Exactly. Very telling that this appears to need explicit mentioning.

Thanks for this context! Pretty pivotal piece of info.

If a court isn't independent of the executive, something is very seriously wrong (see Poland)

To be clear, in the US the justice department is under the exec branch. The courts themselves are further disconnected.

It is the same in France, the courts are independent in principle, while prosecutors remain under executive control but since 2013 they should not give orders on individual cases.

France has an additional layer of independence compared to the U.S. because of the juge d’instruction (investigating judge), who is also supposed to be independent from the executive, unlike prosecutors.

I say in principle because, judges are appointed in France and not elected. The executive as some control through appointments and career advancements but they are not supposed to use it to sanction or reward the judges.

The effectiveness of these independence mechanisms remains a subject of active debate, as evidenced by the relatively recent changes made to them.