At an NYU Law Forum on October 22, former government officials and constitutional law scholars examined the current state of the American system of checks and balances designed to restrain the ...

Checks and balances are essential to our representative democracy. Under our system of government, the legislative, executive ...

ATLANTA (AP) — It's what one historian calls an “elaborate, clunky machine,” one that's been fundamental to American democracy for more than two centuries. The principle of “checks and balances” is ...

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The Tucson City Council took a stab at closing the so-called “gun-show loophole” last week when it voted unanimously to approve a resolution that requires background checks on all firearm purchases at ...

The issue du jour is deportations, but the question has been a constant of Donald Trump’s presidencies: Is he acting within the Constitution? In his first term, it came up repeatedly: When he tried to ...

A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. The issue ...