Explain Why Is The Court's Absence Of Judicial Enforcement

7. Why is the Court’s absence of judicial enforcement important?
The absence of enforcement authority has allowed Congress and the president at times to ignore Supreme Court rulings. Congress and presidents have good reasons for favoring this approach that allows Congress to delegate lawmaking discretion to the executive branch without surrendering ultimate control. A bureaucrat is free to design a policy within broad guidelines, but if it drifts too far away from the legislature’s intent, Congress can rescind it by passing a resolution. Presidents realize that Congress is more willing to relax control when it knows it can easily reassert its preferences if it disagrees with the bureaucracy’s implementation of a policy. By continuing to honor these statutory provisions, designed to create more flexible principal-agency relations, the …show more content…
When the elected branches have decided on a course of action-even on controversial issues-they usually prevail. However, the absence of enforcement authority has allowed Congress and the president at times to ignore Supreme Court rulings. Presidents realize that Congress is more willing to relax control when it knows it can easily reassert its preferences if it disagrees with the bureaucracy’s implementation of a policy. By continuing to honor these statutory provisions, designed to create more flexible principal-agency relations, the elected branches have colluded informally to “overrule” the Supreme Court’s verdict on the unconstitutionality of the legislative veto. Several provisions of the Constitution equip Congress and the president with the power to rein in the Supreme Court when they disagree with its decisions. Article III allows Congress to set the jurisdiction of the Court and to create lower