We began today's session by briefly reviewing of the prior weeks' main topics. We reviewed that the separation of powers refers to the division of government into three distinct branches in order to limit any one branch from exercising too much power over the other two. Ben recalled its primary purpose as that of preventing the concentration of power and to provide for checks and balances. We next discussed the judicial branch, which was created by Article III of the Constitution. We summarized its main purpose as one of interpreting laws and determining whether they've been appropriately followed. Ben found it interesting to learn that federal judges are appointed, not elected, and that they stay on the bench until they retire, die, or are removed for bad behavior. We discussed Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a notable example as she served as US Supreme Court Justice and just recently died (in September of 2020). We discussed that she was known as a trailblazer since she fought for gender equality and became a hero for the progressive movement, and briefly discussed the progressive movement as one characterized as one furthering social and political reform. Next, we read how Article IV of the Constitution describes how states should interact with each other and that each state has to respect the laws and court decisions of other states. A vocabulary term that came up during discussion was 'extradition.' Article IV states that if a criminal flees from one state to another, the state where the crime was committed can request that the criminal be returned, or 'extradited,' to that state to face charges. We concluded our session talking about changes to the Constitution can be made. Ben answered questions correctly regarding the material. He agreed that our Founding fathers did allow for changes to be made, but correctly added that such changes, or 'amendments' are very difficult to pass as they take a lot of agreement from the states to ratify.