>I have a question: what if the guy upstream dammed the river and then tried to sell you the water?

It was done in the early 70s. A golf community was built and required a dam. Water must flow at a certain rate over the dam or they must open the gates. They were exposed by my father, on television in the 80s when they had claimed to open the dam but did not. Its a very funny video as my father and a local news reporter literally walked up on the poor employee as he's opening the gate. He had received a call from the lying administrator immediately following the meeting.

>Why can't he do that?

Look up vested rights.

>And when you asserted your rights in Court, was that an example of the system of checks and balances working, or was it a failure of all aspects of government including the Court itself?

The rights have already been established, decades earlier. It is criminal harassment to repeatedly challenge a citizen over previously established rights. Yet it is done over and over as new generations of bureaucrats replace the previous who already knew this stuff. When they get pressure from bought and paid for politicians the pressure ramps up and the citizen is forced to defend or re-assert their rights through an expensive legal process. The failure lies with the overwhelming power of the State. The system is broken and if your rights are challenged and you do not defend them you lose them.

My example is but a small anecdote for the greater problem of State power. If you are really interested in overwhelming destruction of the rights of the citizenry look at the activities of the California Coastal Commission.