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The judicial power of the United States of America, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.
All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
The executive power shall be vested in a Resident of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years,...
Historical Overview on the Separation of Powers
Moderator: Honorable Gordon Doerfer, Massachuetts Court of Appeals (center).
Participants: Professor Thomas O. Sargentich, American University Washington College of Law, Director, LL.M. Program on Law and Government (right).
Professor Mark C. Miller, Chair, Department of Government and Chair, Law and Society Program, Clark University (left).
Gordon Doerfer
We decided to do this program on the separation of powers last August. It came up in the context of some developing and present high-visibility issues that are of great interest in our public life in this country. And it was stimulated by a variety of concerns; some of which had to do with questions relating to the intersection between executive and judicial power in the context of the war on terrorism, and the relationship between the Congress and federal judges and state legislatures and state judges in matters of sentencing. And, of course, there have been some high -visibility topics put on the table over the last several months relating to questions about the appropriate role of the legislative and executive branches in commenting on or monitoring or controlling the activities of the judiciary.
And of course the executive and legislative branches of the government occasionally make comments about the role of judges and whether or not they are exceeding their proper role. We have some discussions about that going on in Massachusetts right now. So there is a huge range of topics that are covered, in my view, under the concept of sepa ration of powers. What we intend to do this morning is focus on the historical and theoretical foundations of the doctrine of separation of powers, how central it is to our form of government, and on the intersections-the historical intersections-between the...