The recent federal court order forcing the White House to restore press access for CNN and other outlets is a neat illustration of separated powers doing what they’re supposed to do: an independent judiciary stepping in to check executive overreach, in defence of due process and a free press. Most political systems don’t have that kind of self-correcting mechanism built in. Power tends to concentrate and stay concentrated. No constitution is perfect, but as someone who spent a fair amount of time studying comparative government, I still think the US Constitution holds up remarkably well as a piece of political engineering.