Is the Judiciary Independent?

Listen to Mack and Steve discuss checks, balances, and how it always comes back to we, the people.

REFERENCES

There’s three coequal branches:

The White House. “Our Government.” https://www.whitehouse.gov/government/

Take France:

Georgetown Law Library. “The Structure of the French Legal System.” https://guides.ll.georgetown.edu/francelegalresearch/legalsystem

Or Britain:

Courts and Tribunals Judiciary. “Overview of the Judiciary.” https://www.judiciary.uk/about-the-judiciary/history-of-the-judiciary-in-england-and-wales/history-of-the-judiciary/

What you would call a civil law system:

Legal Information Institute. “Civil Law.” Reviewed October 2022. Cornell Law School. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/civil_law

Stemming from Roman law code, which was codified under Justinian:

Jolowicz, Herbert Felix, and Kiralfy, Alber Roland. “The Law of Justinian.” Reviewed March 26, 2025. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Roman-law/The-law-of-Justinian

Later you had the Napoleonic code:

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Napoleonic Code.” Updated April 30, 2025. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Napoleonic-Code

We were part of the common law tradition that comes from England:

Legal Information Institute. “Common Law.” Reviewed May 2020. Cornell Law School. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/common_law

Even in states where judges are elected:

Ballotpedia. “Judicial Election Methods by State.” https://ballotpedia.org/Judicial_election_methods_by_state

What a negative election is:

National Conference of State Legislatures. “Recall of State Officials.” https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/recall-of-state-officials

Georgia does it that way:

Ballotpedia. “Laws Governing Recall in Georgia.” https://ballotpedia.org/Laws_governing_recall_in_Georgia

The ground zero of law:

National Archives. “The Constitution of the Unites States: A Transcription.” https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript

Three-fourths of the state ratifying conventions voted to ratify, and eventually all of them did:

NCC Staff. “The Day the Constitution Was Ratified.” June 21, 2024. National Constitution Center. https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-day-the-constitution-was-ratified

The entire“supreme law of the land” quote:

“This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”

Constitution Annotated. “Article VI.” https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-6/

A little about how it got ratified:

Glover, Lorri. “Nothing Inevitable: The Struggle for Ratification.” Organization of American Historians. https://www.oah.org/tah/the-american-republic/nothing-inevitable-the-struggle-for-ratification/

In case you are unfamiliar with this thing called precedent:

Legal Information Institute. “Precedent.” Reviewed March 2024. Cornell Law School. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/precedent

They ruled that somebody shouldn’t be deported from the country:

Martínez-Beltrán, Sergio. “Supreme Court Extends Pause on Deportations Under Alien Enemies Act in Texas.” May 16, 2025. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/05/16/g-s1-67244/supreme-court-texas-alien-enemies-act

That’s what you usually think about when you think about judges, the ones under Article III: