> checks and balances of power

Only in theory, when it comes to National Security Letters.

If you can't prove the government spied on you specifically, you can't take them to court to get a check or balance.

In the Feds, you have 14 days to appeal your sentence. That is not fair access to a check. That time includes transfer from the court to a Federal Detention Center (lots of holding cell time with no access to a law library), transfer from a Federal Detention Center to your final place of incarceration via diesel therapy, etc. The USA used to allow unlimited time for appeals but that was clogging up the courts, so a happy balance between 0 and unlimited time to exercise your rights to access to the courts was agreed to, which the American Federal justice system determined to be 14 days (fun fact, they actually originally tried for a shorter appeal period than 14 days).

Edit: Sorry, 14 days for the defendant to appeal. The Feds team gets longer (because they have less resources than a locked up person I guess, some animals have more rights than others in American courts)

https://www.justice.gov/jm/jm-2-4000-time-appeal-or-petition...