How the Supreme Court Broke Congress

"Two dynamics are fundamentally reshaping the structure and functioning of the American government. The first, which is quite well known, is Congress's decline. The second, perhaps somewhat less appreciated but no less significant, is the Supreme Court's ascent-its expansion of its power into areas previously thought to be off-limits. These dynamics share a root cause: the partisan polarization that has reshaped American politics over the past four decades."

"Whereas polarization weakened Congress, it emboldened the Court to dismantle laws and, in the process, undermine Congress's ability to make laws at all, reinforcing Congress's sclerosis. The citizens and commentators shouting from the sidelines that Congress must act, fix itself, and reclaim its intended role are not wrong. But they miss that the Court has made doing so nearly impossible."

Partisan polarization over the past four decades both weakened Congress and empowered the Supreme Court. The Court has expanded its authority into areas once considered off-limits and has increasingly invalidated legislative achievements. This judicial expansion undermines Congress's ability to translate collective judgment into law and makes major legislative accomplishments vulnerable to reversal. Citizens urging congressional reform underestimate how the Court's assertions of final interpretive authority constrain legislative action. The Court now claims not only which laws stand but also exclusive authority over constitutional meaning, radically refashioning the balance between legislative and judicial power.

Read at The Atlantic