Authority is defined as “Permission. Right to exercise powers; to implement and enforce laws; to exact obedience; to command; to judge. Control over; jurisdiction. Often synonymous with power.”

From the definition above, we see that authority is the “right to exercise powers” and “jurisdiction”. We know from the Constitution, the highest law of the land, that there are three powers, and they are separate but equal.

This concept, which makes the United States Constitution the most powerful document of modern times, has created a government that has the three separate powers (kings) as opposed to the usual one. These three powers were vigorously debated over by the framers with the idea of allowing them to be exercised not only by government legislators and executors, but also by the people themselves.