Separation of powers. The Constitution sets up a strict division between the three branches of government, classifying governmental powers as executive, legislative, and judicial and entrusting the performance of each power to a separate agency. The complaint of many individuals and agencies in government, when they wish to assume a power that is assigned to another branch, is that this separation of powers is a failure of the system. They complain that it is diffused, confused, unduly complex, overly-cumbersome, and the cause of delays in the functioning of government. Members of one branch often attempt to usurp powers of another branch, or to persuade that branch to cede certain of their powers (such as the President asking Congress to give up its responsibility and allow him to decide if and when to go to war). If one branch does cede its powers to another, it acts un-Constitutionally. The separation of powers specified in the Constitution is one of the safeguards against the constant press of tyranny foreseen by the Founding Fathers, and any branch which cedes its powers to another does so at the peril of the nation as a whole.

If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the Constitutional powers be in a particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way in which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for although this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed.
                                                                                                                                    -- George Washington

Respectfully submitted for your consideration,

Don Firth