Article One of the United States Constitution
portion of the US Constitution regarding Congress / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Article One of the United States Constitution establishes the legislative branch of the federal government, the United States Congress. The Congress is a bicameral legislature consisting of a House of Representatives and a Senate
Section 1: Legislative power vested in Congress
All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
Section 1 gives federal legislative power exclusively to Congress.[1] Similar clauses are found in Articles II and III. The former gives executive power to the President. The latter grants judicial power to the federal judiciary. These three articles create a separation of powers among the three branches of the federal government.[lower-alpha 1] The separation of powers was intended to limit Congress to making law, the President to enforcing the law and the courts as interpreting the law in different cases.[3]
There is no provision in the Constitution that gives Congress the power to investigate.[4] However, before the adoption of the Constitution, assemblies| in the American colonies exercised that power. Before them, the British Parliament had investigative powers.[4] Congress has always considered it an implicit power in the Constitution. In McGrain v. Daugherty (1927), the Supreme Court held that Congress did have the power to investigate.[5]