Please stop calling Congress “co-equal” to the Executive branch. It’s not. Here’s why.

As Mitch McConnell appears to be doing his best to turn our democracy into a dictatorship, people have understandably been wanting to reassert the power of Congress over an unruly Executive. Unfortunately, many have latched onto a rather stupid notion, which is having the exact opposite of the intended effect.

At some point, a judge somewhere wrote an opinion that the three branches of government are “co-equal”, and people have latched onto this idea ever since. The only thing is: it’s wrong.

The three branches of government are not “co-equal”, although they are independent. Rather, they are hierarchically ordered in terms of their authority, as follows: Legislative branch (at the top), Supreme Court (middle), then Executive (bottom). This structure is obvious to anyone who will carefully consider the powers granted to each branch by the Constitution.

Let’s start with the Constitution, which is the ultimate and foundational law of the nation. Only one branch of government has the power to alter the Constitution, and that is the Legislative. Neither the Executive nor the Judicial has such power. This clearly shows that ultimate power lies with Congress.

Congress makes the laws, and the Executive carries them out. The power dynamic there is clear, and it goes one way — Congress never has to carry out orders from the Executive.

The Executive negotiates treaties; Congress must ratify them before they become law. The President is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces; but Congress must approve of any decision to go to war. The President can veto an act of Congress; but Congress can overturn the veto. In each case ultimate power resides with Congress, and the Executive is subordinate.

The Executive must also follow the decisions made by the Supreme Court. (There is one infamous example of a president deifying the Court, and it resulted in the Trail of Tears. So it’s not recommended.) The Executive, on the other hand, has no direct authority whatsoever over the Court. The President has only indirect influence, in his power to nominate the judges (which also requires approval by the Legislature, once again proving that branch’s supremacy).

Congress does also have to abide by the decisions of the Supreme Court. However, if the legislators don’t like a decision from the judges, they can write a new law, or even change the Constitution, so once again we see that the ultimate power and authority is in the Legislative branch.

Congress furthermore has the power to remove the President from office, while the President lacks any such authority over Congress, or the Court. Congress is vested with this power because our founders were designing a democracy, not a monarchy. While it may not say so explicitly in the founding documents, the President does, ultimately, serve at the pleasure of Congress, in their capacity as representatives of the American people.