Making Laws

Making a federal law in the United States is a complex process that takes a lot of time. This is good, because it means that the laws can’t be easily changed. New laws can be made only when a lot of people agree that they are a good idea.

Federal laws can be made only by the national legislature, which is known as Congress. Congress is a bicameral legislature, meaning that it has two chambers. The two parts are the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate and the House are equal partners, meaning that they have the same amount of power. A law cannot be enacted without the consent of both chambers.

When people want to create a new law, they speak with their senator or representative, who will then write a bill, which is a proposal or an idea for a new law. That bill is given a special number to identify it and then copies are made for all the people in that chamber. Then the bill is sent to a committee that specializes in that topic. The committee discusses the bill and the committee can make changes to the bill if it wants to. Then it tells the full chamber what it thinks about whether the bill should become a law.

Next, the full chamber debates and votes on the bill. If the bill passes in one chamber, then it is sent to the other chamber. For example, if it passes in the Senate, then it is sent to the House of Representatives. Just like in the other chamber, a committee discusses the bill and might make changes before it is debated and voted on by the full chamber. If the second chamber also approves the bill, then committees from both chambers meet to work out the differences on the two different versions of the bill.

Once the final version of the bill is passed in both chambers, both the House and the Senate, it is sent to the president. If the president signs it, then the bill becomes a law.

Judicial Branch

The judicial branch comprises many courts. A court is a place where legal decisions are made, especially about whether or not someone has broken a law or what that law really means in the first place. When the Constitution created the judicial branch, it created the Supreme Court, which is the highest and most important court in the country. Since then, Congress has created many lower courts (less powerful courts) that hear cases (decide on legal issues) in many special areas. These lower courts include the tax courts, which decide whether or not people and businesses are evading (or not paying) taxes, and the bankruptcy courts, which decide whether people and businesses can declare bankruptcy. The judicial branch needs to have many different courts because there are too many cases to send all of them to the Supreme Court.

The Department of Justice is a very large part of the U.S. government that tries to get justice for all Americans. The Department also tries to prevent and control crime (like murders and theft) to make the United States safer. The Department of Justice is not part of the judicial branch, however. It is part of the executive branch of the national government.