American Government / Unit 9 Gov 429 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Purse and Sword
Captions available
The idea
Courts hold neither the purse nor the sword: no budget to spend and no force to command, so rulings depend on others to execute.
In practice
A decision against a government agency waits on that government to comply.
Where people slip
The judiciary's power is judgment — the weakest branch by the framers' own reckoning.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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