Once America was free from Great Britain, it needed to decide how to run the new country. The nation's founders split the government into three branches. This ensured that no one person would have too much power. This system keeps us free! Colorful images, supporting text, a glossary, table of contents, and index all work together to help readers better understand the content and be fully engaged from cover to cover.

Analyzes the roots and consequences of governmental gridlock and how it has manifested itself during several United States' presidential administrations.

Discusses the role of Congress in governmental separation of powers, defines the powers and rights held by Congress, and examines how the balance of power between President and Congress has shifted in the last two centuries.

Discusses the legislative branch of the United States government, including its history and relation to the other two branches of government, and profiles notable members of the House of Representatives and Senate.

Conventional wisdom holds that 9/11 sounded the death knell for presidential accountability. In fact, the opposite is true. The novel powers that our post-9/11 commanders in chief assumed--endless detentions, military commissions, state secrets, broad surveillance, and more--are the culmination of a two-century expansion of presidential authority. But these new powers have been met with thousands of barely visible legal and political constraints--enforced...

"Challenges the argument that court-packing will politicize the Court and undermine its institutional legitimacy, arguing that the "law-politics dichotomy" is a myth because politics always has and always will influence Supreme Court decision-making"--

The very word "czar" seems inappropriate in a constitutional republic, but it has come to describe any executive branch official who has significant authority over a policy area, works independently of agency or Department heads, and is not confirmed by the Senate--or subject to congressional oversight. Mitchel Sollenberger and Mark Rozell provide the first comprehensive overview of presidential czars, tracing the history of the position from its...