According to Governing States and Localities in most states the governor has the power to appoint judges, but some have more say in who gets appointed and who doesn’t (297). Governing States and Localities also states that “having loyal foot soldiers on your team rather than free agents is important for governors who want things done their way” (248). This helps for the executive branch to check the power of the judicial branch, because the judges that get appointed will most likely rule on cases that the governor agrees on. The governor also has the power to grant pardons. Governing States and Localities reports that “Governors, like the president, can forgive crimes or commute (change) sentences if they feel that particular persons have been convicted unfairly” and “the decision to pardon is theirs and theirs alone” (251). This is a huge check on the power of the judicial branch for the executive branch to have. Basically, if the governor doesn’t agree with a conviction they can choose to override the decision of the judicial branch and let the person convicted of a crime free or lessen their …show more content…
The legislative branch holds the power to write laws and some of those laws include the maximum punishments for crimes. So, if the judicial branch finds someone guilty of a crime the type of punishment that the person receives comes from the legislative branch and not the judicial branch. This helps to limit the power of the judicial branch and keeps it from having the ultimate say over whether someone is guilty and what punishment they receive. Another check that the legislative branch has on the judicial branch is that the legislative branch establishes the court budget. The legislative branch holds the power over how much money goes into the judicial branch. Being able to control how much money can be spent by the judicial branch correlates to how much power the judicial branch can have. The phrase “money is power” can be applied to this, without the funds to pay for the expenses of the judicial branch, the less power they can