The Doctrine of Separation of Powers - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages Congress is given the power to terminate the Comptroller General through a joint resolution for reasons of inefficiency, malfeasance, or neglect of duty. The other method of removing the Comptroller is through impeachment. (2) Congressman Synar and 11 others immediately filed a declaratory relief complaint before the District Court which held that the delegation of power to the Comptroller General violated the constitutionally imposed doctrine of separation of powers.

Comptroller General Bowsher appealed the verdict before the Supreme Court alleging the absence of violation of that doctrine and the legality and constitutionality of its Congress-assigned powers.

III. THE LAW: The relevant law under scrutiny, in this case, is the Doctrine of Separation of Powers as entrenched in the US Constitution under Article I (legislative powers in a Congress), Article II (executive power in a President), and Article III (judicial power in one Supreme Court and other inferior courts). IV. ISSUES: (1). Whether or not the assignment by Congress to the Comptroller General of the United States of certain functions under the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control

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Act of 1985 violates the doctrine of separation of powers. (2). Whether or not the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act is an unconstitutional usurpation of executive power by Congress.
V. SUPREME COURT DECISION:
The Supreme Court held that Section 251 of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act is unconstitutional because “the Comptroller General has been assigned executive powers and that the power vested in the CG under sec. 251 violates the Court’s command that Congress play no direct role in the execution of the laws” (qtd. in Bowsher v Synar 478). It is thus violative of the doctrine of separation of powers. ...Download file to see next pages Read More