Khoury 1

Nicole Khoury
Mr. Buescher
U.S. History, Period 4
22 September 2015
Separation of Powers: The Ultimate Guard Against Tyranny
Our nations Founding Fathers wrote the United States Constitution based upon the
crucial idea of the Separation of Powers. By limiting the government to the powers agreed upon
in the Constitution, ones rights are protected. Arguably the most important form of these
limitations, the system of the Separation of Powers divides the government into three branches:
the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. This system protects against tyranny. The usage of
Separation of Powers is as crucial today as ever before in order to maintain a balanced,
functioning government that does not abuse its power.
The Separation of Powers maintains a balanced, functioning government. The
Constitution states, the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed
to deny... the people. (U.S. Constitution, Amendment 9). By placing this in the Constitution, the
peoples rights are not limited to those which are written. This provides an operative balance for
the execution of the Separation of Powers. Furthermore, the powers not delegated to the United
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States... (U.S.
Constitution, Amendment 10). This accentuates the functionality of society; by breaking down
the government into Federal and States and protecting the absolute power of the people. A form
of Separation of Powers, this distinction eliminates the ability of one part to be overpowering.
Separation of Powers is also used to ensure that the government does not abuse its power.
By breaking down into three distinct branches, the powers of government are equally distributed,

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where the legislative powers shall be vested in a Congress of the United States The
executive power shall be vested in a President, (and) the judicial power of the United States
shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in inferior courts. (U.S. Constitution, Articles 1, 2,
3). This separation gives each branch a distinct job and a way to keep the other branches in
check. This system of checks and balances prevents one branch from becoming too powerful. A
prime example is the U.S. vs. Alvarez case where, the Stolen Valor Act of 2005 punished those
who misrepresented that they have high military honors, then the Supreme Court ruled in 2012
that the Act was unconstitutional, (and) the President took action to establish a national database
of military citations to enable verification of military honors. (USCourts.gov, 1). Here one can
see all of the branches impact on one case. They worked in cohesion to balance each other and
function as a government that is beneficial to the people, one that protects their rights.
The usage of Separation of Powers is still important today in order to maintain a
balanced, functioning government that does not abuse its power. This system was of paramount
importance to our Founding Fathers, helping shape the way society operates as a whole today.
The process of Separation of Powers has been proven to stay relevant, and will continue to stand
the test of time as the ultimate guard against tyranny.