When the framers wrote the Constitution, one of their core beliefs was that government had to be limited in order to protect the republic from tyranny. Government was intended to derive its power from the consent of those governed. One of the framers biggest worries was that one of the three branches of government would try to usurp the others and upset the balance of powers so carefully crafted into the Constitution by the framers. In Hamilton’s Federalist No. 78, he urged the high Court to focus on legal power and leave the exercise of political power to the legislative and executive branches. The constitutional delineation of the separation of powers is the foundation of American government. Unlike the British system, the framers of the U.S. Constitution organized the American government so that it was divided into three branches, each an equal of the others and each acting as a check and balance on the others. The three branches, the legislative, judicial and executive are guided by the limits imposed upon them by the Constitution. However, the judicial branch of government is one of the most powerful especially with regard to the Supreme Court. The nine members of the Supreme Court are appointed for life and are not affected by popular vote. The men and women on the Supreme Court are the only ones in the country with the power to interpret the Constitution. This power is a great one because it allows them to consider issues from a legal basis that affect their own power and scope.
The Supreme Court began to usurp the Separation of Powers doctrine early in American history when they began interpreting laws through the doctrine of judicial review. In other words, the legislative branch has the power to make the laws, but the judicial branch deemed itself capable of reviewing those laws to see whether or not they were “constitutional”. During the era of Franklin Roosevelt, the President failed at an attempt to ap...