How the Three Branches of American Government

How the Three Branches of American Government

Worked Together to End Segregation

The three branches of the American Government often to not cooperate enough with one another to make laws or amend the constitution. Often, the system of checks and balances keeps one branch from moving forward with the law-making process. However, on the long road to desegregation, all three branches of the government were involved to make segregation in public schools against the law. The Legislative branch of government can make bills, but the Executive branch may veto them. The Executive branch may veto the bills, but the Legislative branch may override the veto. All of this is true; however, the Supremacy Clause states that a Supreme Court decision is the final law of the country. The battle for desegregation is a perfect example of how all three branches of government work together in American Government.

In the American Government, each branch of government upholds a specific task in the law making process. The Legislative branch makes the laws of the United States, the Executive branch enforces the laws of the country, and the Judicial branch interprets the laws and amendments of the constitution. When dealing with desegregation, the fourteenth amendment gave all citizens of the United States equal protection under the law. The ruling of the Plessy vs. Ferguson case in 1896 stated that segregation was legal as long as the separate accommodations for both races were of equal standards. So, here we have the Legislative branch producing the fourteenth amendment, the Executive branch enforcing the fourteenth amendment, and the

Judicial branch interpreting its meaning. On the contrary, in 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States of America reversed its ruling of the doctrine “separate but equal” after hearing the case of Brown vs. Board of Education. The Supreme