The Complete Circuit of Checks

Checks and balances, introduced as one atom, is now drawable as a complete circuit — every branch armed against both others.

Draw Congress's arsenal first, the fullest one: the override answers the veto (Gov 331); the purse funds or starves everything, annually on the discretionary side (Gov 457); oversight watches the machine between elections (Gov 316, Gov 390); impeachment and conviction remove (Gov 363); and treaties and appointments require its consent (Gov 359, Gov 360). Congress even shapes the judiciary that judges it — the courts' structure and size are statutes (Gov 411, Gov 421). The president's arsenal is narrower and faster: the veto (Gov 331), the appointment pen (Gov 359), and the agenda-setting megaphone (Gov 370). The courts hold one weapon, and it is the heaviest: review of both branches' acts against the Constitution (Gov 413) — claimed in Marbury, not granted in text (Gov 414, Gov 415) — wielded by judges with life tenure (Gov 412) and enforced by everyone but themselves (Gov 429, Gov 430). Now read the circuit's asymmetries as design: Congress checks with everything but must coordinate five hundred thirty-five people to do it; the president checks alone but on a four-year clock; the courts check with judgment only, and judgment lasts. Gov 032 promised mutual restraint; ten units later, every wire in the diagram has a number.