The indignant Sandra Day O'Connor

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor spoke at Georgetown University today and reportedly warned that partisan attacks on the independence of the judiciary have set the country on the road to dictatorship.

This isn't the first time she's addressed this topic. She spoke about the threat to judicial independence at a panel discussion in Arizona last September.

She was confused then, and she's still confused.

Like it or not, the Constitution gives Congress the power to limit the appellate jurisdiction of the United States Supreme Court.

It's in Article III, Section 2. It's called the Exceptions Clause.

It may seem to the Supreme Court like a partisan attack on the independence of the judiciary, but in fact it's one of the constitutional checks on the power of the judicial branch.

Read more about it, with source notes, in this earlier post, "The strange confusion of Justice O'Connor."


Copyright 2006

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