Goals: To understand the limits to the power of the Judicial Branch To understand the role of checks and balances in our federal government

Limited Powers of Enforcement If one does not comply with a court order, they can be charged with contempt of the court, but they can sometimes get away with it by ignoring the order for long periods of time When the Supreme Court ruled that prayers shouldn't be allowed in public schools, many schools all over the country were still allowing those prayers

Congress Congress confirms all presidential nominees to federal judgeships They can impeach judges and justices They can alter the organization of the federal court system (other than the Supreme Court) They can amend the Constitution Congress can also repass slightly different versions of a law the courts decided was unconstitutional Congress can restrict the kinds of remedies that courts may impose

The President The President appoints justices He/she has the power to enforce or ignore Court decisions Eisenhower was reluctant to back the Brown decision to integrate schools, but acted after massive resistance by state and local officials convinced him to do so

Public Opinion If the Supreme Court strays too far from public opinion, the backlash can make the decision impossible to apply and weaken the Court's authority Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) declared that slaves cannot be citizens and that Congress had no power to forbid slavery in the US territories The strong public outrage sparked a civil war

Public Opinion Sometimes, the Court's decision will change as a result of changing public opinion Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) decided that "separate but equal" public facilities were constitutional, but that decision was overturned in 1954 with the Brown v. Topeka Board of Education decision Court views often reflect the values of the American society during a particular historical era