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Interpreting and Preserving the Constitution
The Supreme Court as Final Interpreter
In the United States, the opinions of the Supreme Court are routinely reported in the news by hundreds of journalists. Countless lawyers and
judges, and regiments of local, State, and Federal officials examine the
Court’s rulings on a daily basis. Colleges, universities, and law schools
devote many courses of study to constitutional law and constitutionrelated subjects. In no other country of the world is there such widespread interest in a nation’s fundamental law. Probably more books and
articles on the Constitution or the Supreme Court’s interpretation of it
are written in one year than all of the other countries of the world, writing about their constitutions, produce in a decade. We are indeed a
constitution-minded people who take their constitution seriously.
This ‘‘constitutional colloquy’’ has persisted throughout our history
and may be traced back to the founding period. It can almost be said that
the debate in the Federal and State ratifying conventions of 1787–88 is a
continuing debate. Much of this debate relates not only to disagreements
over Supreme Court decisions, but more fundamentally over basic principles of the Constitution and its proper meaning and interpretation. But
the word ‘‘interpretation,’’ as we noted earlier, does not appear in the
Constitution. The Constitution does not instruct the judges how they are
to interpret the Constitution, and the separation of powers forbids Congress and the President from telling them how to interpret it. To complicate matters, the Constitution is also silent on the question of who is the
final interpreter, or whether Congress, the President, or the States may
also offer their interpretations. Although these questions have not been
fully resolved, constitutional practice and experience over the years has
apparently settled a number of issues.
It may be taken as a general rule that the Supreme Court of the United
States is the final interpreter of the Constitution in a particular case that
is brought before it and decided. But the finality of the Court’s judgment
is conditional because Congress, the several States, and the people thereof
can take action to reverse the decision or render it inapplicable in future
cases. Congress, for example, has the authority to withdraw the Court’s
appellate jurisdiction, and if it wished it could pass a law making it impossible for the Court to rule in the type of case previously determined.