Tag Archives: Supreme Court

The success of Proposition 8 shows that the California Supreme Court overreached back in May and was slapped down by the voters – just as President Jackson once slapped down Chief Justice Marshall (not Jackson’s best moment, but a good example of the effective limits of judicial authority).

In the wake of the disastrous Dred Scott decision, it took two decades and the patient work of a new generation of justices to rebuild the Supreme Court’s moral authority. These consequences ought to be warning for those members of the Supreme Court and nominees who may consider themselves to be some kind of super-legislature to humble themselves a bit and stick to interpreting the law and Constitution as written. Continue reading →