the supreme court is the most important court in the country and has nine judes:there job is to decude what the laws mean.they can also say that congress hasmade a law which is wrong,or that the President has done somthing wrong.
as well as the government in the washington,each has its own government.Laws can be very different from one state to the next.they say very different things about ,for example,how old must be to get married,or to drive a car.diferrent states punish criminals differently too;in some states,you must die if you murder sdomeone,but in others you only go to prison.The island of puerto rieo in the caribbean is not a state.but is it not indeoendent either.People from puerto rico do not pay american taxes and cannot vote in American elections
there are two important political parties:the Republicans and the Democrats. The Republicans want people to work to help themselves,and so they think that taxes should be low.the democrats think that the government should help the poor and so it need taxes.But the difference between the two is not always clear.After the 2000 election a map showed that the democrat dtates were on the north-east and west coasts and around the great lakes in the North,but the Republican states were across the centre and in the south of the USA.