How does the constitution maintain a limited government?

The Constitution limits the strength of the government by:

1) Splitting and limiting each branch of government through checks & balances

The Constitution called for 3 separate branches of government (executive, legislative, and Judicial), in which each of them had power over the other, and that made sure that no one branch could become too powerful. For example:

The Legislative Branch passes a bill. The President, when looking at the bill, decides to veto the bill & it returns to Congress. Then Congress overrides the veto, and the bill is made to a law. However, the Judicial Branch finds the law unconstitutional, and so the law is eliminated.

In this scenario, we see that each branch has power over the other branch.

2) Giving most of the power to the US public (population/citizens)

The US Public (made up of ordinary citizens like you, your family, and the people around you, have many rights that can help influence governmental decisions. For example, you can petition to the government for certain changes by writing a petition and getting a certain amount of signatures (which can vary; signatures of other people) to be able to have your suggestion viewed by the government, and it may or may not be implemented. The US public also has the right to impeach a president/change the government if they believe that the government is hazardous to the Democracy and is becoming too much like a dictatorship.

3) Splitting power between the National Government & the State Government:

To ensure that the US government does not become too strong (or burdened), the Constitution allowed for the creation of the state governments which can help meet the needs of people inside the state (as all of them are different). While the state is below the National Government, the State themselves have power that makes sure that the N.G. have too much power.

4) Protection of the people's powers:

To ensure that the Government cannot take the people's powers away, this was added to the Constitution, that all people are born with rights that cannot be taken by the government, and that the people have the right to use their rights.

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- "schenck v. united states, case in which the u.s. supreme court ruled on march 3, 1919, that the freedom of speech protection afforded in the u.s. constitution's first amendment could be restricted if the words spoken or printed represented to society a “clear and present danger.” "

- speech aimed to potentially create danger could be banned.

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d) the constitution rights of native americans and their right to self-government on reservations