Three branches

The Constitution divides the federal government into three parts. Each part is called a branch. The legislative branch is Congress, and it writes the laws. The executive branch is led by the President, and it carries the laws out. The judicial branch is the courts, and it decides what the laws mean.

You can name each branch in two ways, and either name is correct. You can say Congress or the legislative branch. You can say the President or the executive branch. You can say the courts or the judicial branch. To name all three at once, say legislative, executive, and judicial. Congress, the President, and the courts is also correct.

There are three branches for a reason. The people who wrote the Constitution had lived under a king, and they did not want one person or one small group holding all the power. So they gave each branch its own work and its own limits. Giving each branch a separate job is called the separation of powers.

Each branch can also stop the other two from going too far. This is called checks and balances. Congress can pass a bill, but the President can send it back to Congress unsigned, with the reasons for refusing it. That is called a veto.

Here are other everyday examples. The President chooses federal judges, but they take office only if the Senate votes to approve them. The courts can decide that a law breaks the rules of the Constitution, and then that law cannot be used. Congress can pass a bill again over a veto if two thirds of the House and two thirds of the Senate vote for it. Congress can also remove a President, a judge, or another federal officer from office for serious wrongdoing.

Two short answers are worth memorizing. What stops one branch of government from becoming too powerful: checks and balances, or separation of powers. Why are there three branches: so that one part does not become too powerful. Remember also that the President is in charge of the executive branch.

Power in the United States is shared between levels of government. The federal government, also called the national government, works from Washington, D.C., and covers the whole country. Each of the fifty states has its own government as well. Cities and counties form a third, local level.

The Constitution gives certain powers only to the federal government. It can print paper money and mint coins. It can declare war, create an army, and make treaties with other countries. It also sets foreign policy, which means how the United States deals with the rest of the world. Printing money, declaring war, creating an army and making treaties are accepted on both tests. Minting coins and setting foreign policy are accepted on the 2025 test.

Other powers belong to the states. Your state gives you a driver's license. Your state approves zoning and land use, which are the rules about what may be built where. States provide schooling and education, so the public schools are state work. States provide protection through the police. States provide safety through fire departments.

Some powers belong to both levels at once. Federal and state governments can each collect taxes, build roads, make and enforce laws, and run courts. That is why both federal law and state law apply to you, and why in most places you deal with tax authorities at more than one level.

The Tenth Amendment sets the default rule. Some powers are not given to the federal government and are not forbidden to the states. Those powers stay with the states or with the people. This is why the rules for schools, driving, and marriage licenses are not the same in every state.

Each state has its own constitution, its own governor, its own lawmaking body, and its own court system. Local government sits underneath the state and handles matters close to home, such as trash collection, libraries, and parks. Local governments get their powers from the state.

When a state law and a federal law truly conflict, the federal law wins. The Constitution, and the federal laws made under it, stand above every other law in the country. The words the Constitution uses for this are the supreme law of the land.