America鈥檚 long history of 鈥榗hecks and balances鈥� is being tested by Trump like rarely before
May 4, 2025, 4:37 AM
FILE - A person holds a copy of the Constitution of the United States of America and Declaration of Independence at a May Day rally for the Rule of Law, May 1, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Gray, File)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Adam Gray, File)
ATLANTA (AP) 鈥� It’s what one historian calls an 鈥渆laborate, clunky machine,鈥� one that’s been fundamental to American democracy for more than two centuries.
The principle of 鈥渃hecks and balances鈥� is rooted in the Constitution’s design of a national government with three distinct, coequal branches.
President Donald Trump in his first 100 days tested that system like rarely before, signing dozens of executive orders, closing or sharply reducing government agencies funded by Congress, and denigrating judges who have issued dozens of rulings against him.
鈥淭he framers were acutely aware of competing interests, and they had great distrust of concentrated authority,鈥� said Dartmouth College professor John Carey, an expert on American democracy. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 where the idea came from.鈥�
Their road map has mostly prevented control from falling into 鈥渙ne person鈥檚 hands,鈥� Carey said. But he warned that the system depends on 鈥減eople operating in good faith … and not necessarily exercising power to the fullest extent imaginable.鈥�
Here’s a look at checks and balances and previous tests across U.S. history.
The foundational checks-and-balances fight: President John Adams鈥� made last-minute appointments before he left office in 1801. His successor, Thomas Jefferson, and Secretary of State James Madison ignored them. , an Adams justice of the peace appointee, asked the Supreme Court to compel Jefferson and Madison to honor Adams鈥� decisions.
Chief Justice John Marshall concluded in 1803 that the commissions became legitimate with Adams’ signature and, thus, Madison acted illegally by shelving them. Marshall, however, stopped short of ordering anything. Marbury had sued under a 1789 law that made the Supreme Court the trial court in the dispute. Marshall’s opinion voided that law because it gave justices 鈥� who almost exclusively hear appeals 鈥� more power than the Constitution afforded them.
The split decision asserted the court鈥檚 role in interpreting congressional acts -鈥� and striking them down 鈥�- while also adjudicating executive branch actions.
Congress and President George Washington chartered the First Bank of the United States in 1791. Federalists, led by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, favored a strong central government and wanted a national bank that could lend the government money. Anti-Federalists, led by Jefferson and Madison, wanted less centralized power and argued Congress had no authority to charter a bank. But they did not ask the courts to step in.
, the first populist president, loathed the bank, believing it to be a sop to the rich. Congress voted in 1832 to extend the charter, with provisions to mollify Jackson. The president vetoed the measure anyway, and Congress failed to muster the two-thirds majorities required by the Constitution to override him. In 1836, the Philadelphia-based bank became a private state bank.
During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln suspended 鈥� a legal process that allows individuals to challenge their detention. That allowed federal authorities to arrest and hold people without granting due process. Lincoln said his maneuver might not be 鈥渟trictly legal鈥� but was a 鈥減ublic necessity鈥� to protect the Union. The Supreme Court鈥檚 Roger Taney, sitting as a circuit judge, declared the suspension illegal but noted he did not have the power to enforce the opinion.
Congress ultimately sided with Lincoln through retroactive statutes. And the Supreme Court, in a separate 1862 case challenging other Lincoln actions, endorsed the president鈥檚 argument that the office comes with inherent wartime powers not expressly allowed via the Constitution or congressional act.
After the Civil War and Lincoln鈥檚 assassination, 鈥淩adical Republicans鈥� in Congress wanted penalties on states that had seceded and on the Confederacy’s leaders and combatants. They also advocated Reconstruction programs that enfranchised and elevated formerly enslaved people (the men, at least). Johnson, a Tennessean, was more lenient on Confederates and harsher to formerly enslaved people. Congress, with appropriations power, established the Freedmen鈥檚 Bureau to assist newly freed Black Americans. Johnson, with pardon power, repatriated former Confederates. He also limited Freedmen鈥檚 Bureau authority to seize Confederates鈥� assets.
For a century, nearly all federal jobs were executive branch political appointments: revolving doors after every presidential transition. In 1883, Congress stepped in with the reclassifying tens of thousands of government employees. His aim is to turn civil servants into political appointees or other at-will workers who are more easily dismissed from their jobs.
After World War I, the called for an international body to bring countries together to discuss global affairs and prevent war. President Woodrow Wilson advocated for the . The Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Republican Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, brought the treaty to the Senate in 1919 with amendments to limit the League of Nation鈥檚 influence. Wilson opposed the caveats, and the Senate fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to ratify the treaty and join the League. After World War II, the U.S. took a lead role, with Senate support, in establishing the United Nations and the NATO alliance.
Franklin D. Roosevelt met the Great Depression with large federal programs and aggressive regulatory actions, much of it approved by Democratic majorities in Congress. A conservative Supreme Court struck down some of the New Deal legislation as beyond the scope of congressional power. Roosevelt answered by proposing to expand the . The president’s critics dubbed it 鈥渁 court-packing scheme.鈥� He disputed the charge. But not even the Democratic Congress seriously entertained his idea.
Roosevelt ignored the unwritten rule, established by Washington, that a president serves no more than two terms. He won third and fourth terms during World War II, rankling even some of his allies. Soon after his death, a bipartisan coalition pushed the that limits presidents to being elected twice. Trump has talked about seeking a third term despite this constitutional prohibition.
The Washington Post and other media exposed ties between President Richard Nixon’s associates and a break-in at Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel during the 1972 campaign. By summer 1974, the story ballooned into congressional hearings, court fights and plans for impeachment proceedings. The in his assertion that executive privilege allowed him not to turn over potential evidence of his and top aides’ roles in the cover-up 鈥� including recordings of private Oval Office conversations. Nixon resigned after a delegation of his fellow Republicans told him that Congress was poised to remove him from office.
Presidents from John F. Kennedy through Nixon ratcheted up U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia during the Cold War. But Congress never declared war in Vietnam. A 1973 deal, under Nixon, ended official American military involvement. But complete U.S. withdrawal didn’t occur until more than two years later 鈥� a period during which Congress reduced funding for South Vietnam’s democratic government. Congress did not cut off all money for Saigon, as some conservatives later claimed. But lawmakers refused to rubber-stamp larger administration requests, asserting a congressional check on the president’s military and foreign policy agenda.
A Democratic-controlled Congress overhauled the nation鈥檚 health insurance system in 2010. The Affordable Care Act, in part, tried to require states to expand the Medicaid program that covers millions of children, disabled people and some low-income adults. But the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that Congress and President Barack Obama could not compel states to expand the program by threatening to withhold other federal money already obligated to the states under previous federal law. The court on multiple occasions has upheld other portions of the law. Republicans, even when they have controlled the White House and Capitol Hill, have been unable to repeal the act.
