Supreme Court is US ‘decider.’ Here’s how other nations check judiciary.

In its infancy, the U.S. Supreme Court was the runt of the litter of America’s new institutions. 

The court had little power compared to Congress or the presidency. Justices traveled the country hearing cases in grueling, unglamorous “circuits.” When they weren’t doing that, they worked out of the U.S. Senate basement. John Rutledge, one of the first justices, resigned inside of a year to serve on South Carolina’s highest court. 

Today, almost 250 years later, the high court has matured, and its voice in American democracy has perhaps never been louder. Whether it’s redrawing the landscape of constitutional rights, determining the limits of the federal government’s regulatory power, or policing how states can and can’t run elections, the Supreme Court and its nine justices almost by default have become who we rely on to resolve the country’s toughest issues.

Consequently, since the Warren Court era of the 1960s, the court has been a political flashpoint.