Skip to content Skip to main menu
  • News
  • Events
  • Law Library
  • Giving
  • Alumni
  • Quicklinks

    • Academic Calendar
    • bCourses Overview
    • bCourses Link
    • Schedule of Classes
    • Academic Rules
    • View Evaluations
    • UC Berkeley Law Logo (Identity)
    • RoloLaw
    • Event, Catering and Food Policy
    • Emergency Info
    • Resource Hub for Faculty & Staff
    • COVID-19 Information

    Support

    • Remote Teaching Resources
    • Computing Support
    • Faculty Support Unit
    • Berkeley Law Events
    • Business Services
    • Faculty Services (Library)
    • Human Resources & Academic Personnel
    • Instructional Technology
    • Phones
    • Room Reservations
    • Building Services
    • Resources to Respond to Sexual Harassment
  • Quicklinks

    • Academic Calendar
    • b-Line
    • Berkeley Law Facebook
    • Financial Aid
    • Faculty Profiles
    • Schedule of Classes
    • Teaching Evaluations
    • Final Exam Review Session Schedule
    • Exams
    • Final Exam Schedule
    • CalCentral
    • COVID-19 Information
    • Event, Catering and Food Policy
    • Emergency Info
    • Resource Hub for Students

    For Students

    • Dean of Students Office
    • Academic Policies
    • Academic Skills Program
    • Student Organizations
    • Student Journals
    • Commencement
    • Bookstore
    • Wellness at Berkeley Law
    • Registrar
    • University Health Services
    • Resources to Respond to Sexual Harassment
    • Inclusive Restrooms
  • Search for People at Berkeley Law

UC Berkeley Law
    • Academics Home
    • Areas of Study
      • Criminal Justice
      • Environment and Energy
      • Human Rights
      • Social Justice and Public Interest
        • Curriculum
          • J.D. Path
          • LL.M. Path
        • Social Justice+Public Interest Community at Berkeley Law
          • Public Interest and Pro Bono Graduation
      • Business and Start-ups
        • Business Law Curriculum
        • Business Law Faculty
      • Law and Technology
        • Student Activities
        • Law and Tech Curriculum
        • Law and Tech Faculty
      • Environmental Law
      • International and Comparative Law
        • Centers, Clinics, and Programs
        • Faculty
        • Student Activities
      • Constitutional and Regulatory
      • Law and Economics
        • Faculty
        • Prospective Students
        • Visiting Scholars
        • Law and Economics Fellowship
    • J.D. Program
      • First-Year Curriculum
      • Concurrent Degree Programs
      • Combined Degree Programs
      • Berkeley-Harvard Degree Programs
    • LL.M. Programs
      • Current Academic Calendars
      • LL.M. Executive Track
        • Past LL.M. Executive Track Academic Calendars
          • 2023 LL.M. Executive Track Academic Calendar
          • 2022 LL.M. Executive Track Academic Calendar
          • 2021 LL.M. Executive Track Academic Calendar
          • 2020 LL.M. Executive Track Academic Calendar
          • 2019 LL.M. Executive Track Academic Calendar
          • 2018 LL.M. Executive Track Academic Calendar
        • LL.M. Executive Track Courses
      • LL.M. Traditional Track
        • Current Academic Calendars
      • LL.M. Courses
      • Certificates of Specialization
      • Application & Admission
        • Steps to Apply
        • Application Forms & Deadlines
        • Eligibility & Admission Standards
        • Application Checklist
        • Admissions Policies
        • Check Application Status
      • Tuition & Financial Aid
        • Cost of Attendance
        • Scholarships
        • Ways to Fund Your Studies
          • Financial Aid Checklist for LL.M./J.S.D. Students
        • FAQ Financial Aid
      • Admitted Students
        • Visas
        • Housing Resources
        • Cancellation & Refund Policies
      • Join an Event & Connect with LL.M. Staff
        • Recruiting and Informational Events
        • Visit Us!
        • Contact Us
      • Meet Our Students
        • LL.M. Thesis Track Student Profiles
      • Meet Our Partners
      • Questions? Start Here
    • Doctoral Programs
      • J.S.D. Program
        • Application & Admission
          • Steps to Apply
          • Application Form & Deadline
          • Eligibility & Admission Standards
          • Application Checklist
          • Check Application Status
        • J.S.D. Tuition & Financial Aid
          • Cost of Attendance for JSD
          • Robbins J.S.D. Fellowship
        • J.S.D. Student Profiles
          • Zehra Betul Ayranci
          • Ella Corren
          • Silvia Fregoni
          • George Lambeth Vicent
          • Sylvia Si-Wei Lu
          • Natsuda Rattamanee
          • Youngmin Seo
          • Abdullah Alkayat Alazemi ’21
          • Mehtab Khan ’21
          • Maximilien Zahnd ’21
          • Shao-Man Lee ’20
          • Alvaro Pereira ’20
        • Contact Us
      • Ph.D. Program – Jurisprudence and Social Policy (JSP)
        • JSP Student Awards cont.
        • JSP Student Placements cont.
        • Events Calendar »
    • Certificates & Honors
    • Executive Education
    • Schedule of Classes
      • One Year Curriculum Planner
    • Current Academic Calendars
      • 2024-2025 Academic Calendar
      • 2025 LL.M. Executive Track Calendar
      • Past Academic Calendars
        • 2023-2024 Academic Calendar
        • 2022-2023 Academic Calendar
        • 2021-2022 Academic Calendar
        • 2020-2021 Academic Calendar
        • 2019-2020 Academic Calendar
        • 2018-2019 Academic Calendar
        • 2017-2018 Academic Calendar
        • 2016-2017 Academic Calendar
        • 2015-2016 Academic Calendar
        • 2014-2015 Academic Calendar
        • 2013-2014 Academic Calendar
        • 2012-2013 Academic Calendar
        • 2011-2012 Academic Calendar
        • 2010-2011 Academic Calendar
        • 2009-2010 Academic Calendar
        • 2008-2009 Academic Calendar
      • Future Academic Calendars
        • 2025-2026 Academic Calendar
    • Registrar
      • Order of the Coif and Dean’s List
      • Academic Rules
        • Supplemental Academic Rules for Traditional Track LL.M. Students
        • Academic Honor Code
        • Academic Rules Petition
        • Academic Rule 3.06 – applies to the Class of 2010 and before
        • Credit Hours
      • Registration
      • Transcripts
      • Verification of Attendance
      • Registrar’s Forms
      • Ordering a Diploma »
      • J.D. Academic Guidance
        • 3L Requirements FAQ
        • 3L Degree Worksheet
      • Registrar’s Student FAQ
      • Bar Information
        • State Bar Swearing-In Ceremony Information
          • State Bar Swearing-In Ceremony – Who’s Coming
    • Admissions Home
    • J.D. Admissions
      • Applying for the J.D. Degree
        • Ready to Apply
        • After You’ve Applied
        • Transfer & Visiting Student Applicants
        • Pre-Law Preparatory Academy
        • FAQs
      • Entering Class Profile
      • Connect with Admissions
        • Plan Your Visit
        • Virtual Engagement
        • Recruitment Events
        • Law Building Tour
        • View the Prospectus
        • Contact LL.M. Admissions
        • Contact J.S.P. Admissions
      • Meet Our Students
      • Studying at Berkeley Law
      • Living in the Bay Area
      • Concurrent & Combined Degree Programs
      • Faculty Admissions Policy
      • Financial Aid
        • Prospective and Entering Students
          • Entering Student Registration & Financial Aid Information
          • Financial Aid for International J.D. Students
          • Financial Aid for Undocumented J.D. Students
          • Legal Resident Information
        • Types of Aid
          • Scholarships
          • Loans
          • Work-Study
          • Native American Opportunity Plan
          • Financial Aid for Active Military and Veteran J.D. Students
          • Resources For Bar Related Expenses
        • How to Apply
          • Financial Aid Checklist & Timeline For Entering Students
          • Financial Aid Checklist & Timeline For Continuing Students
          • Financial Aid Checklist & Timeline For Incoming Transfer Students
        • Tuition & Fees
          • Cost of Attendance Adjustments
        • Forms
        • PDST-Increase Offset Awards (PIOAs)
        • Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP)
          • LRAP Eligibility Guidelines
          • LRAP Eligibility Calculator
          • How to Apply for LRAP
          • LRAP Forms
          • Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)
          • News & Updates
          • LRAP & PSLF Testimonials
          • LRAP FAQs
        • Satisfactory Academic Progress
        • Withdrawals and Financial Aid
        • Info Sessions & Presentations
        • Financial Literacy
        • Financial Aid – J.D. Concurrent Degree Programs
        • FAQ & Glossary
        • Requesting a Financial Aid Award for a Student
        • About Our Team
      • Outreach Partnerships
      • Admitted Students – First-Year »
      • Admitted Students – Transfer & Visitor Status »
      • For Current Berkeley Law Students
      • Admissions Policies
      • ABA Required Disclosures »
    • LL.M. Admissions
    • J.S.D. Admissions
    • Ph.D. (JSP) Admissions
    • Visiting Scholar and Visiting Student Researcher Admissions
    • Faculty & Research Home
    • Faculty Experts by Topic
    • Faculty Profiles
    • Deans Emeritus Lecturers
    • Recent Faculty Scholarship
    • Awards and Honors
    • Faculty on Social Media
    • Faculty in the News
    • Featured Research
    • Centers, Institutes & Initiatives
    • Experiential Home
    • Clinical Program
      • Apply to the Clinics
      • Death Penalty Clinic
        • About the Clinic
          • Faculty and Staff
          • Alumni
        • Clinic News
        • Projects and Cases
          • Death Penalty Clinic Amicus Curiae Briefs
          • Guess Who’s Coming to Jury Duty?: How the Failure to Collect Juror Demographic Data Contributes to Whitewashing the Jury Box
          • Whitewashing the Jury Box: How California Perpetuates the Discriminatory Exclusion of Black and Latinx Jurors
        • Information for Students
        • Resources and Publications
          • Capital Defense Internships and Jobs
        • Donate to the Clinic
      • East Bay Community Law Center
      • Environmental Law Clinic
        • About the Clinic
        • Information for Students
        • Newsletters
        • Clinic News
        • Student Voices
        • Faculty and Staff
        • Alumni
        • Donate to the Clinic
        • Lawsuit Filed Over Radioactive Waste at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard
      • Global Rights Innovation Lab Clinic
        • About Us
        • Information for Students
      • Human Rights Clinic
        • About the Clinic
          • Alumni
          • Faculty and Staff
        • Clinic News
        • Projects and Cases
          • Featured Reports and Projects
          • Accountability and Transitional Justice
          • Promoting Human Rights in the United States
          • A Rights-Based Approach to Combating Poverty: Economic, Social & Cultural Rights
          • Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights
        • Resources and Publications by Focal Area
        • Information for Students
          • Student Self-Reflection
        • Donate to the Clinic
      • Policy Advocacy Clinic
        • About Us
        • People
          • Georgia Valentine
        • Clinic News
        • Resources and Publications
        • Juvenile Fees
          • COVID-19 Action on Juvenile Fees
          • Juvenile Fee Abolition in California
        • Adult Fees
          • Ending Unjust and Ineffective Criminal Fees in California
        • Students
        • Donate to the Clinic
      • Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic
        • About
          • Faculty and Staff
          • Clinic Alumni
          • Partners
        • Clinic News
        • Our Work
        • Information for Students
        • Access Reports
      • Social Enterprise Clinic
        • About Us
        • Information for Students
        • Our Work
      • Clinical Program Annual Report
        • Annual Report Archive
      • The Brian M. Sax Prize for Excellence in Clinical Advocacy
        • Brian M. Sax
        • Recipients
    • Pro Bono Program
      • The Pro Bono Pledge
        • Definition of Pro Bono
      • Log Your Pro Bono Hours
        • Definition of Pro Bono
      • Student-Initiated Legal Services Projects (SLPS)
        • How to Apply
        • Current Student-Initiated Legal Services Projects
          • Animal Law and Advocacy
          • Arts and Innovation Representation
          • Berkeley Immigration Group
          • Berkeley Law Anti-Trafficking Project
          • Berkeley Law and Organizing Collective
          • Business Community Legal Advice Workshop
          • California Asylum Representation Clinic
          • Clean Energy Leaders In Law
          • Climate Migration & Displacement Project
          • Consumer Protection Public Policy Order
          • Contra Costa Reentry Project
          • Digital Rights Project
          • Disability Rights Project
          • Drug Policy, Education, and Decriminalization Project
          • East Bay Dreamers Project
          • Environmental Conservation Outreach
          • Family Defense Project
          • Food Justice Project
          • Foster Education Project
          • Free The Land Project
          • Gun Violence Prevention Project
          • Homelessness Service Project
          • International Human Rights Workshop
          • International Refugee Assistance Project
          • La Alianza Workers’ and Tenants’ Rights Clinic
          • Legal Automation Workshop
          • Legal Obstacles Veterans Encounter
          • Name and Gender Change Workshop
          • Native American Legal Assistance Project
          • Palestine Advocacy Legal Assistance Project
          • Police Review Project
          • Political and Election Empowerment Project
          • Post-Conviction Advocacy Project
          • Queer Justice Project
          • Reentry Advocacy Project
          • Reproductive Justice Project
          • Startup Law Initiative
          • Survivor Advocacy Project
          • Tenants’ Rights Workshop
          • Workers’ Rights Clinic
          • Youth Advocacy Project
        • How to Start a New SLP
        • Inactive Student-Initiated Legal Services Projects
          • AI Legal Workshop
          • Berkeley Abolitionist Lawyering Project
          • Berkeley Immigration Law Clinic
          • Berkeley Students in Support of Arts and Innovation
          • Civil Rights Outreach Project (CROP)
          • Community Restorative Justice Project
          • Community Defense Project
          • Juvenile Hall Outreach
          • Karuk-Berkeley Collaborative Legal
          • Local Economies and Entrepreneurship Project
          • Prisoner Advocacy Network
          • Wage Justice Clinic
          • Workers’ Rights Disability Law Clinic
      • Berkeley Law Alternative Service Trips (BLAST)
        • Current Berkeley Law Alternative Service Trips (BLAST)
          • Alaska
          • Atlanta
          • Central Valley
          • Hawai’i
          • Kentucky
          • Mississippi
          • Montana
          • U.S./Mexico Border
        • Inactive Berkeley Law Alternative Service Trips
          • Los Angeles
          • South Texas
          • Tijuana
      • Call for Necessary Engagement in Community & Timely Response (CNECT)
        • Berkeley Law Afghanistan Project
        • Current & Past CNECT Partners
          • Hub for Equity in Administrative Representation
          • Racial Justice Legal Research Bank Project
        • CNECT News
      • Independent Projects
      • Opportunities for LL.M. Students
      • Supervising Attorneys
      • Pro Bono Spotlights
        • IRAP Project
        • David Nahmias
        • Angélica César & Mackenzie Gettel
        • Skylar Cushing
        • Addie Gilson & Eli McClintock-Shapiro
        • Tori Porell, Supervising Attorney FosterEd
        • Drug Policy, Education, and Decriminalization (DECrim) Project
        • Caity Lynch, JD ’25
        • Berkeley Immigration Group SLP Supervising Attorneys
        • Family Defense Project
        • Gabby Cirelli, JD ’24
        • Brooke D’Amore Bradley, JD ’23
        • Taiya Tkachuk, ’24
        • Emily Chuah ’24
        • Malak Afaneh ’24
        • KeAndra Hollis ’24
        • Maripau Paz ’24
        • Lucero Cordova ’23
        • Bharti Tyagi ’21
        • Benji Martinez ’23
        • Will Morrow ’23
        • Stephanie Clemente ’23
        • Francesco Arreaga ’21
        • Armbien Sabillo ’21
        • Kelsey Peden ’21
        • Jennifer Sherman ‘22
        • Professor Khiara M. Bridges
        • Professor Kristen Holmquist
      • Awards
      • Law Firm Pro Bono Programs
      • New York Bar Pro Bono Requirement
      • For Public Interest & Pro Bono Providers
    • Professional Skills Program
      • Legal Research, Analysis, and Writing Program
      • Elective Skills Courses
    • Advocacy Competitions Program
      • Eligibility by Class Year
      • Internal Competitions
        • McBaine Honors Moot Court
          • 2025 McBaine Competition
          • McBaine Honors Moot Court Competition 2024 Photo Essay
          • Previous Years’ McBaine Competitions
          • Past McBaine Winners
          • McBaine — Frequently Asked Questions
          • Helpful Materials
        • Halloum Negotiation Competition (Spring)
          • Competition FAQ
          • Previous Winners
        • Halloum Business Competition (Fall)
        • Bales Trial Competition
      • External Competitions (BOA)
        • BOA Tryouts
        • Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Team
        • Moot Court Team
        • Tech & IP Team
        • Trial Team
      • Competition Videos
    • Field Placement Program
      • Testimonials
      • How to Apply
      • Judicial Externships
      • Civil Field Placements
      • Criminal Field Placements
      • Away Field Placements
        • The Hague
        • INHR Program
        • UCDC Law Program
      • For Supervisors and Host Organizations
        • BACE: Bay Area Consortium on Externships
      • Administrative Rules
      • Frequently Asked Questions
      • Field Placement Program Evaluation Database
    • Startup@BerkeleyLaw
      • Law Students
      • Entrepreneurs
        • How to Start a Startup @ Cal
        • FORM+FUND
        • Startup Law Initiative
      • Investors
    • Veterans Law Practicum
    • Ninth Circuit Practicum
    • Domestic Violence & Gender-Based Violence Practicum
      • About the Director
      • How to Apply
      • History & Impact
    • Careers Home
    • For J.D. Students
      • CDO Email Archive
      • Appointments and Drop-In Hours
      • Private Sector Careers
        • Explore Private Sector Careers
        • How to Apply to Private Sector Jobs
          • 2L Summer Private Sector Job Search
          • OCI Alternatives
      • Public Interest Careers
        • Explore Public Interest
          • Public Interest/Public Sector Employer Events & Resources
        • Find Public Interest Jobs
          • PI/PS Interviewing Resources
          • Using Interview Programs to Land Your 1L Summer Job
          • Your 2L and 3L PIPS Job Search
          • Post-Graduate Public Interest Fellowships
          • PI/PS Job Search Videos
        • Finance Your Public Interest Career
          • Summer Funding for PI/PS Internships & Judicial Externships
          • Berkeley Law Bridge and Public Interest Fellowships
      • Public Sector Careers
        • Federal Government Careers
        • State & Local Government Careers (incl. CA)
        • Careers in Policy/Politics
      • Judicial Clerkships
        • Application Instructions & Resources
        • Alumni Clerkship & Judicial Staff Directory
        • Clerkship Yearbooks
        • Clerkship and Interview Evaluations
        • Videos of Clerkship Programs
      • Judicial Externships
      • OCI Programs
      • Alternative Careers
    • For LL.M. Students
    • For Employers
      • Berkeley Law Recruiting Policies
      • Employer Resources for Virtual Internship Programs
      • Non Discrimination and Non Harassment Policies
      • Grading Policy
      • OCI Programs
      • Posting Job Listings
      • Reaching Berkeley Law J.D. Students
    • PSJD »
    • For Alumni
      • For Recent Graduate Job-Seekers
      • Enrichment Opportunities for Recent Grads
      • Executive Education
      • CDO Online Resources
      • Help the CDO
    • Careers in Law Teaching
      • Alumni Faculty Directory
      • Videos of Academic Placement Committee Programs
    • About CDO
      • CDO Staff News
    • Career Resource Library
    • Employment Outcomes
      • Employment Statistics
      • Judicial Clerkship Placement Statistics
  1. Home
  2. Articles
  3. News
  4. Op-Eds – ARCHIVAL
  5. How to end judicial supremacy

How to end judicial supremacy

  • Share article on Facebook
  • Share article on Twitter
  • Share article on Bluesky
  • Share article on LinkedIn
  • Email article

By John Yoo, National Review

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich knows how to press the Left’s soft spots. Even as he fades from the front of the Republican presidential pack, he deserves credit for attacking the judiciary’s seizure of power over some of society’s most important issues. Choosing new Supreme Court justices will be one of the next president’s most influential tools for changing direction on controversies ranging from the balance between national security and civil liberties to a woman’s right to an abortion.

Sometimes, however, Gingrich presses so hard that he ends up hurting his own cause. He stands on firm constitutional and historical ground when he attacks the commonly held idea that Supreme Court decisions bind the president or Congress and suggests that they could ignore judicial opinions under certain circumstances. He is surely right that the executive and legislative branches have a number of ways to corral wayward judges, including the power to change the jurisdiction of the courts, to eliminate judgeships, and perhaps to make greater use of impeachment.

Unfortunately, Gingrich couldn’t stop there. He undermined the main thrust of his plan, posted in a white paper on his campaign website, by advocating extreme methods for imposing accountability on judges. He proposed the use of subpoenas to drag federal judges before congressional hearings to explain themselves—a counterproductive thought that drew fire from all sides of the political spectrum. But it would be a shame if Republican politicians concluded that the water is too hot just because Gingrich got burned when he tried a running belly-flop.

Every year, conservatives and liberals claim some victory at the end of a Supreme Court term. Conservatives may praise the justices for reading the Second Amendment to protect an individual’s right to bear arms, while liberals may wrap their arms around Roe v. Wade. But the biggest winner of all is the Court itself, at the expense of the people’s right to self-government.

Slowly but surely, the justices have expanded their power to decide many of our society’s fundamental political, social, and moral questions. Only the Court now decides whether schools or states may take skin color into account when admitting students or doling out public contracts. The justices choose whether religious groups may help educate inner-city children or deliver welfare while staying true to their beliefs. Use of the death penalty—indeed, each individual execution—goes to our unelected judges for approval.

In recent years, the Court’s power grab has become even more vividly clear in national security. In Boumediene v. Bush (2008), five justices—the wandering Anthony Kennedy joined by a liberal bloc of John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer—took the unprecedented step of striking down a wartime law enacted by Congress and the president. U.S. history has never seen what the Boumediene majority imposed: Alien enemy prisoners at war with U.S. forces and detained outside the United States have the same right as criminal suspects to challenge their capture in civilian courts. Hundreds of years of practice, and the decided views of the elected branches, to which the Constitution gives all the powers over war, were tossed overboard.

Conservatives and their presidential candidates should agree that the power of judicial review does not confer a bonus of judicial supremacy. Judicial review refers to the right of the federal courts to refuse to obey laws that violate the Constitution. As first explained by Chief Justice John Marshall in Marbury v. Madison (1803), a case may call on federal judges to choose between a constitutional provision and an Act of Congress when deciding whether a plaintiff or defendant should win. A court must uphold the former over the latter; otherwise “it would be giving to the legislature a practical and real omnipotence” and would “subvert the very foundation of all written constitutions.”

With judicial review, neither the president nor Congress can force the courts to cooperate with their unconstitutional actions. But notice that this right is not unique to the courts, and Marbury never claimed it was. Presidents and congressmen have the same obligation to refuse to violate the Constitution. Indeed, many of our nation’s greatest constitutional debates occurred first on Capitol Hill or in the White House before they ever reached the courts. Whether the federal government could establish a national bank was first resolved on the floor of the House and Senate, which passed the bill, and by Pres. George Washington, who chose to sign it, decades before the Supreme Court upheld the Bank of the United States in McCulloch v. Maryland.

And the elected branches, at times, have used their unique powers to oppose judicial opinions. Thomas Jefferson, for example, refused to accept the constitutionality of the Alien and Sedition Acts, which had made criticism of the government a crime, even though the federal courts had upheld the law. When he took office in 1801, he ordered all prosecutions dropped and pardoned those already convicted. “You seem to think it devolved on the judges to decide the validity of the sedition law,” Jefferson later explained to Abigail Adams. “But nothing in the Constitution has given them a right to decide for the Executive, more than to the Executive to decide for them. Both magistracies are equally independent in the sphere of action assigned to them.”

Jefferson was no outlier. Other great presidents used their constitutional powers to take on the courts. Andrew Jackson famously vetoed legislation rechartering the Bank of the United States because he believed the law was unconstitutional, even though the Supreme Court, the first Congress, and Presidents Washington and James Madison had all approved it. “The Congress, the Executive, and the Court must each for itself be guided by its own opinion of the Constitution,” Jackson declared in his veto statement. “The opinion of the judges has no more authority over Congress than the opinion of Congress has over the judges,” he emphasized, and “on that point the president is independent of both.”

Abraham Lincoln, whom Gingrich explicitly invokes, presents the most aggressive case. In large part, Lincoln rose to prominence through his opposition to a single Supreme Court decision, Dred Scott v. Sandford, which overturned Congress’s efforts to restrict slavery in the territories. In his famous debates with Sen. Stephen Douglas, Lincoln claimed that the judgment in Dred Scott applied only to the parties in the case itself, and that the Court’s reasoning explaining the decision could not compel the other branches. Lincoln, in other words, would have forced the courts to hear each individual case before a master could seize a slave; as president, he would give the judges no help. “If the policy of the government, upon vital questions, affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court,” Lincoln said in his first inaugural address, “the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal.”

Our greatest presidents, in other words, agreed with Gingrich’s claim that Supreme Court decisions do not bind the other branches. Judicial supremacy, however, goes far beyond the Court’s modest power of review, one hemmed in by the other branches and their own views of the founding document. Supremacy stands for the idea that the Supreme Court is not just an interpreter of the Constitution, but the interpreter—its opinions prevail over those of any other branch of government. The Court did not announce this stunning doctrine until 1958, as it confronted southern resistance to Brown v. Board of Education’s desegregation of the public schools. In Cooper v. Aaron, the Court declared that state officials could not interpose a different interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection of the laws. It is a “basic principle,” the Court claimed, that “the federal judiciary is supreme in the exposition of the law of the Constitution.” The Supreme Court’s decisions, the justices asserted, are “the supreme law of the land”—apparently on a par with the text of the Constitution itself.

Gingrich is right to criticize the Warren Court’s extravagance; conservatives and their candidates should share his disagreement. Cooper itself need not have gone so far; the case involved a conflict between federal and state officials, not between the Supreme Court and the president or Congress. But the case heralded the rise of the judiciary as the arbiter of our nation’s controversies. Constitutional litigation became the Left’s end run around the democratic process when politics and public opinion blocked its social agenda. It is far easier to persuade five justices to find a new right to abortion or homosexual sodomy, or to drive religion from the public square, or to expand the rights of criminal defendants, than to persuade a majority of state and federal legislators.

While the question has come up rarely since Cooper, the Court has gotten away with similar moves at least twice. In one case, the justices struck down the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 for attempting to reverse a Supreme Court decision that had downgraded protections for religious minorities. In another, they blocked a law that sought to overturn the oft-criticized Miranda warnings (probably the only part of the Constitution that most Americans can recite from memory that is not in the Constitution). Ironically, both decisions issued from the allegedly conservative Rehnquist Court. While Pres. Richard Nixon nominated judges who were hostile to the Warren Court revolution, apparently one agreeable part of it was judicial supremacy. And who wouldn’t like it, once he put on the black robes? The Rehnquist Court’s failure to reject judicial supremacy shows that this threat to constitutional government is not a partisan issue, and that we cannot rely on judges alone to confront it.

Diagnosing the courts’ ills should not divide conservatives. Finding the right cure might. Gingrich proposed a number of possible remedies of varying soundness, including restricting the jurisdiction of federal courts, impeaching ideological judges, eliminating liberal courts such as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (which covers the West Coast), and hauling judges before congressional hearings. The last is simply a bad idea: Gingrich would have federal marshals lay hands on federal judges, under the power of a subpoena, if they refused to show up before Congress. Anyone who recoiled at President Obama’s clumsy partisan attack on the Supreme Court over a campaign-finance case during his 2010 State of the Union address should reject the proposal. Such hearings would be useless anyway—any judge worth his salt would merely spend the hearing reading his opinion out loud.

These extremes should not obscure the sensible principle at the proposal’s core. The Constitution is not the exclusive purview of the courts, and the elected branches can and should use their power to influence constitutional meaning themselves. Some of Gingrich’s proposals have a historical pedigree. Congress, which has the constitutional authority to create the lower federal courts, has eliminated judgeships in the past. In 1802, Jeffersonians repealed the new judicial positions that had been created by a lame-duck Congress under control of the Federalist party and filled by Pres. John Adams. Congress has narrowed the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to reduce its ability to review policy, most notably during Reconstruction, when the justices threatened to end military government of the South. Impeachment for reasons other than corruption is not unheard of either, though it has not seen much use since Jefferson’s effort to remove Justice Samuel Chase failed in the Senate. So most of Gingrich’s ideas have precedent on their side; his mistake, I think, is that he attempts to combine all of these tools to retaliate against individual judges or courts for specific decisions, instead of attacking the more general doctrine of judicial supremacy.

Gingrich seeks to correct the judiciary’s half-century leftward lurch, a laudable and monumental task, by fiddling with the structure of the courts and judicial independence. All of that is fine and well, but in the end it may have little effect. Conservatives can take a lesson from Pres. Franklin Roosevelt’s failed court-packing plan. FDR proposed to increase the Supreme Court by six seats in an obvious effort to change the justices’ resistance to the New Deal. He lost the battle—the bill failed—but won the war. The Court changed direction swiftly, in decisions that today provide the constitutional theories for Obamacare’s takeover of health care nationwide. But FDR’s political agenda crashed and burned—the New Deal stalled, southern Democrats blocked the rest of his plans, and his presidency might well have failed if it had not been for his greatness in leading the nation through World War II.

Borrowing from the wisdom of George Costanza, a Republican president should say to the courts: It’s not you, it’s me. Instead of tinkering with the judiciary, conservatives should seek to restore the role of the presidency by using its unique powers to define the Constitution. A Republican president, for example, could order prosecutors to stop enforcing unconstitutional laws that violate federalism, separation of powers, or individual rights. He could veto unconstitutional laws, instead of leaving the job up to the courts. He could place constitutionality on a par with cost-benefit analysis in issuing regulations or conducting foreign policy. He could nominate only judges who reject judicial supremacy and understand the courts’ modest role vis-à-vis the political branches.

Under rare circumstances, a Republican president could even refuse to obey a Supreme Court decision. In time of war, he could refuse to release terrorist leaders from Guantanamo Bay — should the federal courts ever make the mistake of interfering so excessively in national-security policy. He could take inspiration from Lincoln, who in the early days of the Civil War refused a direct order by Chief Justice Roger Taney to release a Confederate sympathizer held at Fort McHenry in Baltimore (Taney, the author of Dred Scott, was sitting as a circuit judge at the time). Just as the courts need not cooperate with the unconstitutional actions of other branches, the president need not let the Supreme Court have its way when the Constitution vests all of its war powers in the elected branches. Of course, presidents should make clear that this extreme measure would be taken only in times of the direst emergency. Republican candidates can join Gingrich in restoring the proper balance of power between the president and the courts, without following his suggestion that the extraordinary should become the everyday.

01/09/2012

News

  • Transcript Magazine
    • Transcript Archive
      • Transcript Spring 2021 Online Edition
      • Transcript Fall 2020 Online Edition
      • Transcript Spring 2020 Online Edition
      • Transcript Fall 2019 Online Edition
      • Transcript Spring 2019 Online Edition
      • Transcript Fall 2018 Online Edition
      • Transcript Spring 2018 Online Edition
      • Transcript 2017 Online Edition
      • Transcript 2016 Online Edition
  • Podcasts
  • On Display
  • Media Highlights
  • News Archive
    • 2025 Archive
    • 2024 Archive
    • 2023 Archive
    • 2022 Archive
    • 2021 Archive
    • 2020 Archive
    • 2019 Archive
    • 2018 Archive
    • 2017 Archive
    • 2016 Archive
    • 2015 Archive
    • 2014 Archive
    • 2013 Archive
    • 2012 Archive
    • 2011 Archive
    • 2010 Archive
    • 2009 Archive
    • 2008 Archive
    • 2007 Archive
    • 2006 Archive
    • 2005 Archive
    • News Briefs
    • Alumni Newsletter
  • Trailblazing Women
  • Social Media
  • Communications Office
    • Media Release Form
    • UC Berkeley Law Logo (Identity)
      • Ordering Printed Supplies
  • Law School Images »
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
  • Flickr
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • TikTok
  • About
  • Getting Here
  • Contact Us
  • Job Openings
  • ABA Required Disclosures
  • Feedback
  • For Employers
  • Accessibility
  • Relay 711
  • Nondiscrimination
  • Privacy Policy
  • UC Berkeley

© 2025 UC Regents, UC Berkeley School of Law, All Rights Reserved.