Quote:
Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce
It isn't? Don't court rulings set future policy for the police, the DA's office, for lower courts?
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Explicitly not by virtue of the separation of powers. Congress writes the laws, the president enacts laws and the Supreme Court either determines whether or not a law violates the Constitution (e.g., the law banning guns in DC was overturned on Constititional grounds) or it hears/rules on appealed lower court rulings when the Court believes that either the law or the Constitution is not sufficiently clear and hence the guidance of the Court is needed (e.g., is abortion a crime or is it not?). The Supreme Court may also be called upon to resolve legal quandries like determining what to do when, for example, Federal law and state law (or any two laws) directly contradict each other such that a citizen is forced to break one to obey the other.
Interestingly, the Supreme Court frequently hears cases on the basis that the lower court's ruling was not based on prudent and reasonable interpretation of existing law- e.g., the lower court "just made it up." When a court's ruling is "made up" and not based on applying the law as written, its called judicial activism - the court assumes the role of legislator.
The remedy for lower court judicial activism is appeal to a higher court. The remedy for judicial activism at the Supreme Court level is... uh... well... there isn't one. Yep, that's the only weakness of our form of government - there is no built-in remedy for judicial activism at the Supreme Court level. And that is why the question is so important in Supreme Court confirmation hearings.
Almost in as many words, nominees are often asked: Are you going to base your rulings on the law(s) as written or are you going to 'write your own law' then base your ruling on
that? Because a) there is really nothing to stop them from doing it and b) there's really not a whole lot anybody can do to fix it if they do.