Branches & Balances AP U.S. Government
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Quiz complete

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The quiz

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Every question correct — recall, application and analysis alike. Take the free response below and you have covered the whole unit.
Free response · 20 minutes

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Scores if you
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Checks &
Balances
Passes bills
Vetoes bills
Impeaches judges
Voids its laws
Appoints judges Courts
President Strikes his orders
{{ visitedLabel }} Extensions live inside their branch
Start here

Open all three branches

Click each building to see what that branch does and which constitutional powers it holds. Two more nodes live inside a branch — the bureaucracy under the Executive, the lower federal courts under the Judicial. All three buildings open unlocks Govern and Quiz.

The six mechanics
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What it did, with no vote taken
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Tuesday morning · the Speaker’s lobby

You are Speaker of the House Hakeem Jeffries, and you learn about it from a television. At 6 a.m. the President signed an executive order imposing tariffs on every product made in Mexico — auto parts, produce, medical devices, all of it — effective in thirty days.

By 8 a.m. your phone has not stopped. Growers in California, assembly plants in Michigan, a hospital system that buys 40% of its supplies across the border. Article I gives Congress the power to lay tariffs; a 1977 statute delegated a slice of it to the president for emergencies, and the order claims that slice covers this.

Your caucus wants the order gone by Friday. You hold the gavel, a nine-seat majority, and a Constitution that gives you more than one way to answer. Pick the one you can defend.

Hover any underlined term for its definition · pase el cursor para ver la definición
The government you inherit
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In the White House · on the Court
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Step 1

Which node can respond?

Click a building on the map. More than one branch may have a constitutional answer — pick the one you can defend. The judiciary is reference only: courts act on cases brought to them, never on their own, so it is never a move you make.
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Why you cannot play this branch

A court cannot decide to act. It waits for a party with standing to file a case, and it rules on the question that case puts in front of it — nothing more. You hold a political office, so the judiciary is never a move you make: it is what happens to your work once somebody sues.

Read it here, then answer this act with a power that is actually in your hands.

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Filibuster

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No deals on this one. A conviction vote can’t be logrolled or bought with an earmark — senators vote the evidence.
Counter-check

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Constitutional pathway complete

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Branches & Balances · AP U.S. Government

Student report

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Teacher comments

Take all the time you need with the act card. When you're ready, scroll down and press Begin this act to get started.
Paused · this one stays open

Hey! Stop that.

Those picks came fast and wrong — that looks like guessing. Answer these three to show you know what this act wants, and the game picks up where you left off.

How every act works
1 · Read the problem
2 · Pick the branch that can answer it
3 · Pick its power
4 · Win the votes
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Restarting an act rolls back the deficit spending you ran up in it. Starting over clears the whole run.
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Attach a project

Each project rides on “{{ pork.host }}” and has nothing to do with it. Written in once, it counts wherever the bill is voted — and it goes on the books by name.
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The Congress you are working with
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