I see in the news all the time so and so judge blocks this bill? How does one judge hold that much power?
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Can you give us an example, I think you (and other comments) may be conflating a few things that are a little different.
Judges can’t block bills — bills are non-binding “drafts” that are passed by legislature, and become laws. What I think you may be thinking of is a judge the legislature has called to testify on a bill saying that the bill would be illegal, and then the legislature blocks the bill based on their advice. That happens very often. Or, sometimes judges do rule laws unconstitutional and can prevent enforcing them, but that’s actually sort of rare
In the case of judges stopping laws, that’s not just the judge — there needs to be a cause of action, and someone suing the government or suing someone else and invoking that law. They can’t go around overturning decisions or laws because they want to, but if it comes up and is important to their decision they sometimes have to
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