Tuesday, October 13, 2020

The Supreme Court's Job

According to Tucker Carlson:
The Supreme Court exists only to determine whether the laws that our politicians write are consistent with the Constitution of the United States. That’s why we have a Supreme Court. It’s the only reason we have it.

According to the US Constitution:
The judicial Power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. ... The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority; -- to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls; -- to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction; -- to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party; -- to Controversies between two or more States; -- between a State and Citizens of another State [Modified by Amendment XI]; -- between Citizens of different States; -- between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.


Not only is  "determin[ing] whether the laws that our politicians write are consistent with the Constitution of the United States" not the Supreme Court's only job, the claim that it's the Supreme Court's job at all has remained somewhat controversial ever since the framing of the Constitution, and long after Chief Justice John Marshall asserted the Court's power of judicial review in Madison v. Marbury.

Carlson might want to start keeping copies of the Constitution and relevant commentaries on his desk (or, more likely, on the table in his show's/column's writers' room).

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