rights next Congress isn't allowed to pass bills of attainder a bill of attainder is a law that declares the person guilty without a trial and hopefully that just sounds immediately like such a bad idea that it doesn't even require any further explanation happily Congress isn't allowed to do this and thirdly Congress is prevented from passing any ex-post facto laws ex post facto literally means after the fact so this refers to a law that criminalizes something after it was already done for example you're watching this amazing Le money production today and it's legal to do so but let's say that tomorrow Congress passes a terrible law Banning the money Productions and then they arrest you because you watched back when it was legal that's an ex post facto law and they aren't allowed in article 4 there are three rules about the relationships between states in the Constitution first according to the Full Faith and Credit Clause states must respect the legal decisions of the other states for for example if you get married in one state you're still married if you move to another state next the privileges and immunities clause prevent a state from discriminating against citizens from other states for example States can't prevent out-of-state residents from traveling or working in that state and they can't charge them higher taxes than the state's residents and lastly it has a requirement for extradition if an escaped fugitive or suspected criminal is caught in another state then that state would send them back to the state requesting him all right that's it for this one keep it up you are doing great so until next time this has been a money production and hey if you haven't already what are you waiting for check out the ultimate review packet that unit one test it's probably getting pretty close and I have practice and study guides everything you need to help you Ace that test and I will see you in the next video