coequal

Voters can hold incumbents accountable in elections — political scientists call this “vertical accountability” — as can coequal branches of government, which we call “horizontal accountability.”

And the alleged phrase captures the administration’s attitude toward the judiciary, a coequal branch of government, though you’d hardly know it by the justices’ kowtowing to the executive branch.

The confrontation between two supposedly coequal branches of government has reached a critical stage.

"We have a very subservient U.S. Congress, led by Republicans that, quite frankly, are not exercising their authority as a coequal branch of government in holding this White House accountable," Veasey said.

Congress is cowed; that’s one supposedly coequal branch of government down.