The executive branch of the us government

The President is elected every four years, and under the Constitution may serve no more than two terms in office. Once elected, the President selects a cabinet, each member of which must be confirmed by a majority vote in the Senate. Each cabinet member is the head of a department in the executive branch. The cabinet includes, for example, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Attorney General.

The President, his cabinet, and other members of the President’s administration are responsible for operating the executive branch of the federal government and for executing and enforcing the laws. The Attorney General, who is head of the Department of Justice, is responsi­ble for all criminal prosecutions, for representing the government’s legal interests in civil cases, and for administration of the Bureau of Prisons, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Marshals Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and certain other law enforcement organi­zations. At the local level, the chief prosecutor in each of the 94 federal judicial districts is the United States attorney, who is appointed by the President and reports to the Attorney General.

The Department of Justice plays no role in administration or budgeting for the federal courts. The judiciary communicates separately and directly to the Congress on legislative and appropriations matters.

The judicial branch of the us government

The federal judiciary is a totally separate, self-governing branch of the government. The federal courts often are called the guardians of the Consti­tution because their rulings protect the rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution. Through fair and impartial judgments, they determine facts and interpret the law to resolve legal disputes.

The courts do not make the laws. That is the responsibility of the Congress. Nor do the courts have the power to enforce the laws. That is the role of the President and the many executive branch departments and agencies. But the judicial branch has the authority to interpret and decide the constitutionality of federal laws and to resolve other disputes over federal laws.

The framers of the Constitution considered an independent federal judiciary essential to ensure fairness and equal justice to all citizens of the United States. The Constitution they drafted promotes judicial independence in two principal ways. First, federal judges appointed under Article III of the Constitution can serve for life, and they can be removed from office only through impeach­ment and conviction by Congress of "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors". Second, the Constitution provides that the com­pensation of Article III federal judges "shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office", which means that neither the President nor Congress can reduce the salaries of most federal judges. These two protections help an independent judiciary to decide cases free from popular passion and political influence.