Argumentative Essay: The Supreme Court

The Supreme Court often checks Congress of the constitutionality of the laws that it passes. If a citizen feels that the law that Congress passes violates their rights, then he or she will be able to challenge the law if the Court decides to hear the case. When the Supreme Court rules a law unconstitutional, that law is now void. This would clearly irritate someone in Congress, wouldn’t it? In the past Congress has attempted to limit the effect of congress two different ways. The first thing that Congress has been thought to have tried “There has been research involving ‘court-curbing’ attempts by congress” (Ignagni, Meernik 354). Joseph Ignagni and James Meernik quote Harry Stumpf defines “court-curbing”, “any congressional bill having as its purpose . . . an alteration in the structure or functioning of the Supreme Court as an institution” (354). This would further limit or …show more content…
Strumpf defines this as a “proposed congressional legislation . . . to modify the legal result or impact or perceived legal result or impact a specific Supreme Court decision, or decisions” (Ignagni, Meernik 355). Although this may be thought to be less impactful than the previous strategy, it can still be very effective way of undermining the Supreme Court. As described by Ignagni and Meernik, “Here the goal is not to do permanent damage to the Court but instead to overturn its construction of a statute” (355). Its has been noticed that the likelihood for congress to seek out a reversal or a limitation of congresses power increases when the American public is more irritated or aroused by the outcome of the case heard. If Congress notices the agitation of the people, they might be more inclined to attempt to overturn a Supreme Court Decision in order to gain a favorable opinion from the people. This may be because of their concern for