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[quote=Anonymous][quote=TheManWithAUsername][quote=Anonymous]Our founders believed that certain principles were required to restrain abuse of power.  One of those principles was separation of powers.  If you decide to "spread the power" in a time of ineffective congress, you may end up paying for it in a time of a power-hungry president.

Power is too tempting, and constitutional checks and balances are in my opinion critical to our democracy.  We don't need a Putin.  [/quote]
The question of where to draw those lines is somewhat arbitrary. As you may know, early on there was some question as to whether the Supremes could invalidate a law as unconstitutional. Many at the time saw that as a significant power grab.

The fact that the founders drew lines in particular places doesn't mean that much to me. I don't revere them, and they couldn't predict exactly where things have gone. One reason to give the founders the benefit of the doubt is that the government has lasted this long, but we've obviously found it necessary to correct several things since the founding.[/quote]

The line between legislation, execution, and adjudication is as clear as separating red, green, and blue.  They are three functions of the law that are clear as day.  Marbury vs. Madison may have contained a challenge but it was unsuccessful.  And if you read your Federalist Papers and Anti-Federalist papers alike you can see that judicial review had near unanimous support at the time of the drafting of the constitution.  In fact, the court actually exercised the right of judicial review as far back as 1796, but in that case the court determined the law to be constitutional so no one remembers the case.

The lesson of the founders in drafting the constitution is that separation of powers is not arbitrary, and it should not be subject to the politics or personalities of the day.  Institutions must be created with solid foundations that are resistant to ebbs and flows of political life.  If you don't get this, read the Federalist Papers.[/quote]

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