Does The Supreme Court Abuse Its Power?

Does The Supreme Court Abuse Its Power?

There have been many complaints and theories of how the Supreme Court has a tendency to act as a "supra-legislature" (Woll 153). It is proposed that the Supreme Court takes the

power to make laws and set policies which rightfully belongs to the Congress and state legislatures. They state that Justices exceed their authorized powers of judicial review

and read their own opinions and views into the Constitution and are in fact "politicians in robes" (Woll 533, Sheldon xi).

Alexander Hamilton's definiton of the Supreme Court's power of judicial review was argued in Federalist No. 78.

He states that the main purpose of this power is a check ont he legislature where the Supreme Court is an "excellent barrier to the encroachments and oppressions of therepresentative body ... to secure a steady, upright, and impartial administration of the laws." He also gives the Supreme Court the power to rule on state laws by judging them against the Constitution: "But the act of an original and superior authority takes precedence over that of a derivative and subordinate one, and so judges must adhere to the Constitution before a statute" (Wolfe 74-75). Hamilton sets the power definition of the Court with those lines.

Many feel that the fears of the Court taking power from the legislative and executive branches are unfounded on the basis that the Court is too weak to do so. Hamilton argued that since that it was dependent upon the executive for the enforcement of its decisions and had to be wary of the legislative check of impeachment, there could not be any "series of deliberate usurpations" of power (Wolfe 76).

They are also limited in that they cannot initiate l...

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McKenna, George and Stanley Feingold, eds. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Political Issues.

Fifth Ed. Guilford, Connecticut: Dushkin Publishing Group, Inc., 1987.

Press, Aric and Ann McDaniel. "Where Bork Stands." Newsweek 14 Sept. 1987: 24-34.

Sheldon, Charles H. The Supreme Court: Politicians in Robes. London: Glencoe Press, 1970.

Taylor, Stuart, Jr. "Bork's Colleagues Like the Man, Not His Thinking: Yale Friends Look Back at Top Court Pick." Gazette Telegraph [Colorado Springs, CO] 13 Sept. 1987: A7.

Wolfe, Christopher. The Rise of Modern Judicial Review: From Constitutional Interpretation to Judge-Made Law. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1986.

Woll, Peter. American Government: Readings and Cases. Ninth Ed. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1987. Transcribed to HTML on 1997-09-29 by David Wallace Croft.