• huginn
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    4 months ago

    […] Schumer has written into the bill “jurisdiction stripping” measures that would remove the Supreme Court’s authority to render the legislation unconstitutional, and allow only lower courts in the District of Columbia to handle a legal challenge. Such jurisdiction stripping has been seldom used in the past and would likely be highly controversial.

    TIL Jurisdiction Stripping - Wild I thought that Sup Court always had that check on Congress.

    • nfh@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      IANAL, but to my understanding, SCOTUS is defined by the constitution and given certain powers and protections, to interpret the constitution, mediate disputes between the political branches, and certain duties given to its chief Justice. Congress is given broad powers to set the laws, which includes details of how branches are run, like creating departments in the Executive, and setting the number of Justices on SCOTUS.

      If I understand Jurisdiction Stripping correctly, it’s not preventing SCOTUS from eventually reviewing the case, but a law that says they don’t get the first review of legal challenges. It could slow the process, at the very least.

      • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Didn’t they largely establish that power themselves through Marbury vs Madison in 1803?

        That elevation / clarity of their authority wasn’t a massive problem until the last 10 or so years when they started going off the deep-end.

        • nfh@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Yeah Marbury v Madison found that congress can decide which cases SCOTUS reviews directly, vs where the authority of lower courts starts. But it’s not in conflict with the other principle from Marbury v Madison, that SCOTUS has the power to review whether laws are constitutional or not. If I understand correctly, at least.

          Before Trump, the worst issue the growing authority of the court caused was a shift from Congress making major policy changes, to SCOTUS. Congress changing that could be a change for the better in the long run.