Name one branch or part of the government.

Why this is the answer

Any one of six words answers this question: Congress, legislative, President, executive, the courts or judicial. They come in three pairs because each branch can be named by what it does or by the institution that does it. The Constitution creates all three in its opening articles, one per article and in that order. Article I hands the lawmaking powers it grants to a Congress, which it divides into a Senate and a House of Representatives. Article II places the executive power in a President, and the branch the President leads enforces the laws Congress passes. The Vice President and the members of the Cabinet belong to that same branch. Article III gives the judicial power to one Supreme Court and to whatever lower federal courts Congress decides to set up, and one of the jobs of the courts is deciding whether laws and government actions follow the Constitution. Since the question asks for only one branch, a single word is a complete answer. Pick whichever word is easiest for you to pronounce when you are nervous. The list treats the institution and the adjective the same way, so President counts exactly as much as executive. Trouble usually starts with naming something that sits inside a branch without being one. The Senate and the House are the two halves of Congress, and neither appears on the official list by itself. The Cabinet works within the executive branch, and the Supreme Court holds the highest judicial power, so the words on the list for those two are executive or President and judicial or the courts. State governments and the military are not branches of the government either. This question carries an asterisk in the 2008 list. Applicants who are 65 or older and have been permanent residents for at least 20 years may study only the questions marked that way, so it belongs to their shorter set as well. To recall the order, count the articles: one is Congress, two is the President, three is the courts.