Supreme Court Checks & Balances
Political Studies: Edexcel A Level, topic 15.5.3
Checks and Balances
The Supreme Court is powerful through its use of judicial review and significant policy rulings, however, the Supreme Court has no enforcement power and Congress and the public check the court's power.
Powerful
- The Supreme Court has significant powers of judicial review, overruling Acts of Congress and changing policy.
- The Supreme Court is arguably too powerful because it is unelected and unaccountable.
- The Supreme Court can change policies with major societal impact, such as abortion and immigration.
- The 2007 Gonzales v Carhart case banned a specific type of abortion procedure.
- Arizona v. United States (2012) struck down Arizona's immigration laws for conflicting with federal authority.
Judicial Review
- The Supreme Court uses its judicial review power to rule actions by the executive or Congress as unconstitutional.
- The Supreme Court gave itself its judicial review power in the 1803 Marbury v Madison case.
- The Supreme Court increasingly rules Acts of Congress unconstitutional.
- The 2017 Matal v Tam case overruled a section of the 1946 Lanham Act.
- The 2012 Miller v Alabama case overruled Alabama's mandatory life sentence of a juvenile offender as unconstitutional.
Unpopular decisions
- The Supreme Court has the power to make decisions which do not represent the majority of the public.
- The 2018 Trump v Hawaii case upheld President Trump's travel restrictions on people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.
Congress checks
- Congress checks the power of the Supreme Court.
- The House of Representatives has the power to impeach Supreme Court justices.
- Congress can pass amendments to the Constitution which override Supreme Court rulings.
- The 26th Amendment in 1971 lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.
- The 19th Amendment in 1920 gave women the right to vote.
No enforcement power
- The Supreme Court cannot enforce its rulings and needs Congress and the executive to carry out its rulings.
Public opinion and reaction
- Public opinion acts as a check on the Supreme Court's power because justices can be restrained by their awareness of public reaction to the Court's decisions.
- The 2012 National Federation of Independent Business v Sebelius case upheld the Affordable Care Act.
- The 2012 ruling followed months of public pressure on the Court to uphold the law, including from President Obama who said it would be “unprecedented” if the Court overruled the act.
Test yourself on Supreme Court Checks & Balances
In which case did the Supreme Court first give itself its judicial review power?
Checks on the Supreme Court?