Checks and balances, as a graph
Who may act on whom, and exactly where it stops.
A matrix tells you that two offices are related. A graph tells you the direction, the power, the limit and the citation — and it can be walked. Ask it who checks an actor and it returns the edges pointing at them. Ask it whether an actor is accountable and it looks for a cycle, because a check that nothing closes is not a check.
An edge without a citation is refused at load. 25 edges loaded; 0 were refused. An uncited power is the exact thing this structure exists to stop somebody inventing, so it cannot be permitted to enter through the loader.
A worked example shipped with the studio so the graph engine has something real to walk. It is NOT one of Kristen's sources, and the catalog does not count it as one. Her own checks-and-balances matrices import into this same schema: one row becomes one edge, and an edge without a citation is refused at load.
25 powers between 9 actors
Select an actor to isolate its powers and the checks upon it. The table below carries the same information and does not require the diagram.
Every trace goes somewhere and stops somewhere. That is the whole idea.
Every edge, with its limit and its citation
| Edge | Actor | Power | Over | Where it stops | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
E01 | President | Veto a bill | Congress (both chambers) | Returned to the originating chamber with objections. A pocket veto only where adjournment prevents return. | U.S. Const. art. I, § 7, cl. 2 |
E02 | Congress (both chambers) | Override a veto | President | Requires two thirds of each chamber. A simple majority cannot do it. | U.S. Const. art. I, § 7, cl. 2 |
E03 | Senate | Advice and consent on appointments | President | Applies to officers whose appointment is not otherwise vested by law in the President alone, the courts, or department heads. | U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 2 |
E04 | Senate | Consent to a treaty | President | Two thirds of Senators present. An executive agreement is a different instrument and does not pass through this edge. | U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 2 |
E05 | House of Representatives | Impeach | President | The House impeaches. It does not remove. Sole power of impeachment. | U.S. Const. art. I, § 2, cl. 5 |
E06 | Senate | Try an impeachment and convict | President | Two thirds of members present. Judgment extends no further than removal and disqualification. | U.S. Const. art. I, § 3, cll. 6-7 |
E07 | House of Representatives | Impeach a judge | Federal judiciary | Same power, same limit: impeachment is accusation, not removal. | U.S. Const. art. I, § 2, cl. 5 |
E08 | Senate | Try an impeachment of a judge | Federal judiciary | Two thirds of members present. | U.S. Const. art. I, § 3, cl. 6 |
E09 | President | Nominate judges | Federal judiciary | Nomination only. The appointment does not complete without the Senate. | U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 2 |
E10 | Senate | Confirm judges | Federal judiciary | Confirmation is not review of a decision. It happens once, before the fact. | U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 2 |
E11 | Congress (both chambers) | Constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court | Federal judiciary | The Supreme Court itself is established by Article III and is not Congress's to create or abolish. | U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 9; art. III, § 1 |
E12 | Congress (both chambers) | Make exceptions to appellate jurisdiction | Federal judiciary | Appellate jurisdiction only. The Court's original jurisdiction is fixed by Article III. | U.S. Const. art. III, § 2, cl. 2 |
E13 | Federal judiciary | Hold a statute unconstitutional | Congress (both chambers) | Only in a case properly before the court. Courts do not review in the abstract. | Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803) |
E14 | Federal judiciary | Hold executive action unlawful | President | Reviews the action, not the office. Youngstown is the seizure case and the source of the three-zone framework. | Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579 (1952) |
E15 | Congress (both chambers) | Appropriate — and withhold — money | Executive departments and agencies | No money may be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law. This is the check that does not need anybody's cooperation. | U.S. Const. art. I, § 9, cl. 7 |
E16 | Congress (both chambers) | Declare war | President | Declaration sits with Congress. Command of the forces raised sits with the President. | U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 11; art. II, § 2, cl. 1 |
E17 | President | Grant reprieves and pardons | Federal judiciary | Offences against the United States, and EXCEPT in cases of impeachment. The exception is written into the clause. | U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 1 |
E18 | President | Require the opinion of principal officers; take care the laws are faithfully executed | Executive departments and agencies | Faithful execution is a duty, not a licence to decline to execute. | U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 1; art. II, § 3 |
E19 | Inspectors General | Audit and investigate the agency it sits inside | Executive departments and agencies | Statutory, not constitutional. Reports go both to the agency head and to Congress, which is what stops the audited party being the only reader. | Inspector General Act of 1978, as codified at 5 U.S.C. §§ 401-424 |
E20 | Congress (both chambers) | Receive the reports directly, and fund the office | Inspectors General | Congress receives; it does not direct the investigation. | 5 U.S.C. § 405; § 404(b) |
E21 | The electorate | Elect the whole chamber every two years | House of Representatives | Every seat, every two years. There is no partial term to sit out. | U.S. Const. art. I, § 2, cl. 1 |
E22 | The electorate | Elect Senators directly | Senate | Since 1913. Before the Seventeenth Amendment the state legislatures chose them, and this edge did not exist. | U.S. Const. amend. XVII |
E23 | The States | Ratify or refuse a proposed amendment | Congress (both chambers) | Three quarters of the states. Congress proposes; it cannot ratify. | U.S. Const. art. V |
E24 | Congress (both chambers) | Propose an amendment | The States | Two thirds of both houses, or a convention on application of two thirds of the state legislatures. | U.S. Const. art. V |
E25 | House of Representatives | Originate revenue bills | Executive departments and agencies | Revenue bills originate in the House. The Senate may propose amendments to them. | U.S. Const. art. I, § 7, cl. 1 |
The one actor nothing checks
The walk finds The electorate with no inbound edge. That is not a fault in the graph — it is the finding. The only actor in this graph that nobody appoints.
Bringing your own matrices in
The schema is four required fields and one optional: from, to, power, citation, and limit. One row of a checks-and-balances matrix becomes one edge. A row with no citation column cannot be imported without one being supplied, which is deliberate — it is easier to add a citation at import than to discover a year later that an authority in the graph came from nowhere.