The Supreme Court as Final Interpreter
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Congress might even go further and remove the original jurisdiction of
the lower Federal courts, thereby making the State supreme courts the
final interpreters of the Constitution in those particular kinds of cases.
In examining this issue, it is important, however, to distinguish theory
from practice. As a matter of constitutional theory, the Supreme Court is
the final interpreter of the Constitution in a given situation because Congress permits it, not because it is required by the Constitution. As a matter of actual practice, Congress rarely exercises its power to restrict the
Court’s jurisdiction, and the Supreme Court is almost always the final interpreter of the Constitution.
A Supreme Court decision can also be reversed by a constitutional
amendment, and this is precisely what has happened in a few instances.
In this sense, it is the States and the people thereof who act as the final
interpreter of the Constitution. Again, however, we must distinguish theory from practice and recognize the fact that only a handful of Supreme
The Supreme Court of the United States, 1888.
From a drawing by Carl J. Berger. Before 1935, the Supreme Court met in the U.S. Capitol. (Courtesy of the Library of Congress.)