From: Jim McCoy <mccoy@communities.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1996 16:52:07 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Bernstein hearing: The Press Release
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SUN.3.91.960925121324.22297B-100000@eff.org>
Message-ID: <v03007800ae6f7401fffe@[205.162.51.35]>
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Greg Kucharo <sophi@best.com> writes:
>I fail to see how the Executive can simply avoid the authority and
>oversight of the Judicial. Are there other circumstances of this? From
>my constitutional reading the Judiciary has the right to review any law
>passed by Congress.  The Executive only has the power to enforce, not to
>unilaterally pass rules unrelated to enforcement.

The executive branch cannot, but the legislative branch has the power to
restrict the jurisdiction of the courts in any way it wants to except
for cases in which the Supreme Court is given original jurisdiction (a
limited number of situations)  Ironically enough, Marshall's decision in
Marbury v. Madison was that the Judicial Act of 1789 which outlined the
jurisdiction of the court system was unconsitutional.  It is Congress
which gives the courts their jurisdiction, only the Supreme Court is given
original jurisdiction in the Constitution itself (interesting side note: The
case New York v. New Jersey regarding the ownership of Ellis island, I think,
was the first case of original jurisdction to be argued in the current
supreme court building if that tell you how often such cases come up...)

jim