Last week, Brooklyn Family Court Judge Alan Beckoff discussed recent attacks on the judiciary during his Law Day speech. However, this week’s speeches discussed other checks and balances and the history of the notion of separation of powers.

“There is nothing more fundamental than the idea that unchecked power leads to bad things,” said Richter.

Allard discussed the idea that there are actually six branches of government rather than the traditional judicial, legislative and executive branches. These included the states themselves, the press and the people.

“Every grade school student in the U.S. learns about the three branches of government,” Allard said. “That’s American law 101, but that’s just the brilliance of our system and the separation of powers. There are powers put in other reservoirs of the Constitution that are meant to hold the government accountable and to ensure that it will always be of the people, by the people and for the people.”

Allard used climate change and immigration matters and the press’ ability to hold government’s feet to the fire as examples of issues in which states differ from the federal government.

“The sixth, and most powerful of them all, is the nuclear option — the people,” Allard said. “Ultimately, our system of government is limited and people hand power over to the government only if it is supposed to be doing what they need done that they can’t do for themselves. When the government fails, the people take back their inalienable rights. We’ve seen that with Black Lives Matter, the #MeToo movement and the Parkland Strong effort.”

Knipel explained a bit of the history behind the separation of powers and talked about how remarkable it is that the United States is the first nation to implement true judicial independence.

“Historically, the judicial function was thought of as a branch of the executive function,” said Knipel. “It was King Solomon in the Bible who was the judge. There was no separate entity. In America, when we were still the colonies, it was the king’s justice that everyone was annoyed with and the king’s justice that we revolted against.”

Knipel went on to discuss how judicial review, which after much debate, was left out of our constitution. However, it later became law of the land after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Marbury v. Madison.

After mentioning recent attacks on the independence of the judiciary, Knipel said that it was up to the bench and the people to stand up for the idea of the judiciary as a separate and independent branch of the government.

“Today, America’s judiciary is among the most, if not the most, independent and consequential in the world,” Knipel said. “This obliges us to exercise restraint and to allow the other branches as much latitude as possible to properly function under the law. Also, we have an obligation to vigorously self-regulate ourselves to justify the responsibility to which we are trusted.”

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Family Court Law Day talks separation of powers and recent attacks on the judiciary

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