The Constitution assigned to Congress responsibility for organizing the executive and judicial branches, raising revenue, declaring war, and making all laws necessary for executing these powers. The president is permitted to veto specific legislative acts, but Congress has the authority to override presidential vetoes by two-thirds majorities of both houses. The Constitution also provides that the Senate advise and consent on key executive and judicial appointments and on the approval for ratification of treaties.

For over two centuries the Constitution has remained in force because its framers successfully separated and balanced governmental powers to safeguard the interests of majority rule and minority rights, of liberty and equality, and of the federal and state governments. More a concise statement of national principles than a detailed plan of governmental operation, the Constitution has evolved to meet the changing needs of a modern society profoundly different from the eighteenth-century world in which its creators lived. To date, the Constitution has been amended 27 times, most recently in 1992. The first ten amendments constitute the Bill of Rights.

The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was an agreement among the 13 original states of the United States of America that served as its first constitution. A guiding principle of the Articles was to preserve the independence and sovereignty of the states.

The U.S. Constitution provides checks and balances for the U.S. government through the separation of powers between its three branches: the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial branch. Each of these exercises some kind of power over the others. This means that the leader of the executive branch (the president) gets to appoint, or choose, many government leaders. But part of the legislative branch (the Senate) has the power to reject the president’s choices. 

In addition, the judiciary can reject laws now approved by Congress and signed by the President if he considers that they are unconstitutional. These and other brakes and counterweights ensure that none of the branches of government exercise too much can.

The first ten amendments to the Constitution are collectively known asThe Bill of Rights. Changes are called amendments and only 27 amendments have been made since the constitution was ratified. The amendments to the Constitution are taken when they have been proposed by two thirds of the members of the camera and the Senate, and they have ratified three quarters parts of the states.

It guarantees freedoms important to all Americans, such as freedom of expression, of the press and creed, the guarantee of not being subjected to unreasonable and lawful records to be tried in a jury trial.

In short, it can be said that the bill of rights is the name that is gives the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution because expressly protect the rights of individuals.

Legislative power

Executive power

Judicial power

States Powers and Limits

Amendments

Federal Power

Ratification