Court Curbing
Definition of Court Curbing
Note: See a more comprehensive approach to the Court Curbing legal concept in the American Law Encyclopedia
Efforts directed at constraining the influence of courts. Court “curbing” occurs because the courts make decisions that disturb other public officials or the public. If court decisions are sufficiently disturbing, one or another “curbing” initiatives may result. The courts, particularly the U.S. Supreme Court, are vulnerable to these initiatives because they are linked in a variety of ways to the other branches. The initiatives have two objectives. One is to apply enough political pressure to bring about a change in decisional behavior. The other, more extreme objective is to make structural adjustments to judicial institutions. These adjustments may keep the courts from being able to render certain kinds of decisions at all. Policy directions of the courts can generally be kept in check through the normal processes of judicial selection. Beyond that, the Congress determines the jurisdiction and size of federal courts. This is true even for the Supreme Court, where Congress has the authority to regulate or otherwise make exceptions to the Court's appellate jurisdiction. These are potentially very effective court “curbing” methods. Moreover, the executive and legislative branches are often critical in securing compliance with court rulings. Finally, courts can be constrained by actions taken to directly nullify particular decisions. This often takes the form of statutory reversal, but the constitutional amendment process may be accessed for this purpose as well.
See Also
Constitutional Amendment (Law of the United States) Court “Packing” (Law of the United States) Statutory Reversal (Law of the United States).
Resources
Court Curbing Related Resources
- Court Curbing in the United States Legal Encyclopedia
- Judicial Effects and Policies Keywords in the United States Legal Encyclopedia
- Judicial Policies Keywords in the International Legal Dictionary
Notes
- “Court Curbing”, The American Law Dictionary, 1991, California
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