The Court will just ignore statutory controls

This works in theory. My concern is that the Supreme Court will simply ignore attempts to limit its power, and all the time and effort spent convincing politicians that jurisdiction stripping is the answer will leave us exactly where we started: with a high court untroubled by the desires of the American people. Congress will pass a law and include a stipulation saying, “This law is not open for Supreme Court interpretation.” Then the Supreme Court will say, “No. In fact, this law passed by Congress is unconstitutional.” The Supreme Court can, and likely will, use judicial review to reject congressional attempts to get around judicial review.

What happens next depends a lot on what kind of law Congress attempts to shield from the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Constitution. If it’s the kind of law that requires the states to do, or not do, something, the states that agree with Congress will go along with Congress, while the states that agree with the Supreme Court will refuse to follow the “unconstitutional” congressional mandate. Think about jurisdiction stripping in the abortion context: Congress can pass a law that protects a woman’s right to choose and prohibits the Supreme Court from reviewing it. The religious fundamentalists will ask the Supreme Court to review the law anyway. It’s likely the forced-birth caucus on the Supreme Court will decide that Congress cannot strip its power and then determine, again, that Congress doesn’t have the power to protect women’s rights. Texas will listen to the court and outlaw abortions; California will listen to Congress and allow them. Nothing will have been solved.